The Coddling Of The American Mind (Trigger Warning Article In The Atlantic...)

"But the person who introduced more Americans to yoga than any other in those days was Richard Hittleman, who in 1950 returned from studies in India to teach yoga in New York. He not only sold millions of copies of his books and pioneered yoga on television in 1961, but he influenced how yoga has been taught ever since. Although he was a student of the sage Ramana Maharshi and very much a “spiritual” yogi, he presented a nonreligious yoga for the American mainstream, with an emphasis on its physical benefits. He hoped students would then be motivated to learn yoga philosophy and meditation."

http://www.yogajournal.com/article/history-of-yoga/yogas-trip-america/

i usually don't care what people steal, but i am all for the banning of "gypsy jazz" groups from college campuses. someone should start a committee. talk about oppressed minorities with no voice! especially since a lot of "gypsy jazz" performers began their musical careers by desecrating the rich Jamaican legacy of ska.

lol

If there's anything we can do to combat Magic!, future generations will judge us harshly if we fail to act.

this article gives some good information i didn't know about india's role in exporting yoga abroad:
http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2015/11/university_canceled_yoga_class_no_it_s_not_cultural_appropriation_to_practice.html

Thanks.

But the way that some contemporary activists would silo different cultures—as if anything that travels from outside the West is too fragile to survive a collision with raucous mixed-up modernity—is provincialism masquerading as sensitivity.

This is a partic good bit.

raucous mixed-up modernity is in the water over here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8poH4WgZvI

this guy was the Elvis of yoga:

Hey man, Elvis was the Elvis of yoga:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pro7XpRpU04

is there anything that man couldn't steal!? god love him.

Cultural exchange is exploitative under capitalism because cultures never encounter one another on equal terms. This is a symptom of the inequality rather than its cause. It doesn't make sense to be against cultural exchange because of this, instead we should be against inequality.

Really, the alternative to a world full of cultural appropriation is one in which white people willfully close themselves off to other cultures. This seems way worse for everyone involved. It would create artificial divisions among people, for one, and also avoiding influences from other cultures for fear of "harming them" just seems gross and condescending, like white people would be viewing other cultures as if they were specimens that needed to be preserved in their pure form

― Treeship, Monday, November 23, 2015 7:43 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

who said they were against cultural exchange? what is this all or nothing logic

yeah I get that, although it seems like it was a more salient charge when black artists legitimately did not have full access to the music marketplace, whereas now they mostly do.

― on entre O.K. on sort K.O. (man alive), Monday, November 23, 2015 4:59 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this seems p optimistic esp considering the increasingly marginalized role of R&B radio for ex.

Really, the alternative to a world full of cultural appropriation is one in which white people willfully close themselves off to other cultures.

No no no, come on, it's not a two-way street

Under the broad heading of 'cultural appropriation' fall many distinct albums/films/songs/tv shows/games/restaurants/clothes and each one can be a separate case

Sometimes the thing is obviously sick and wrong and broken, sometimes not ... you're allowed to have diff reactions on a case by case basis ... we don't have to cancel all yoga classes, also we don't have to just say oh well people wanted Elvis and they didn't want the black guy who cares

i'm just not on board with the phrase "cultural appropriation" -- culture is seldom properly appropriated, since culture isn't a finite commodity.

i grant that i'm not using the dictionary definition, i just think the phrase implies something other than what typically takes place.

i'm just not on board with the phrase "cultural appropriation" -- culture is seldom properly appropriated, since culture isn't a finite commodity.

Exactly. And if your primary concern is that someone is making money and you're not (which is what a lot of these "cultural appropriation" accusations and debates boil down to), well, that's not really about art or culture at all.

Contrariwise, stuff doesn't stop being about art and culture just because someone's getting paid.

Exactly. And if your primary concern is that someone is making money and you're not (which is what a lot of these "cultural appropriation" accusations and debates boil down to), well, that's not really about art or culture at all.

― the top man in the language department (誤訳侮辱), Tuesday, November 24, 2015 10:48 AM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

how does this statement even begin to make sense

It's really difficult for me to not look at anti-cultural appropriation arguments like the ones on this thread through a lens that translates them all as "I can't wait for racism to finally be over so I can put on this sweet headdress"

"Let's fight racism but ignore its consequences in the meantime"

It's really difficult for me to not look at anti-cultural appropriation arguments like the ones on this thread through a lens that translates them all as "I can't wait for racism to finally be over so I can put on this sweet headdress"

― I Am Curious (Dolezal) (DJP), Tuesday, November 24, 2015 10:56 AM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

sorry for your difficulties.

(sorry, just fighting one patronizing red herring w/ another.)

i just think it's kind of an intellectually shallow concept; i'm not running out this weekend to don blackface or whatever.

dont close yourself off from culture, amateurist

some of my favorite stories in history are about cultural transfer. like fish and chips (brought to england by portuguese marranos) is the same thing as tempura (brought to japan by the jesuits)

but for every story like that there's, you know, all those white managers and label heads with songwriting credits on R&B songs

sorry for your difficulties.

you're being a total dick

only just worked out that don blackface is not a controversial performer

goole otm about fish and chips, globalization has been downhill since

Room quietens as people ponder the implications of a waterface defence and what it implies for their position

you're being a total dick

i actually pointed this out myself. but thanks for the constructive criticism-- and for singling me out on a thread that's full of this sort of thing.

only just worked out that don blackface is not a controversial performer

don blackface's career took a nosedive in the 1950s, that's probably why you haven't heard of him.

Blackface isn't cultural appropriation. It has a long history of being a way to caricature black people, and so despite intentions when it appears today it can't help but evoke that history. It is experienced by others as an affront. It's racist in ways that are easy to describe.

A white dude with a traditional maori tattoo, for instance, seems like the kind of thing people would describe as appropriative. It might be offensive, but for different reasons.

there was a black man at my gym last week using the elliptical in front of me who had hebrew letter tattoos on each of his arms. i didn't feel appropriated at all, just amused.

I feel like a lot of these things -- when traditional symbols are lifted out of context -- are tacky and thoughtless and ignorant and I understand the desire to critique them. But the term "cultural appropriation," as a description of a thing that is a priori bad, just leads to chaos.

xp how do you know he wasn't Jewish?

Because he had tattoos, probably

what djp said

I know a Jewish guy with hebrew tattoos. He's pretty secular though.

the yoga thing is just so stupid. do college kids not read this book anymore?

http://www.ananda.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/autobiography_yogi_book.jpg

It is entirely about an Indian Yoga who is charged by his teacher to bring yoga to America. There have been many instances of this, of teachers from India coming to the US explicitly to start western yoga schools.

Furthermore yoga itself is a term for a number of different schools of thought and the yoga typically practiced in the west puts emphasis on the physical benefits of its practice. Yoga is a bad example since it is seen more as a kind of science, esp compared to western religious rituals. If you have the knowledge and know how to practice, anyone can do it. It's portability is written into the practice.

xp oh yeah, I thought there was a tattooing tradition w/some Ethiopian Jews but I guess those are specific kinds of tattoos & not generic bicep tats

i always forget about the jewish prohibition on tattoos! i know a bunch of people who have broken that. so the guy could very well have been jewish.

I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of secular jews aren't even aware of the prohibition

a more extreme example of jewish appropriation is the black israelite movement which not only borrows judaism but in its most extreme manifestations (such as the Nation of Yahweh) claims that the jews today are not the real jews but imposters. i used to see them preaching in NYC all the time about the white jewish devil imposters (i haven't seen them in a while so i don't know if that kind of thing still goes on). i think the former - identifying as jewish - i don't have a problem with at all (and i kinda love different pseudo-jewish movements). i'm more bothered by the exclusionary nature of the extremists. so it's not even the appropriation that's the problem - it's the appropriation and then denial of my own identity that bothers me.

come on are you seriously bothered by black isrealites mordy

well i was bothered when they yelled at me and called me derogatory names when i walked around wearing a yarmulke

i mean i'm not really bothered atm since i haven't seen or heard from them - they don't have much of a presence in bala cynwyd

there is a difference between crazy people who yell at you sometimes and people who have actually appropriated your identity

society does not accept them as jewish and there's nothing you could do to make society not think you are jewish

that's what i was trying to say - the borrowing of jewish ideas + practices really does not bother me at all. it's only when it becomes a part of an antagonistic denial of identity that it bothers me. and there it's mostly the antagonism (tho trying to talented mr. riply a religion is nagl).

there are a whole bunch of "black jewish" groups -- marvin gaye's dad was a minister in one such congregation. there isn't much that the various churches (or temples) have in common other than claiming jewish identity.

i mean, some are black nationalist, others have tried to petition israel to allow them citizenship, others are really off the deep end.... it's all over the place, much like all the many diverse penetecostal black churches that have all kinds of traditions, identites, etc. in fact i think you could see the "black jew" movement (if it is that) as being a kind of unexpected outgrowth of a certain eccentric strain of black protestantism.

and then there's the rastafarians which sort of fit in there.

anyway.

yes - there are some wonderful black israelite groups that are not extremist at all including one in Dimona. that's where this guy is from:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXBRMYT3dWs

also this album which is fantastic:
http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/11481-soul-messages-from-dimona/

good piece here on the theme: http://blogs.swarthmore.edu/burke/blog/2015/11/09/all-saints-day/

1) The concepts of appropriation and ownership. This is where moves are being made that are at least potentially reactionary and may in fact lead to the cultural and social confinement or restriction of everyone, including people of color, women, GLBQT people, and so on. In some forms, the argument against appropriation is closely aligned with dangerous kinds of ethnocentrism and ultra-nationalism, with ideas about purity and exclusivity. It can serve as the platform for an attack on the sort of cosmopolitan and pluralistic society that many activists are demanding the right to live within. Appropriation in the wrong institutional hands is a two-edged sword: it might instruct an “appropriator” to stop wearing, using or enacting something that is “not of their culture”, but it might also require someone to wear, use and enact their own “proper culture”.

When I have had students read Frederick Lugard’s The Dual Mandate in British Tropical Africa, which was basically the operator’s manual for British colonial rule in the early 20th Century, one of the uncomfortable realizations many of them come to is that Lugard’s description of the idea of indirect rule sometimes comes close to some forms of more contemporary “politically correct” multiculturalism. Strong concepts of appropriation have often been allied with strong enforcement of stereotypes and boundaries. “Our culture is these customs, these clothing, this food, this social formation, this everyday practice: keep off” has often been quickly reconfigured by dominant powers to be “Fine: then if you want to claim membership in that culture, please constantly demonstrate those customs, clothing, food, social formations and everyday practices–and if you don’t, you’re not allowed to claim membership”.

And then further, “And please don’t demonstrate other customs, clothing, food, social formations and everyday practices: those are for other cultures. Stick to where you belong.” I recall a friend of mine early in our careers who was told on several occasions during her job searches that since she was of South Asian descent, she’d be expected to formally mentor students from South Asia as well as Asian-Americans, neither of which she particularly identified with. I can think of many friends and colleagues who have identified powerfully with a particular group or community but who do not dress as or practice some of what’s commonly associated with that group.

What’s being called appropriation in some of the current activist discourses is how culture works. It’s the engine of cultural history, it’s the driver of human creativity. No culture is a natural, bounded, intrinsic and unchanging thing. A strong prohibition against appropriation is death to every ideal of human community except for a rigidly purified and exclusionary vision of identity and membership.