I feel some sort of connection when I read about the cultural and racial histories or see the cultured paintings in family member’s houses or see the events happen around me (like I’ve heard about the Quinceañera my family had or another family that’s Mexican had). I feel the connection due to the fact I know that’s where I stem from. Though I feel like I’m violating something.
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That’s probably because we live in a world where whatever you say or do is going to be considered offensive by someone. But trust me, the situation you described is absolutely not violating anything.
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Yeah, if you didn’t have these people judging you- it would literally be fine! Personally I ignore those people. I’m not gonna stop calling my grandparents, “Lolo” or “Lola” they’d look at me weird lol.
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See, I think a lot of people – on both sides of the argument – mix up cultural appropriation, appreciation and exchange.
When my mum got married, she wanted everyone to respect the Indian traditions. So, her (white Irish) husband was in full Indian attire (like Nick Jonas at his wedding). It looked something like this:
On top of that, all of her friends and family (on both sides – bride and groom) wore Indian clothing. It was what she wanted to honour her wedding, so that’s what happened.
This is what I’d call cultural exchange. It’s when a member of the culture in question invites you to take part and you both give and exchange parts of each other’s cultures on equal footing.
That’s fine! Just like how it would be fine for a white person to wear a kimono if they were adopted and raised by Japanese people, haha! That’s their culture, regardless of their race. And race and culture, while linked, aren’t the same thing.
Also, I personally thnk it’s fine to appreciate a culture. If you, say, wear a sari and you have a blog about how much you love, respect and want people to understand Indian attire, that’s appreciation. If you wear braids and then explain where they come from when someone asks, that’s fine (although this one is a little more controversial for a lot of die-hard woke scolds).
There are two problems that arise for me with cultural appropriation:
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When a dominant culture steals and takes credit for another culture’s items, clothing, hairstyles, etc. This is particularly bad when it’s a rich company exploiting the culture of an oppressed group. The people whose culture they are ripping off are much less rich than the company and they don’t see a penny of the cultural elements that belong to them. Worst of all, sometimes it drives up the price of their cultural item and then they’re screwed! Gucci and Chanel like to do this kinda stuff. But either way, cultural clothing and items that people like are a great way to teach others about a culture that they did not like, understand, know about or appreciate before, so stripping it of its culture is a disservice. Also, usually the dominant culture will be from a rich country with a colonial history that subjugated members of the minority culture. They might have even associated that culture with savagery. The people in that culture may have had to fight long and hard to keep their traditions alive and now their culture is being picked apart for what the dominant culture thinks is worth keeping. Accident or no, it very much feels like a form of cultural colonisation. Like the colonisers picked and plundered countries, they’re doing the same to cultures, too.
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When a culture becomes a Halloween costume or something seen as weird or eccentric. I want to say right now that I have no problem of you making a Halloween costume of a specific person, as long as it’s appropriate and not someone like Anne Frank. But, say, if you want to cosplay as Princess Jasmine, you’re cosplaying as her. That’s fine. When it comes to taking cultural clothing and turning it into a costume, you’re basically saying “lol look how weird/scary/funny/silly this culture is.” You’re ridiculing it. That’s disgusting.
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Yeah, I literally call my aunts by the slang term in Spanish “ti-ti” which is like a term for “tia” which means aunt in Spanish and I get this anxiety thinking about referring them to that in public in front of others because of our feature differences. 
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I call my grandparents Lola and Lolo but when talking about them to other people i say grandma and grandpa. It gets less confusing that way and I feel awkward about using Lolo and Lola in any other way than calling them that.
They got married in both cultures’ styles. That’s a perfect example of cultural exchange and absolutely awesome
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I love this so much
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But here in my situation it’s the family I’m blood-related to, so I share the genes of them (not all because clearly the white genes were more dominant) but I’m blood linked to the race that is allowed to own the culture.
I love the culture and I feel connected when I see it around me or learn about it especially knowing I come from the family who owns it and is apart of it, but because of my differences in appearance, percentage of the race me and my other family has compared to one another, I feel different and like idk how to explain it?
Nas daily held an Indian wedding.
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That’s where I think that people go wrong. Your genes have nothing to do with your culture! They have a correlation, but no direct causation! If part of your family is Latinx and follows Latinx traditions and you feel as though it’s part of who you are, it’s your culture! You don’t have to be a certain skin colour to participate!
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It’s just those people I’m worried about that if I were to post publicly my appreciation or me participating in the culture I’m literally linked to, they’d be like, “oh you’re white, you’re not even Mexican, you don’t look therefore you’re not”. Or even actual Mexican people saying I’m appropriating their culture.
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Ignore those people lol. They have no right saying what you should or should not do with your life!
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Girl u Mexican
White passing my buttinsky
I’m Mexican too and my ma looks white but she still grew up in a ghetto *ss part of Tepic and u can’t take it outta her
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I find it profoundly funny when people are shut up when the truth comes out and they realise that the person is part of the culture.
My cousin is in school. She’s 100% Indian but she’s white with green eyes (lol colonialism and white men sewing their seeds just popped up in her generation just for her). She had a Facebook picture where she was at a wedding with a lengha on and people in her school when crazy like “yOuRe NoT iNdIaN” and she was like “my surname is literally Patel” xD
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Will forever remind me of the sims 4 character
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Dudeee right yea. I feel more comfortable now, thank you all.
@Edelgard @ShanniiWrites @raviola @WritingWithStars
Like lmfao I’ve actually friends who came with me to my Mexican family’s house before we dropped them off at their own and they were confused on why they were all talking Spanish and you saw so much Mexican items around the house… And I was kinda like “Yeah I meant it when I said I was Mexican.” which was all a while ago when I was more able to say it but then yeah I got in this cycle of doubt recently but it’s gone again.
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i had a similar thing. I’m mixed race (as in my mom’s white and my dad’s half filipino) and for a while I just said I was white…
I think I’ll remain considering myself only white. I’d rather not attend the discussion of explaining even though I don’t look like it, I have that blood in me, and am therefore that race as well.