Appropriation - Tumblr Posts

In 2023

Why am I seeing a European man posing in a war bonnet at a ski resort? Educate yourself, you ignorant clown.

Manhood, Flags, and Football

Football is a complicated sport.  Not in terms of what happens on the field, that part is distressingly dull in my opinion.  As a cultural phenomenon however it has so many fascinating interactions with masculine identity and matters of race that it bears consideration.

Let’s hit the masculine identity angle.  I know lots of people whose exercise or physical activity pattern could be described as “utterly sedate” or “ recreational in the best of times.”  Even in this new era where the fitness craze of the 80s and early aughts is back in force- each of which by the way interacted with masculine identity in its own way- there are yet many who are yet content to subscribe to athleticism by fandom.

Several years ago I was in the bathroom at work and overheard an exchange that gave me great concern for the state of masculinity as a virtue.

“Standing in front of the urinal talking about baseball, how much more manly can you get than that” the young many pondered.

My immediate reaction was “You could spear a boar in the forest, alone and bearing only your spear and your wits.  My but we’ve come down a long way in terms of rites of passage.”

But we really have come down further in terms of masculine virtue haven’t we.  Somehow athleticism (defined either literally or as a cultural construction whereby one appropriates it by wearing clothing that declares fandom and knowing things about the people who actually do it) and ability to get laid are the celebrated virtues until such time as the more classical ones are needed in an argument.

Consider this kneeling business.  I honestly cannot conceive of a more innocuous way to make a political statement.  I write letters to Rob Portman more aggressive that this.  They are football players.  I cannot think of a more celebrated class of athletes.  I cannot think of a more clear standard for the modern masculinity than the singing of their praises.  They’re both perfectly positioned to make such statements and have chosen a method so tame that the backlash they’re being subjected to is disgusting to me.

I’ve read about a restaurant some 45 minutes north of my hometown where they have decided to boycott the NFL “out of patriotism” and there is a restaurant here in town where if you stand for the anthem and remove your hat, your meal is half-off.  If you are a veteran it is free.

I posed to them the question of how this policy would be reconciled if I, a veteran, felt compelled to take a knee myself.  I’m still waiting for an answer.

Again, masculinity is in play, here as a bludgeon.  The erstwhile exemplars of masculinity that this lazy coward’s culture so idolized when they were merely spendthrift wife beaters and gamblers, adulterers and cheats are now cast aside as false idols since they have taken up the cause of fighting racism.  In a patriarchal system in which degree of masculinity, which these men exemplar, is a means to escape reproach, to what else can you turn to trump their man cards except with those who actually fight wars?

I take the greatest possible exception with being recruited against my will and without my consent to a cause that I detest.  Nevermind my disgust at some penny-ante diner trying to use jingoism as a means to rope people into sampling their shitty two dollar cheese sticks.  If you’re stupid enough to go in for that kind of thing and wave a flag that you don’t believe in in any meaningful way then that shame is on you.  That your “patriotism” needs an all-you-can-eat bargain platter to get you to stand for the anthem is your own filthy truth.

This offer attempts to steal my voice and the voices of all veterans who actively oppose or at the least disapprove of racism and find these protests to be morally praiseworthy.  Indeed in my opinion it may be the only morally praiseworthy thing the NFL has accomplished in my lifetime.  Lord knows it’s not going to be treating players well regarding concussions- which by the way also has interesting racial overtones regarding the ownership of one’s body and the responsibility of people who are literally called Owners.

Further, I’m disgusted by it because it’s just another appropriation by the unworthy.  You weren’t capable of playing football in any decent degree when you idolized them, you’re not patriotic enough or warrior enough to actually enlist now that you turn to us.  Your gratitude for my service is based in your assumption that I was fighting not for our country that we share with black people and transexuals and the puerto ricans an outrageous half of you have casually forgotten are citizens in their time of greatest need, you thanked me because you believed I was fighting for your country, in which my marriage rights do not exist and my friends are subhuman.

For the record, I wasn’t, and if you succeed in sparking the civil war you’re so gay for I won’t be on your side, and I would gladly kill you.  Maybe it’s better to just stick to unsubscribing from the NFL and posting to whatever Dark Web address you have to go to for Stormfront, maybe that’s more your speed.

Hell for my queerness I would be subhuman to you as well except that my whiteness, maleness, and my veterancy silence your disrespectful coward’s tongue.  You will of course appropriate some even more manly identity in your effort to respond to me.  Perhaps you have a friend who was infantry, maybe bringing him up and speaking on his behalf will make you seem like you have anything to say worthy of my ears.

The fact of the matter is that it is not who takes up the cause that gives a cause value but the righteousness of that cause that attract men and women of quality to it.

If I occasionally speak of civilians with disgust, it’s because of this.  More than anything, it’s because the standards of masculinity my life has established for me call for more than last night’s score or the ability to pass out after a progressively larger number of pints.  Because my standards for patriotism call for consistent voting attendance, kindness towards other citizens, and the willingness to put country and people before a quick buck, distaste for other citizens, or moral vanity.

I speak with disgust because you grasp at the shadows of patriotism and masculine virtue and put on the airs of it in order to prop up worldviews and systems that are consistently cowardly and greedy.  You’re not manly and you’re certainly not American to decry the peaceful protest of others, or to accept a form of our union that is less free and equitable than it could be.

Here’s a way to man up with true patriotism.  Make some personal sacrifice for something other than your filthy coward’s vanity.  Forgo some of your beer and shitty half-priced pizzas and instead invest in your fellow citizens who suffer in the Caribbean.

https://www.redcross.org/donate/hurricane-irma-donations

i’m so tired of youngbae constantly appropriating black culture despite how many of us have told him to stop like

every time we tell him “dude those dreads/braids don’t look good on you”, he always combats it as “well i spend hours to get it done” like so??? does?? every black person who‘s gotten the same hairstyle?? do u want a cookie for experiencing the same thing??? black people in general have to spend hours a day getting their hair relaxed and manageable for other people, but you’re easily insulted by getting a hairstyle that isn’t suited for your hair and done improperly anyways every couple of months like bye…

not to mention, you wanting to experience black pain and suffering to get validation from black artists has got to be one of the most disturbing things i’ve ever seen you said. please love yourself and get yourself together oh my god

I found out that one of my songs that I’m required to sing as part of Choir is a traditional black church song. Not sure if I should do smth like tell the professors abt it or should I stay quiet? Professors are two old white ppl btw and 90% of the Choir is also white. It feels sort of like we’re appropriating a culture that doesn’t belong to us.

Christianity, as a religion, is very unorganized and messy. 10% of the reason being the Christian Bible itself and other 90% because of the Protestant Reformation.

So, let's elaborate; The first 10 percentages of the reason why Christianity is so messy comes from the Christian Bible itself.

Long story short, the Christian Bible is a junction of the appropriation of the Tanakh and the letters sent to kingdoms by the apostles. And heavy on the appropriation of the Tanakh, friends.

It seems that Constantine was goin nuts when he created the Christian Bible, because he took the entire Jewish sacred book, took it out of context, left easily misunderstood shit without explanation and put it as the old testament. And then, he grabs the writings and annotations of the apostles, mix all of them, and call it new testament. And that nigga decided to mix all that shit together and boom: Christian Bible.

And that makes the Christian ideology already very messy; Judaism has absolutely nothing to do with Christianity, except the fact that Jesus was a Jew. He's not mentioned or hinted on any of the Jewish prophecies. Jesus as the Messiah is incompatible with Judaism, so mixing the Tanakh with the apostles's writings will get the Christian belief very unorganized.

But, okay, the Catholics did their little jumps and modifications so it would be at least 2% coherent. Okay, fine, and everything was kind of alright until Martin fucking Luther.

And here we get to the other 90% of reasons why Christianity has such an unorganized theology.

All this crusty dirty smelly white european boi did was get the damn Bible, translate it the way he wanted, give it to the people and say: “Go, do whatever you want with it. Read it, translate it, modify it, hell, you can even interpret to your criteria! Just spread the chaos. ❤️”

Do y'all realize how fucking dangerous is doing that? Well, we all do because we're living the consequences of it right now.

Christians can't decide what is literal and what is metaphorical, and can shape it to however they like. A proof of that is that when I was trying to be Christian, I wouldn't be a church Christian; I would study the bible according to my interpretation. On my own will. I was literally deciding to make a personal religious strand of my own. This is the capacity that Luther gave us. And it results of people being fucking hypocrites. Creating cults on god's name. And that is fucking wild.

So, yeah, Christianity is an unorganized, messy religion and not even the Christians are sure of what they believe in.

A modern norse pagan here, and I think white dreadlocks look a w f u l . Vikings braided their hair, and were actually very clean by the standards of the time (having a bath once a week). Makes me cringe seeing these white pagans with their dreadlocks

If non black people want to damage the fuck out of their hair that’s fine, whatever, but don’t be calling the moldy ass shit you get as a result dreadlocks, dreads, or locs, because I promise you they aren’t.

Sincerely, someone who actually knows what the fuck they talking about.

Feel free to reblog if you aren’t black and against cultural appropriation

The Wend*go is Not Your Cryptid

I'm Algonquin/Ojibwe and this is a spirit that comes from our teachings.

As a young child, the elders taught me to never even SPEAK its name, to not even sing its songs. When we sang a song about it during drumming group one year, we all got in trouble.

You do not spell the word or speak the word.

It's NOT a "cryptid" or a "spooky story" for white people to appropriate.

Its bearly spoken about in our own communities, and even then, only very carefully.

Again, not because its "creepy" but because its respected and something in our traditions that is not played around with; so its certainly not for non-ojibwe/algonquin people to speak about whatsoever. Period.