I understand what they’re trying to say, though. There is a lot of overuse of the term ‘cultural appropriation,’ but blackface was definitely a form of it, as was always casting white guys as Charlie Chan but making them speak in a fake ‘Chinese guy who talks like white people think Confucious wrote’ way. There was a shit ton of cultural appropriation in Hollywood and there really still is with some cultures. Mocking South and East Asians, especially Hindus and Buddhists, still seems to be okay in a lot of American media.
There doesn’t seem to be an issue in America talking luridly about the Kama Sutra or reducing Buddhism into a bunch of bullshit aphorisms that Siddhartha Gautama never said. And rather than diversify The Simpsons when they stopped having Hank Azaria voice Apu on the show (all the way back in the less enlightened era of 2019), they just retired Apu completely. Notice they did not do that to characters like Dr. Hibbert, who was revoiced with a black actor.
as was always casting white guys as Charlie Chan but making them speak in a fake ‘Chinese guy who talks like white people think Confucious wrote’ way. There was a shit ton of cultural appropriation in Hollywood and there really still is with some cultures.
How is that “cultural appropriation” and not just… racism?
Wait a sec, now I’m confused. Aren’t people in black face imitating black people? I thought that was the highest form of flattery? Hold on, could that maybe be a form of cultural appropriation?
Nope, you don’t have to be black to be immersed in black culture
I understand what they’re trying to say, though. There is a lot of overuse of the term ‘cultural appropriation,’ but blackface was definitely a form of it, as was always casting white guys as Charlie Chan but making them speak in a fake ‘Chinese guy who talks like white people think Confucious wrote’ way. There was a shit ton of cultural appropriation in Hollywood and there really still is with some cultures. Mocking South and East Asians, especially Hindus and Buddhists, still seems to be okay in a lot of American media.
There doesn’t seem to be an issue in America talking luridly about the Kama Sutra or reducing Buddhism into a bunch of bullshit aphorisms that Siddhartha Gautama never said. And rather than diversify The Simpsons when they stopped having Hank Azaria voice Apu on the show (all the way back in the less enlightened era of 2019), they just retired Apu completely. Notice they did not do that to characters like Dr. Hibbert, who was revoiced with a black actor.
How is that “cultural appropriation” and not just… racism?
Cultural appropriation is a subset of racism.
Wait a sec, now I’m confused. Aren’t people in black face imitating black people? I thought that was the highest form of flattery? Hold on, could that maybe be a form of cultural appropriation?