By Matt Agorist
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<p>&nbsp;Unless you’ve been under a rock for the past couple of weeks, you &nbsp;have likely seen the chaos and controversy swarming the internet and &nbsp;mainstream media having to do with “cultural appropriation.” To be clear, there is indeed a negative aspect of cultural &nbsp;appropriation whereas a dominate culture will use a bastardized &nbsp;characteristic—either willingly or unwillingly—of a marginalized &nbsp;culture, to push messages of misinformation, prejudice, and stereotypes. An extreme example of this would be blackface shows in the 1800’s in &nbsp;which theatrical makeup was used predominantly by non-black performers &nbsp;to represent caricatures of black people.&nbsp;</p>
<p>A less extreme form of &nbsp;cultural appropriation would be a sports team using an facet of another &nbsp;culture as their own. To deny that there is cultural appropriation that is mean spirited or &nbsp;prejudice would be to deny reality. However, these examples are evident &nbsp;and would be better defined as cultural mockery and reflect real &nbsp;racism. But, to call everything cultural appropriation—which seems to be &nbsp;the new norm—is not only lacking merit and intelligent thought but it’s &nbsp;promoting segregation.&nbsp;</p>
<p>The topic of cultural appropriation was forced into the limelight in &nbsp;2016 when a video went viral showing a black female student at San &nbsp;Francisco State<a href="https://thefreethoughtproject.com/divide-conquer-working-man-attacked-right-culture-wear-dreadlocks/"> punch a man in the head</a> &nbsp;because his hair was in dreadlocks. Many social justice advocates &nbsp;quickly came to the defense of the female student’s unprovoked &nbsp;initiation of violence against an innocent person because his choice of &nbsp;hairstyle was somehow racist. In what world is it okay to lay your hands on someone and assault &nbsp;them for their choice in hairstyle?&nbsp;</p>
<p>To assume this is acceptable &nbsp;behavior is as disheartening as it is dangerous.&nbsp;</p>
<p><strong>Tolerance is not a one-way street.</strong>&nbsp;</p>
<p>If we are to progress and get over the sheer lunacy of judging others &nbsp;by their appearances, then we need to understand that aggressor/victim &nbsp;situations are wrong, period. Reversing those roles is not social &nbsp;justice, it is oppression, and it only leads to segregation through fear &nbsp;and an “us versus them” mentality.&nbsp;</p>
<p>While it is understandable for people of a certain race or culture to &nbsp;become offended at what they perceive as cultural appropriation, we now &nbsp;have people in the social justice movement—not affiliated with that &nbsp;culture at all—who are shouting down everyone who attempts to appreciate &nbsp;someone else’s culture or inadvertently participates in it.&nbsp;</p>
<p>One glaring example of this was the reaction to a high school girl’s &nbsp;prom dress earlier this month.&nbsp;Keziah Daum was one of many high school &nbsp;students who proudly posted photos on social media with the caption “<em>PROM</em>” this weekend. But her post was met with backlash on Twitter after another user shared her status and wrote, “<em>My culture is NOT your goddamn prom dress</em>,” which sparked an argument over whether the cheongsam, or traditional Chinese dress, Daum wore was appropriate.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Although the twitter user, Jeremy Lam is of Asian descent, the &nbsp;massive backlash against a high school senior for her choice of dress &nbsp;came from all races among the social justice crowd. Ironically enough, &nbsp;however, a large group of the people she was accused of culturally &nbsp;appropriating—<a href="http://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2144207/qipao-us-prom-wins-support-china-after-internet-backlash">from China</a>—actually began speaking out in support of her, exposing the overreaction and unnecessary rage.&nbsp;</p>
<p>What’s more, as TFTP pointed out, Americans appear to be more &nbsp;concerned with attacking a high school senior for wearing a Chinese &nbsp;dress than they are with their own government facilitating the slaughter &nbsp;of <a href="https://thefreethoughtproject.com/teens-chinese-prom-dress-sparks-debate-as-americans-stay-silent-on-killing-of-middle-eastern-kids/">children in the Middle East.&nbsp;</a></p>
<p>Where’s &nbsp;the outrage at the US participating in genocide in Yemen? That’s right, &nbsp;social justice warriors are more concerned with shouting down those who &nbsp;they disagree with politically on superficial issues than they are with &nbsp;advocating an antiwar message. This is due in part to the fact that war &nbsp;is bipartisan and is sold to the entire political spectrum as necessary &nbsp;for “freedom.” Another recent example of segregation through cultural appropriation &nbsp;is Cinco de Mayo.&nbsp;</p>
<p>The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) came out with a<a href="https://twitter.com/splcenter/status/992886675452977152"> statement</a> &nbsp;on the largely celebrated holiday, noting that people in the U.S. who &nbsp;consume tacos and tequila on Cinco de Mayo are enganging in “textbook &nbsp;examples of cultural appropriation.” Ask the Mexican owners of restaurants if they are offended by the &nbsp;windfall of profits they receive from people of all cultures flocking to &nbsp;their establishments to spend money and appreciate their culture.&nbsp;</p>
<p>That raises the question: Is enjoying ethnic food or wearing ethnic &nbsp;clothing problematic when there is no ill intent behind it? One could &nbsp;argue that cross-culture pollination—or, dare we say, cultural &nbsp;appropriation—is actually helping to undermine prejudice. By &nbsp;participating in and being accepted by other cultures, this breaks down &nbsp;barriers of tribalism and allows for the peaceful mix of cultural &nbsp;appreciation. It’s also important to point out the double standard.&nbsp;</p>
<p>When Rihanna &nbsp;culturally appropriated the Catholic church at the Met Gala last week, &nbsp;social justice warriors were silent.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Not only were they silent, but the &nbsp;New York Times praised her outfit that was specifically designed to &nbsp;mimic papal tiaras. The fact is that Rhianna’s outfit and Daum’s prom dress were both &nbsp;innocent and benign as neither of them had any ill intent. Just like &nbsp;many folks in China praised Daum’s dress, the Catholic church showed &nbsp;their support for this year’s theme at the Gala. See how that works? When people don’t try to force others to stay &nbsp;within the bounds of their race or ethnicity that they just so happen to &nbsp;be born into, and allow them to experience and appreciate other &nbsp;cultures, prejudice is undermined.&nbsp;</p>
<p>This is the exact opposite of what &nbsp;many in the social justice movement appear to want, however. Saying someone cannot be a part of your society, or use the products &nbsp;that your culture uses, or dress like your culture or someone else’s—is &nbsp;the very essence of segregation. It is functionally the same argument &nbsp;used by racist white people during the Jim Crow era who wanted black &nbsp;people out of their culture. It is time to move past this.&nbsp;</p>
<p>The level of divide in this country &nbsp;appears to be at an all-time high in spite of all the progress of the &nbsp;past several decades.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Americans are pitted against each other over &nbsp;superficial arguments that serve as little more than talking points for &nbsp;pundits on the left and right sides of the establishment. While Americans bash each other over superficial issues of right vs. &nbsp;left or Islam vs. Christianity or white vs. black — those at the top, &nbsp;get richer, more powerful, more tyrannical, and spread more war. We have been divided, and we are now being conquered — and political correctness and racism have served as the catalysts. If a teen’s dress or Cinco de Mayo gets you more angry than the US &nbsp;dropping bombs on children in the Middle East, you might need to rethink &nbsp;your priorities.&nbsp;</p>
<p>If the push to end war received one tenth of the &nbsp;coverage that the push to end perceived cultural appropriation gets, &nbsp;there could be peace by the end of the month.&nbsp;</p>
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