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Cultural appropriation
Pursuant to a conversation elsewhere, a poll!
NOTE! For the purpose of this poll, "foreigner" refers to someone who is foreign in several ways:
1. he has no familial claim to the culture (no relation by blood or marriage);
2. he does not and has not lived in the culture;
3. he has no deep knowledge or understanding of the culture, and/or does not speak the language.
Use the comments to clarify anything you like.
(Note: I submitted blank answers but that's only so I can easily see poll results without changing them; one should not infer from that that I think all the options are inappropriate.)
[Poll #1267976]
NOTE! For the purpose of this poll, "foreigner" refers to someone who is foreign in several ways:
1. he has no familial claim to the culture (no relation by blood or marriage);
2. he does not and has not lived in the culture;
3. he has no deep knowledge or understanding of the culture, and/or does not speak the language.
Use the comments to clarify anything you like.
(Note: I submitted blank answers but that's only so I can easily see poll results without changing them; one should not infer from that that I think all the options are inappropriate.)
[Poll #1267976]
no subject
... I read a lot of Raymond Smullyan at a young age and it seems to have really helped to shape my view of the world. The problem is it's slightly Western and slightly Eastern and not really either. It's not meant to represent either; it's meant to present Smullyan's own views. Net result (plus other factors and my own inherent weirdness) I don't really culturally fit with any culture. But dammit, I'm a human. It is my heritage. I have a birth right here. Not much of one, but I think I have some inherent birth right to use and study the culture and history of where I came from.
Anyhow, I don't think I'm a very good representative of where I was born, although I definitely have things in common with that region (even though I have had people tell me I could not be from there... I have been told I can't be from the US because my accent is wrong and I've been told that I can't be from Long Island because i don't pronounce it Lon Gisland - it's not an affectation, I simply never have and don't want to try to change my accent to sound like I come from where I was born and raised).
So, I think I feel like I've had to fight to be accepted as a part of my own culture... so why the big distinction between "my culture" and "other cultures". Plus, pretty much nobody objects to me using a non-local culture poorly or oddly so long as I have ancestors from it. That's the one thing that seems totally fine. I can appropriate what I want from Poland, Russia, Spain, or Judaism, just so long as I keep it away from those places, because then it's honoring my roots, and nobody expects me to know anything about them anyhow.
Meh, I'm not really this alienated. I live in the bay area now. Being odd is generally okay. As long as I don't leave my circle of friends, things are okay.
no subject
an easter egg from the past
But this stuck out from your comment:
Lon Gisland
This is also the name of an EP by a hipster band called Beirut. I think it is the only record of theirs we have. I had always heard it as Lahn Jisland in my head. Now I will hear it as Lawn Guyland.
Here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWSz_PAfgNc) is the first track from the EP. I think it is lovely Maybe you will like it!
Re: an easter egg from the past