"This is so trivial. Having a child with celiac and many health issues i cant tell you how badly she was treated. Having wheat smothered on her desk to make her sick. "
Seriously? What kind of animals would put wheat on her desk to make her sick? I hope the school dealt with them firmly. I’m so sorry.
The video linked to upthread makes me wonder what the difference is between wearing a costume for a party, and wearing a certain costume as part of a play / performance. Is it that it’s assumed that the latter is done respectfully because you’re trying to portray someone explicitly, whereas the former could either be respectful or not?
Fair question, I will generally give art a lot of leeway because often the point is to challenge your assumptions about something. For the video, my point was it was done for humor, and I see it as such. Much like some costumes that some see as not-so-funny.
There seems to me a major difference between a costume mocking someone else’s culture – especially if it trades off negative stereotypes – and simply wearing garb associated with another culture. People dress up as chefs or firefighters, not because there is anything inherently wrong with being a chef or firefighter, but because part of the fun of a costume is that it allows you to temporarily assume an identity other than your own. It isn’t disrespectful to actual members of that profession, and deciding to wear a kimono or sari on Halloween doesn’t strike me as inherently disrespectful to Asians or Indians either.
The idea that such depictions are inherently stereotypical because not every member of that ethnicity actually wears traditional garb is frankly sill to me. First of all, if the traditional garb is no longer worn, we’re simply dealing with a historical costume – just like no one sees a Viking costume and assumes that people in Nordic countries still run around with horned helmets, no one sees a samurai costume and assumes people in modern Japan actually dress this way. But even in the case of something like a sari, obviously a costume is going to have to have some distinguishing feature. If someone in Canada decided to dress as an American, he’s probably going to wear red white and blue and carry an American flag, even though actual Americans rarely dress that way. That’s because it would be kind of pointless to dress up in generic jeans and a sweatshirt.
When it comes to my own culture, I’d be offended by someone who wore a yarmulke, slapped on an elongated silly putty nose, and carried around bags of money. I’m not going to get offended by a non-Jew putting on a long beard and side-curls while wearing fake tefilin, even though all of these things have actual significance to my religion.
I will start off by saying that I am Indian American, and I have no problem with people of other ethnicities wearing any type of Indian clothing, including saris. If anything, it makes me happy seeing other people wear saris. But I think the issue with people not of Indian descent wearing saris is that they get a different reaction than someone who is of Indian descent wearing a sari. Some Indians feel as if when they wear saris, they are criticized or looked down upon for not assimilating into American life. While if non Indians wear saris, they are applauded for embracing other cultures. I would hope that most people on CC don’t have these reactions, at least in the former case, but that is how some people feel they are being perceived. But this is one reason I’ve seen for why people dislike the idea of non Indian people wearing saris. You don’t have to agree, and I personally don’t, but I do think the fear of being thought of as not assimilating properly because you embrace your cultural traditions is a valid one.
Our company big year-end party this year is Bollywood themed. All guests are encouraged to dress in theme.
In middle school my D wore a sari and brought nan bread to international day. The assignment was to choose a country, research its history, geography and culture, then come in native attire and bring something to eat. Sparked a lifelong interest in India.
I’ve told this story before, but when ds#2 was in elementary school, they had a “heritage day” where you dressed in an outfit from your background and brought a native food. Well, one of my grandparents was from Austria, so we made a costume with lederhosen and knee socks with tassels and suspenders . Well, the school happened to have some guest visitors that day who were in the audience… The Vienna boys choir! They went nuts when they called out his native country.
Boy, do I get tired in this kind of thread at the suggestion that because you can come up with a silly reason to be offended by some innocuous costume, that nobody should ever be insulted by any costume. Difficulty in drawing a sharp line doesn’t mean that there aren’t things that are way over the line. I guess it’s fun to argue about where the line is.
There’s a difference between cultural appropriation and cultural appreciation. Not every issue we have is without reason. You can wear costumes etc without disrespecting a culture but the issue is where people blatantly disrespect someone else’s culture and often is used as a costume. Amandla Sternberg has a great video about this issue and explains it perfectly. Their are a few things she didn’t address such as cultural appreciation but overall a good video. Just go on youtube and look for it and I promise you’ll have a different view on it. Please don’t dwindle our concerns down to an issue over political correctness.