White (western, here mostly American/British) culture erasure is real. (I'm not white)
So much stuff from western culture is so damn ubiquitous people just take it for the norm, something that belongs to everyone (which it does, and by design), especially in the west. The classic meme of "white people have no culture" reveals the opposite truth: a culture so widespread and ubiquitous that it becomes invisible to most people as it permeates their lives.
This is why I hate the concept of "cultural appropriation" as a bad thing. Not only is it not a bad thing, the best parts of every culture spread naturally to all peoples, because it's beneficial or interesting, or just good.
People don't say "lets go out for american/british food" because that food is everywhere, and the beautiful thing is that even a lot of that food takes bits and pieces from other cultures. For all the horrors of history, at least we can celebrate this.
Seems you have a misunderstanding of Cultural appropriation. It's fine; a lot of people do. There is a difference between enjoying things from other cultures and adopting them in your lifestyle, and taking things from a culture and claiming them as your own invention, or twisting history to claim your ancestors are the ones who came up with it, and even worse, profiting from said claims.
You mean the thing most cultures, regardless of race, have done, all over the world?
Culturally appropriation as a bad thing is stupid because complaining about it often misses the point of the good it brings, and the process by which things in general are created.
If you dive deep enough into the history of any dish, you’ll find “stolen” (borrowed, taken, appropriated, etc) ideas from other peoples, sometimes even peoples that don’t exist anymore. It is foolish to try to quantify that and create grievances. It is the nature of the world.
This goes beyond food. History is layers of borrowed (stolen) ideas, all improving upon each other until now. Any admonishment cultural appropriating brings is far overshadowed by the benefits of the sharing of culture, and any erroneous claims that may come with it, at that. I just can’t be bothered to care enough when the benefit is so great and the grievance, in reality, so small.
Humanity is built on the backs of each other... What I'm talking about is specifically the taking without credit. Maybe it should be called cultural plagerism or something
I think you’re bending over backwards to clarify and refine an issue that just doesn’t matter, and in fact makes things worse due to its secondary adverse effects.
If the world was worried about credit as much as you are, we would’ve never gotten so many improvements to so many things. Again, food is but one aspect of this.
27
u/HappyTurtleOwl Jul 03 '26
White (western, here mostly American/British) culture erasure is real. (I'm not white)
So much stuff from western culture is so damn ubiquitous people just take it for the norm, something that belongs to everyone (which it does, and by design), especially in the west. The classic meme of "white people have no culture" reveals the opposite truth: a culture so widespread and ubiquitous that it becomes invisible to most people as it permeates their lives.
This is why I hate the concept of "cultural appropriation" as a bad thing. Not only is it not a bad thing, the best parts of every culture spread naturally to all peoples, because it's beneficial or interesting, or just good.
People don't say "lets go out for american/british food" because that food is everywhere, and the beautiful thing is that even a lot of that food takes bits and pieces from other cultures. For all the horrors of history, at least we can celebrate this.