summercomfort | Appropriation and Assimilation

Appropriation and Assimilation

Jono and I were talking about the difference between appropriation and assimilation tonight. Jono noted that the dominant culture (in this case, white middle class Anglo-Saxon American, the generic "white people") can "appropriate" others' cultures, whereas the immigrants of the other cultures are expected to "assimilate". Which led to a discussion about Appropriation and Assimilation, which Jono said I should blog about.

Appropriation. I said that I usually get frustrated by white people appropriating my culture, because they can just take whatever they want, without 1) understanding and respecting the roots of it, and 2) experiencing living with that culture full time. Appropriation is when you put random Chinese words on your t-shirt. Assimilation is when you suddenly find yourself living in China and needing to learn the dominant culture in order to function. When I see random white guy wearing a t-shirt with Chinese words on it, there's a part of me that wants me to ask, "Do you even know what that means?" "Do you know how to live by that?" And finally, "Do you know what it means to be treated as "Asian" 24/7?"

The first two questions are easily addressed -- I can just tell a story, teach the meaning, etc. It's the final question that's harder. Jono talks about this idea that white people feel like they lack culture (because white culture is default), so they feel culture envy and want to adopt a cool culture. Thus the appropriation. To me, there's something very wrong in that. Because you're essentially treating the same culture in two different ways. One is the everyday stereotypes and racism -- Asians are hard-working foreigners who take our professional jobs. Latinos are lazy foreigners who take our menial jobs. Muslims are terrorists from the Middle East. Blacks are on welfare, live in projects, and are going to rob us blind. But then you turn around and say, Asian Calligraphy is so cool! Salsa and bellydancing is awesome! Yay Jazz! So there is a part of me who wants to say, "How dare you take this without dealing with the consequences?" How come it's okay for you to wear t-shirts with Chinese calligraphy, but don't have to deal with people automatically assuming that you teach Chinese, or cook Chinese food natively, or are a doctor/lawyer/engineer.

I have problems with Assimilation, as well. Because to assimilate into American culture means to assimilate into a racially-organized society, which means that you don't really assimilate. You just go into the correct box made for you, and adopt it as your own.

For example, Latin America has people of all races, and is socially organized by class -- more $$ = more power. However, Latinos in America are suddenly "brown". Last year, the Spanish teacher at my school was a white Mexican, and many of the self-identified 2nd/3rd generation brown Mexicans refused to accept her as Mexican. Likewise, my roommate got more acceptance as Cuban/Latina from her 1st generation immigrant students because they're used to seeing Latinos as many races, whereas her 2nd/3rd generation Latino students would say, "No, you're not Latino. You're white." So I guess we can say that these 2nd/3rd generation kids are fully assimilated into the American way of seeing things: Latino = brown. Likewise, my Chinese school students -- 2nd generation Chinese -- have difficulty imagining Asians as anything else aside from urban professionals. One of them wrote in his quarter-final essay, "Before taking this class, I always thought China was all businessmen and upper-middle class. Now I know it's 70% farmers!" So they are also assimilated: Asian = professional class.

And yet we are not allowed to actually assimilate -- be accepted into the dominant culture. We walk the walk and talk the talk, and the result is that we accept these boxes that the dominant culture made for us, and they only accept us in these boxes. How wondrously self-reinforcing. It makes me sad that on the one hand, I fight to be a *history* teacher, not a Chinese teacher, but on the other hand, I'm surprised when I see Asians in a indie rock band. Or in prominent political office. Or on welfare. Or hanging out with those Mexicans. And oh! It's a white person. They must surely know everything!

I suppose I should end with various disclaimers:
1) I don't claim to understand the greater social movements and discussions regarding PoC, etc.
2) I apologize to all the white people who don't fit the white people stereotype, because you're not Anglo-Saxon, or because you're not standard middle class, or because you're not American, or because you're living in a place where you're not the dominant culture, etc.
3) This post makes me sound really bitter and angry. I'm not. Just intellectually frustrated at the inconsistencies and hypocrisies I see and embody. And I've generally been very lucky as far as assimilation and appropriation is concerned: I grew up and live in the SF Bay Area, generally multicultural and open-minded about these things. I am a first-generation immigrant (well, 1.5), so I can fight assimilation and I have grounds for complaining about appropriation.
4) I'm not assigning blame to any one particular group. This is one of the places where I think awareness does some good. To be able to step back and say, "Am I appreciating all aspects of this culture, or am I just randomly appropriating?" or "Are my actions and assumptions guided by blind assimilation?" is helpful.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Yes. This.

I have a lot of different things I want to say about this. I guess I'll just say one of them.

One of the things which is really bizarre to me is the ways that "Whiteness=blankness" follows me to China. Like, I as a White American can take part in Chinese culture (trying calligraphy, for example) and it's very cute. But if a Black American does it it's scary and creepy. Likewise, if a Chinese-American tries to participate at the same "just learning / trying things out" level that I do, they get ridiculed for being stupid or slow.

I dunno, maybe that's off-topic, since it's about China and not the US.

I understand that you and Sushu are talking about broader overall trends, but sometimes I can't help thinking "who are we talking about?" Like:
But if a Black American does it it's scary and creepy

To who? To other white people in China? To black people in China, or in America? Or to Chinese people in China?

My time in China (and Japan) was in the context of a school, but I don't remember ever hearing people express surprise or dismay when black students took part in a cultural activity at the university, or dressed up for a matsuri. Not that there wasn't racism/ignorance/curiosity directed at black students in Asia, I just haven't experienced this in connection to participation in cultural activities.

I would like to hear more about both of your experiences, personal and re:black people, in China. I've always found China to be more focused on geographic/cultural origin than race, per se. If you're from one of the western countries, you're respected and allowed into the circles. If you're "one of us", but don't seem to get it, you're treated like a child. And if you're from Africa, then you're written off. And "one of us" is not where you're born, but where your family is from. The idea of 祖籍 -- ancestral location. Like it's very hard to convince Chinese people that just because you were born in America and grew up in America to Chinese parents who were born in America, that you're not Chinese. You're just Chinese who haven't been properly educated.

I think that black people in China are classed, and treated, as "Africans." (just from looking at the experiences of some, but not all of the black people I knew.) Likewise, a lot of the stereotypes towards black people (african-americans or just africans) come from American movies. At least, the second most common question I got asked about America was "Are Black people really that stupid?" often followed with "no, don't be modest, they must be that stupid."

(most common: "What does America think of China?")

The group I was with had about 20 students, 3 or 4 of whom were black. We were in Zhengzhou most of the time, so the degree of surprise and curiosity shown to foreigners in general was a lot higher than in Beijing or Shanghai. We all got stared at a lot, but they got stared at a lot more. None of us were really well-integrated into the host culture, and the students at the local university were generally curious and under-informed, but not really offensive. Sure, we got lots of questions like "Is your life like Sex and the City?" and I think the black students got more racially-flavored versions of these kinds of questions ("Do you play basketball, do you rap? etc"). But I think they mostly just got treated like fascinating aliens. There was only one black guy, the rest were very attractive girls, and it may be that if they were men they might have gotten different reactions. Though the only one to start a dating relationship with one of the Chinese students was the black guy, a video game geek who found himself very popular among the female students on campus. At the Great Wall, he and I were climbing together, and it took forever, because families and older people kept wanting him to take a picture with them.

We didn't have any Asians in our group, so I can't speak to the "one of us" issue you mention.

I never got asked the kinds of questions Ben describes about black people, but he probably had a different experience from mine in a lot of ways. The only really negative statements I heard from the Chinese students were directed towards other asians. "Ming wears too much makeup, it makes her look like a Korean girl" etc. . .

Yeah, appropriation is just one of the most blatant and yet, normalized examples of the power difference.

A few years back when I was still doing spoken word stuff we had a piece where I had the lines, "Check one box, and if you don't fit in the box, don't worry, we'll just cut off what doesn't fit and you'll be just fine, don't you want to fit in?" - which pretty much sums up assimilation...

(Also worth considering w/the Latino students- there's a lot of colorism stuff in all of South America, were the kids calling out light skin privilege?)

Indeed. Although what frustrates me the most is my own complicity in these things. That after 20 years here, I can't *not* think along racial lines. I gave the ethnic nod to an Asian Dane, for example. Or I feel subservient when I see Chinese white people.

What do you mean, calling out light skin privilege? They would say things like, "You're not Mexican, you're white!" And they look down on those that they consider "too white", calling them "white beaners". For a while at school last year, there was a hallway game of "chase the white beaner".

Colorism is seriously deep for people who've been colonized in the Americas (This same stuff happens with light skinned black folks too). I was hoping that the kids were simply calling someone out on using their skin privilege, not just lashing out.

For these kids, they'll see their family and even own parents treat some better, some worse depending solely on their skin tone, including up to some folks getting straight up disowned.

As they grow up, they'll see certain jobs available for certain tones, and not others- the most obvious is media (Halle Berry but not Angela Bassett to win awards, or watch the Spanish channel and see how unbrown the people are). You can do the same by looking around at skin tones in poorer, or more expensive areas (retail stores again, most obvious, but offices as well).

So the kids lash out here, the only place where they'll get more power than the light skinned kids (This is not a defense of this behavior, it's context).

A mexican girl I was dating had her mom very clearly pushing her to stick with me after only seeing me 5 minutes- not even getting to know me - which I'm pretty sure was about my skin color rather than my personality.

That recent bit in the inauguration "Black get back...white alright?" That was a traditional saying amongst black folks re: the colorism. There's a term called the "Brown Bag Test", where you hold your hand up to a brown paper bag, and if you were lighter, you were better off, and if you were darker, you were worse off. There are some black fraternities which go back and basically segregate still amongst color.

For latinos, the Spanish set up a very strong racial hierarchy based on color to get them fighting each other instead of the colonizer (same thing with the Phillipines and same issues of colorism).

The interesting thing is that people then try to use that as a dodge against racism ("Oh, but look, they're racist against their own") without considering that the colorism scheme was used as a tool of slavery, not something whipped up in a vacuum.

I agree that colorism exists in America as a corollary to racism, but perhaps it's unfair to slot all of Latin America in with colorism. It was a long time ago, and I have all the books boxed up somewhere, but I remember when taking a race/ethnicity class reading about how many parts of Latin America stratify more by socio-economic class than by race. A quick Google brought up this, which tells me that apparently there's a distinction between Spain-conquered Americas and Brazil/Caribbeans, something somewhat corroborated by the wikipedia entry about colorism. On the other hand, the same Google brought up this, which corroborates with your evidence that Mexicans want to appear paler. My question is, then, how much does appearing paler affect their quality of life and society's perception of them? I'm questioning the quick jump to be about race. Or that color rules all.

For example, I'm not only Asian, but also female and chubby and middle class. But in America, the fact that I'm Asian trumps all the other characteristics, even though the other characteristics tell others more about me -- that I am biologically female means that I won't ever be in combat. That I'm chubby means that I value food and that I'm not swayed by societal messages for me to be thin. That I'm middle class says a lot about the family environment I grew up in, the likelihood of me going to private college, and my attitude towards disposable income. But first and foremost I'm Asian.

So I just wonder if the colorism in Latin America (and the difference in Mexico vs. Brazil vs. Chile) is the primary stratifier like race/colorism is in America. In China, darker is worse because it means you're of lower class, and therefore more exposed to the sun in the fields, so it's a class issue. Color might be more about perceptions of beauty than something that affects your socio-economic class. The example given in the article-- "I don't want to get dark" can be just as easily be paralleled to the desire to be thin (esp. girls) rather than the colorism. We don't see fat girls on TV. (And all those sitcoms with normal guy-hot girl frustrate me so much. Guys are allowed to have beer bellies but girls need to be borderline anorexic?) How many times have you heard "I need to watch my weight"?

I'm not saying colorism doesn't exist. I'm just challenging our complicity in seeing it as the be-all, end-all EVERYWHERE due solely to the fact that it's the be-all, end-all in the US of A.

I don't see it as the end all be all, but the fact that colorism since the colonization became a determiner in a great deal of class for them- for example, words such as metizo, quadroon, etc. exist because it was important enough to track people's ethnic heritage down the 1/64th range sometimes, was a pretty good indicator that it was/is a big deal. Generally, this is my feeling from my Mexican, Haitian, and Dominican friends, though there could be exceptions elsewhere.

I would highly suggest talking to some folks and getting some first person info.

Agreed. I guess we just talk to different friends who have different experiences re:color and class in Latin America.

A friend of mine just linked these two articles today:

Hispanic Magazine: Black Latina (http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/40/063.html)

How can I replace myself? (http://www.wiretapmag.org/stories/15261)

I don't think I ever really understood why appropriation could cause irritation for people of color in the US until I stayed in Japan and I was now very much part of the minority.

I remember a moment when I was watching TV, it was some trashy tarento show, and there was a Japanese woman singing Amazing Grace, with a bad accent, in this really schlocky arrangement. Seemingly on cue, some of the Japanese guests started shedding little tears. I found it repulsive. I felt like, "Wait a second, you have NO IDEA what this song means, you don't know its context, you have little to no experience with the deep and painful history of racial exploitation and tension in which it plays a hopeful, uplifting part. You're appropriating this!" Of course, this introduces the question of why I, as a White American, felt I had a more legitimate connection to Amazing Grace than the Japanese, despite the fact that it's a song embedded in a Black American cultural tradition.

Here's another fun thing--other cultures will sometimes appropriate things you REALLY REALLY don't want associated with yourself. Here in Macedonia, it's considered to be a very clever costume for Carinval to dress up in blackface and tattered clothing. A Macedonian was explaining this costume to an American friend of mine, with the obvious hope that my friend would be impressed by the familiarity with American history he was showing. My friend was, of course, dumbstruck with anger, not only that the Macedonian would even consider a costume like that, but that the guy somehow thought this idea would entertain my friend just because he's a White American. There was a huge chasm of misunderstanding.

I think I was unclear, so let me add that the Carnival costume was explicitly supposed to be dressing up as a Black slave.

Wonder if they associate slavery with the Caribbean as well... Yeah, I felt really weird hearing a very awkward, barely identifiable version of "Jasmine Flower" in our middle school band last year. But I suppose one of the most frustrating aspects of appropriationg is not the powerlessness in controlling what others associate with you, but the fact that they then *check in* with you about it. In the "look at how thoroughly I understand your culture!!" sort of way that almost precludes debate.

Um, on a completely different note... you and Jono are ENGAGED?! WHAAA?! WAY TO BE COMPLETELY AWESOME YOU TWO!!! CONGRATULATIONS!!!

First, I enjoyed reading this, and I really like to hear your perspectives.

Likewise, my Chinese school students -- 2nd generation Chinese -- have difficulty imagining Asians as anything else aside from urban professionals. One of them wrote in his quarter-final essay, "Before taking this class, I always thought China was all businessmen and upper-middle class. Now I know it's 70% farmers!" So they are also assimilated: Asian = professional class.

This reminded me of Korean high-school student I tutored. The immigrant community she was a part of was centered around the local Korean presbyterian church. She wouldn't believe me when I told her that the majority of Koreans weren't Christian. Diasporas have their own back-formed images of "homeland" that often have a lot more to do with the diaspora than where they came from. . .

Second, it seems to me that the things appropriation and assimilation have in common is they're ways to deal with cultural mixing and overlap that are unequal or unhealthy, in a lot of ways. These kind of processes deserve to be criticized. But this kind of critique gets accused by certain sectors as a requirement that things be "PC." I think that's unfairly dismissive, but I think part of that dismissiveness comes from the fact that it's often delivered as critique without solutions. People sometimes feel that they're being told lots of things they shouldn't do, without a lot of direction toward what they should. Maybe that's not justified, but it happens.

So, my question is, is there a positive inverse to this? Are there ways that people can explore or participate in cultures that aren't their own in some biological sense, or blend cultures, without being either assimilative or appropriative? I'm prone to think that the more people understand about other cultures, the less likely they are to be ignorant and jerkish about these kind of issues, and for a lot of people, participating in a culture in some material way helps them to understand it better. Or since you bring up American music, sometimes cross-cultural influence in artistic or material culture make steps toward forming more positive and flexible images of other groups. So I'm curious whether you have ideas for how this can be accomplished in ways that aren't abusive.

Edited 2009-03-27 18:35 (UTC)

Thank you for your very well-thought-out questions! I've been thinking a lot about the positive ways to explore/blend cultures, actually. And I think it comes down to properly contextualizing your every encounter with the culture. For example, the difference between the anime otaku who think that all of Japan loves anime and ends all of their sentences with "desu", and the anime otaku who realize the specific role anime plays in Japanese culture, that Naruto *isn't* the most popular anime in Japan, etc. To be able to distinguish between what the encounter truly taught you about a specific culture, instead of extrapolating an entire culture from this. Thus, the difference between a professor in Japanese studies, or a JET teacher saying "Japan is weird" and being able to back that up with evidence from many aspects of society, and some 15-yr-old saying "Japan is weird" just because he saw a 5 minute clip of a variety show.

And in terms of blending cultures (vs. exploring/understanding), I think it's related to the difference between specific homage and generalized plagarism. When you're paying homage, you're expressing a respect and understanding to the source. When you're plagarising, you take others' work as your own, with active disregard for the ownership of the original. I've also added the modifiers of "specific" to homage and "generalized" to plagarism to connect it to my earlier point about contextualizing cultural elements. If you are paying homage to a cultural element and showing the depth of your understanding, it would necessarily be specific ("I drew influences from the Huangmei style folk opera prevalent in South-Central China"). If you are taking a cultural element with disregard for its origins and ownership, it would necessarily be general ("I put in some Chinese elements").

I speak Spanish close to fluently. Have I earned the right to enjoy flamenco? To perform it? If not, at what point would I earn that right? Or can I never have that right because I wasn't born Latino?

To me these questions don't seem very weighty. Of course I have the right to enjoy or perform flamenco, because everyone has the right to enjoy or perform flamenco. To believe otherwise is a little like saying that only the Scottish should be able to play golf because they invented it. Why shouldn't you do what makes you happy and doesn't hurt anyone?

But then, I guess the gist of your rant is that you are hurting someone. Can you elaborate on this? In what way does it hurt? I don't properly understand this, as a white boy from the upper middle class.

I think it comes down the intention and approach. For example, when performing flamenco, do you claim that you know everything about Spanish culture? Do you expect that dancing flamenco will get you an "in" when you visit Latin America? (Probably not, since it's mostly Spain-based). Do you assume that flamenco represents a universal aspect of "Latino" culture? Or do you see flamenco as a very small part of a vast cultural multitude, to be learned and treated with respect?

Your being able to speak Spanish helps. You're not just one of the suburban housewives going to take bellydancing or capoeira out of context.

I think it's fine and fun the learn and experience things of another culture. What hurts is when with a tiny bit of appropriated culture experience, suddenly white people think themselves an expert on YOUR culture. Like assuming that all Chinese people eat lemon chicken and fried rice at home. Or that all of Latin America and Spain eat burritos. Or like me saying earnestly, "Oh, you're white. Y'know, I've been trying to make pizza lately, and I've been having trouble getting it to taste like the kind you get at Pizza Hut. You must be able to give me some tips!"

Hmm. But the last paragraph here, about making blithe assumptions about people of different cultures, is talking about racism and racial stereotyping. I get why that's hurtful, of course. But would you object if a suburban housewife takes belly dancing, learning nothing in particular about Middle Eastern culture, if she stays sensitive and doesn't take for granted that all Middle Easterners can give her tips? I'm just having trouble understanding who's being hurt in this scenario. Likewise, I don't understand why I should have to speak Spanish to perform flamenco.

Basically I don't think I understand what specifically you're objecting to apart from racism, since I don't like what I see when I take what I think you're saying to its logical conclusion. I'd be able to write beat poetry, since that was invented by white Americans like me, but not sonnets, haiku, or rubaiyat. I could cook hamburgers, but not curry, quesadillas, or shish kebabs. I could play baseball, but not lacrosse, golf, or soccer. Unless, perhaps, I first undertake a study into the culture I'm appropriating from. What a limiting existence. Can't people shoot fireworks off on the Fourth of July without first taking a semester course on how fireworks were used to frighten evil spirits in ancient China, or down sushi without worrying too much about traditions behind its preparation and consumption in Japan? For the first time in history, it is possible for us to enjoy aesthetic developments from across the globe and the millennia; what can possibly be wrong with that, provided we stay sensitive and don't put people in boxes according to their race and ethnicity?

But would you object if a suburban housewife takes belly dancing, learning nothing in particular about Middle Eastern culture, if she stays sensitive and doesn't take for granted that all Middle Easterners can give her tips?

No, I wouldn't object. Down all the sushi you want, as long as you know that sushi in Japan isn't the same, and that it's part of something much bigger. (Even if you don't have time/inclination to learn about the much-bigger).

I would much prefer that the suburban housewife takes belly dancing and in the process learns a little more about its origins, and that it's actually Egyptian, or that she takes yoga classes and in the process understands that her version is just exercise, which is different from the various Indian yogas as a religious element.

Great, in that case we're on just about the same page :) I also think it's preferable that people have some idea when they appropriate that they are appropriating, if only so that they can be grateful for the development that went into the achievement they're enjoying. (Although frankly I'd say that also applies to things from our own cultures, since we personally didn't invent them either; it's just easier with our own cultures since we're more likely to already know some of the history behind what we're doing.)

hmmm I'm not convinced yet, I still think appropriating cultures is awesome, such as a
heavy metal band (http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=4940341) from Iraq. But then there is no sense of consequences being avoided: "they should have to endure being white americans!" ridiculous right?
I guess I feel cultural mixing is an interesting way to create new things and doesn't really damage the original cultures. It's like mixing colors or flavors, strawberry banana might not taste like strawberry or banana but it doesn't destroy the idea of strawberry or banana. Even if it is done with some ignorance (How dare they use a latin name for their band! They don't even know what it was like to live in the Roman empire! (or maybe they do... and they are actually time travelers))

Now claiming more knowledge than I have about a culture is retarded. Obviously eating some siu mai and tattooing 愛 on my back doesn't make me an expert in chinese culture (particularly since I wrote 愛 with a japanese character set) and someone who did think that deserves to be told off to their face.

Assimilation is tricky. In a theoretical pure monocultural society the first immigrant would have only one box to choose from and would be expected to fit into it. However any failure to assimilate could be attributed either to the individual or the culture from which they came. In doing so that individual has created a new box for the second immigrant to fit into or not. America is a land of many boxes (not that other countries aren't) and so it seems easy to put people into boxes because there are oh so many boxes to choose from, but really its up to individuals to jump outside their boxes (and then make a documentary about it!) and then we create new boxes or expand the boxes. So what if we find ourselves surprised at seeing Asians in an indie rock band or in politics? Can't we acknowledge that we were surprised and move forward from there?

ok I shut up now that I have thorough shoved my foot in my mouth

I agree that cultural mixing is cool! I just get frustrated when someone takes a random element of my culture completely out of context, and then think that they're now an expert on my culture. I'm sure I do that to white culture sometimes, too. Like for the longest time, I thought white people all ate "Boston Market" style food at home.

I don't know if we can acknowledge our surprise at breaking the box and move forward from there. I truly hope so! One of the things about America is how racially-bounded the boxes are. So I'm uncertain if new boxes can be created outside of racial lines. I feel like in some cultures, jumping out of the box just expands the box, and if you do it often enough, you get a box as big as the majority culture's. But in other places, you jump out of the box, but no matter what you do, people see you as being inside the box anyway, and the box doesn't expand. Or, people put you in the special box of "exceptions", and then continue their normal boxy-ness. I hope in America it's the first kind of boxy-ness. After all, Chinese people started with laundromats, railroads, and Chinese restaurants, right? And now look at us, our box has expanded to include engineers and doctors...

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Appropriation and Assimilation

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject