Today in, “Is it racist?” People talk about a white girl wearing a Chinese dress to prom.

Just to give some discussion/perspective from the other side to you, u/RyukanoHi, and others saying the same thing:

When cultures mix, there's a huge difference between "sharing cultures" and "I like this so it's mine now." You mention the former - cultures meeting each other with open arms and sharing things freely for mutual benefit. But the latter results in clashes, which has historically included stereotyping, mockery, violence, and slaughter. Cultural appropriation is only when the latter occurs, and the more powerful group decides to cherry-pick the "pretty" parts of a culture to "adopt." Like adopting the music and traditions of slaves, without recognizing the history that led to their creation.

So there's a difference between two groups sharing tips for good food or how to make better tools and technology, and a group of colonizers deciding "hey these savages look kinda cool in feathers, so after we kill them all we'll wear their headdresses back to the mainland for exotic fashion points." And that difference is pretty clear when it happens. Yes, mixing cultures has led to improvements in many instances for modern societies, but let's not pretend the bad examples didn't happen too.

That said, I'm not picking a side in this Keziah/Jeremy Lam/H3H3 situation, because it's fairly mundane overall. But if people are going to play the "cultures are meant to be shared!" card, I have to ask: exactly what was "shared" when Keziah chose to wear an obviously Chinese dress? Do you think she actually learned anything about Chinese culture, and used her prom experience to "appreciate and respect it" as she claims? Was she teaching others about Chinese culture? Or did she do it just because it looks pretty, and not care what culture it came from?

While you may end up on one side of that line of questions, the other side does have merit grounded in history. So it's not as pretty a topic as "everyone always appreciates foreign cultures" all the time. It's just not that simple; the world isn't always about sharing and appreciating. Sometimes it's about power, greed, theft, and selfishness. And the net end result really isn't the same.

/r/DeFranco Thread Parent Link - twitter.com