Why I can’t stand white belly dancers

[GURPS]

What Liberals Condemn As “Cultural Appropriation” Is Actually Called “Learning”


Randa Jarrar is back to remind us just how atrocious an idea “cultural appropriation” is.

A few weeks ago, the Palestinian-American feminist made a splash with an article in Salon explaining “Why I Can’t Stand White Belly Dancers.” Her argument, to the extent she offers one, is that this is a peculiar form of exploitation called “cultural appropriation.” She ends with the advice: “Find another form of self-expression. Make sure you’re not appropriating someone else’s.”

Now that is an interesting principle if we were to apply it consistently. The mind reels. Enormous parts of our culture have been influenced by and therefore “appropriated” from someone else. Much of contemporary American popular music was “appropriated” in one way or another from Southern blacks, as are whole styles of dance. Tap dance was appropriated by whites from blacks, who appropriated it from the Irish. Or maybe the other way around, or both. Parts of the American Arts and Crafts style were “appropriated” from traditional Japanese homebuilding. Franz Liszt encouraged his contemporaries to “appropriate” melodies from the Hungarians like all get-out. Classical architecture was “appropriated” from the Romans by the descendants of the very barbarians who sacked the empire. And so on.

What Jarrar condemns as “appropriation” is actually “learning.” It is the transmission of new ideas, and the more sources they come from, the more vibrant the culture.

Why I can’t stand white belly dancers
Whether they know it or not, white women who practice belly dance are engaging in appropriation

Google the term “belly dance” and the first images the search engine offers are of white women in flowing, diaphanous skirts, playing at brownness. How did this become acceptable?

Umm wow, hate much ......

 

[vraiblonde]

It's annoying that any crackpot who fires off a weak synapse can get published and have their idiot idea spread to the unwashed masses for consumption and regurgitation.

Upon further investigation:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randa_Jarrar

She's a freaking American, born in Chicago. SHE appropriates Arab culture for a living.

Shut up, bitch.

 

[GURPS]

Born in Chicago ... left the middle east at 13 ... so less than 12 yrs, is long enough suck up the ethnocentric attitude of Palestinians


more progressive racist - YT ppl can't do anything because they are white

The Difference Between Cultural Exchange and Cultural Appropriation


Having considered their fashion choices a form of personal expression, some may feel unfairly targeted for simply dressing and acting in a way that feels comfortable for them.

The same can be said for those who find criticisms of the Harlem Shake meme and whatever it is Miley Cyrus did last month to be an obnoxious form of hipsterdom – just because something has origins in black culture, they say, doesn’t mean white artists can’t emulate and enjoy it.

And then there are people who believe that everything is cultural appropriation – from the passing around of gun powder to the worldwide popularity of tea.

They’re tired of certain forms of cultural appropriation – like models in Native American headdresses – being labeled as problematic while many of us are gorging on Chipotle burritos, doing yoga, and popping sushi into our mouths with chopsticks.

They have a point.

Where do we draw the line between “appropriate” forms of cultural exchange and more damaging patterns of cultural appropriation?

To be honest, I don’t know that there is a thin, straight line between them.

But even if the line between exchange and appropriation bends, twists, and loop-de-loops in ways it would take decades of academic thought to unpack, it has a definite starting point: Respect.

MMW Roundtable: Responding to Randa Jarrar’s “Why I Can’t Stand White Bellydancers”


Last week, Salon published Randa Jarrar’s “Why I Can’t Stand White Bellydancers” as part of their “feminists of color” series curated by Roxane Gay. The response to her post has been overwhelming, including responses from dudes at the Washington Post and The Atlantic to G. Willow Wilson’s response at her blog. We’ve been exchanging emails back and forth here ourselves at MMW. The following is our edited take on events:

Fatemeh: Have you seen Randa Jarrar’s “Why I Can’t Stand White Bellydancers” over at Salon? I wrote something similar for MMW and Racialicious in 2007. I swear, if someone asks me if I can belly dance one more time… *head exploding*

well that explains it 'feminists of color'



I have a friend, she married a guy from India, when she goes to 'family' gatherings for cultural events, she does not show up in jeans and a blouse, but a SARI .... that is what is expected from the women ... otherwise clothing is typically western ... maybe should get a pass, because she married into a different culture, although I am sure the feminists would have something to say about the traditional Indian clothing ...

 

[Hijinx]

Just for the hell of it , I looked up Randa Jarrar in Google images.

I am sure she hates any woman in a Belly dancing outfit.

She would more appropriately look good as a gas bag with Goodyear printed on it.

She looks a little like a feminine version of "Fat Bastard".

 

[Larry Gude]

Does this mean that, as part of reparations, we can give back rap???? Please?????

 

[Hank]

I have a friend...

I call bullchit!

 

[Lurk]

Are talking about this brown skinned beauty? Once she starts belly dancing, you best head for the doors.

 

[GURPS]

I call bullchit!

look my favorite ass pimple