Week 8 - 13 attendees - Leader: Rev. Amy Lincoln (Karen Buys being absent)
Chapter 10: What is cultural appropriation?
As with some earlier chapters, there wasn’t much to discuss about the material as it was presented. We agreed that the definition given was pretty good: “Cultural appropriation is what is occurring when a dominant culture (think White, Male, Eurocentric) receives material and financial benefit from a piece of culture being siphoned away from the culture that is being appropriated.” In addition to rap music as presented in the chapter (madonna took this “mainstream” with her song “Vogue”), examples given were Elvis Presley’s appropriation of black/African-American songwriters’ and singers’ works; e.g., Big Mama Thornton’s recording in 1953 sold a half million copies, but Elvis’s recording in 1956 sold 10 million. Perhaps more benign examples were the adoption of St Patrick’s Day (generally not celebrated in Ireland), the founding of Taco Bell (based on Glen Bell’s hot dog drive-in first in San Bernardino, CA), and all manor of Halloween costumes. Regarding whether if one’s “borrowing” of a custom or cultural aspect is inappropriate, the chapter’s message was that “if it is offensive to any member of the culture whose aspect is being appropriated, then it is cultural appropriation.”
Chapter 11: Why can’t I touch your hair?
Again, this was pretty straightforward, and touched lightly on “microaggressions” that will be discussed in detail next week.
The class had an opportunity to engage in an action as it closed. It was pointed out that there were a number of scarecrows placed on Main Street in celebration of the season and that at least one of them had a black face mask on it. Many of the attendees left at the end of the meeting to observe these. There were mixed feelings about the mask per se, but the way the scarecrow was hanging on a pole was definitely offensive. A call was a made to the Flemington Community Partnership (FCP), and an investigation by them found that masks had been added by unknown persons to the rather nondescript scarecrows. FCP had at the masks removed and appreciated the concerns voiced and were grateful for our group’s intervention.
The group also engages in a number of lively discussions via emails on topics of interest. Among these have been posts on various websites. The websites are as follows:
Video, 5:35 in length
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QokU6ayk6g&feature=youtu.be
A longer interview (in multiple parts) is here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhLY0JqXP-s
An article in Sojourners:
https://sojo.net/articles/study-shows-racism-shortens-lifespan-black-people
This is quite long, but it addresses some of the reasons for the discrepancies between black wealth and white wealth
It is notable in that New Jersey has introduced legislation to correct this matter.
And finally, there is also a wealth gap in contributions to Democratic presidential candidates in terms of color:
Peace,
— Duncan Taylor