MAD MURPHY – Cultural Appropriation

Cultural Appropriation

Tumblr’s at it again, and we shouldn’t be surprised. If stuff ain’t written down, you can rest assured that Tumblr will ALWAYS get it wrong. We should stop using the phrase “Thanks Obama” and instead start using “Goddammit Tumblr!”. So what did they do? Well…..

Cultural Appropriation is not as rampant as most people think. Yeah, you’re going to have your idiots that think putting on a Sombrero and holding a couple of tacos qualifies them to celebrate Cinqo de Mayo, but for the most part…. it’s not that bad.

Oh, of course Tumblr makes it OUT to be that bad… the Social Justice Warriors of Tumblr make sure that you side with them that the world is this horrible blue marble floating in space, full of people who want to hurt your feelings and steal your money. Not really. Y’wanna know why? Just look at the dictionary definition:

Cultural Appropriation is a sociological concept which views the adoption or use of elements of one culture by members of a different culture as a largely negative phenomenon.

Simple enough, now think about it… I mean REALLY think about it. Who do you know that is guilty of cultural appropriation? And when I say guilty of it, i mean that if they dress like an indian chief for halloween, an actual Navajo or Chippewa will approach them and say “HEY, take off the headdress, kemosabe.” I have seen costumes that push the boundaries, and come close to offensive, but most people have a big enough sense of humor where they are able to just shake it off and deal with the fact that Jimmy in the Geisha Girl costume is just being Jimmy. Most of the finger pointing and fist shaking you see… is online.

You may have seen that poster set on Tumblr of all these real cultural peoples have this scowl on their face as some white guy dresses up like their stereotypical cultural icons, and then that one poster of the redneck and a white southerner giving that scowl like the black guy, or the asian girl, or the latino guy… what did everyone say about that shit?

White people want to be oppressed SO MUCH.

Well, this isn’t a white, or black, or brown or yellow thing… this is a cultural thing. If you want to make a statement about cultural appropriation, then you have to include ALL stereotypes, and when no one has a problem making fun of just ONE of them, then you all have to realize that we are ALL racist.

In some way, shape or form, everyone on the face of this planet is racist. And there is no “reverse racism”, it’s just racism… reverse racism would be “anti-racism” and that would be a good thing. So when people say “reverse racism”, I know without a doubt, that they are buying into this whole bullshit as well.

So what’s the real problem? Respect.

We as a human race, and let me just interject that the term RACISM is just fucking stupid. 99.9% of everyone who is watching this video is ALL of the same race, the human race. TRUE Racism would be making dogs our slaves. That is one RACE of creatures asserting their dominance of another RACE of creatures. Caucasians, Africans, Asians, Europeans, Australians, Latinos, ALL OF US, are humans, homo-sapiens, mammals.

The plight of the world is over a box of fucking crayons. WHITE is the best color, no BLACK is the best color, NO BROWN, no RED, no YELLOW… we have picked our superiority over skin pigmentation, which is all just a mutation of what it originally was. So when someone says, YOU NEED TO RECOGNIZE MY STRUGGLE, you know for a fact they are saying “my color’s life has had it much worse than your color.” It’s not even about who’s more superior anymore, it’s about who’s at the bottom, so the rest of us can pity them. While the true enemy is just laughing their asses off at us as they wipe their asses with another hundred dollar bill.

BUT… back to my main point. RESPECT is the real problem. We don’t respect one another anymore. There used to be a time where everyone just did their own thing, and didn’t meddle in anyone else’s business. Because we respected each other’s personal space, and also realize that we had enough shit to deal with than introduce a new facet into our lives just because we didn’t have a reality TV show, and weren’t famous for having sex on videotape.

I have lost count how many times I have made a point in these videos of mine, and suddenly, it becomes a battle on who’s life sucks more in the comments. FOLKS, HEY… shut the fuck up, the adults are talking here! You’ll have your turn when you raise your hand!

Here’s an example: In my video “Teenagers know everything about everything” I drew example from Louis C.K’s stand up, and had an entire spiel about how a 55-year old garbage man is WAY SMARTER than a 20 year with 5 degrees. Mainly because the garbage man has life experience and the 20 year old has had his nose stuck in books for 12 years trying to get his degrees. There shouldn’t be any argument that wisdom trumps intelligence any day of the week and twice on Sunday…. but wouldn’t you know it…. After all that I said in that entire video… those teenagers that think they know everything about everything took issue with that ONE THING, took it out of context and started spouting out hate and stupidity and “my life sucks more than yours does”. The funny thing was, is that they completely proved my point by just opening up their mouths. No respect, zero. They started fighting amongst themselves, it was ridiculous.

Well I’ve had it hard in my life, I was robbed on the street, and then I was stabbed, and I’m part jewish so my ancestors were murdered by the Nazis.

OH YEAH? well I’ve been robbed 5 times, in my home, and I was shot in the face and I’m black and even though my ancestors were never slaves, slavery still existed, so I win.

The entire time, the Shoshone is sitting over in the corner just shaking his head.

Some people will even go as far as MAKE IT about their culture when Culture has nothing to do with it. Case in point: One of my last videos “Sexuality & Gender”, and by the way, thank you all so much for making that a HUGE success. Not only was the video well received, but most of the discussions I had in the comments were fantastic…. most of.

I was flagged down by someone who started screaming about their Japanese-American culture and how this and that and that and this, and I was… WHOA WHOA WHOA Kenshi…. This video is about Sexuality and Gender… is had little to nothing to do with Culture. Besides, let’s look at what you are saying here. 5 bucks says you were born right here in USA. If that’s true… then, you’re just an American, and American with Japanese Heritage, but still… just an American. In fact, when you think of it… ALL OF US are immigrants. The first settlers were British, so The Native Americans are the only ones that can actually say they’re “Americas”, but not even that… they didn’t even call it America, it was just HOME. We’re the ones that called it America, and so since we settled here, gave it a name, we’re Americans. If you are born in a country, and live there, then you are a native of THAT country, not a native of your parents country. You don’t hear about Irish-Egyptians or Australian-Siberians… only in America do we do that, and I, for one, think it’s fucking stupid. Take pride in where you live, respect yourself, respect your land, respect everyone else.

I’m not saying disregard your heritage, hold onto that with a kung fu grip… THAT’S what makes us this fantastic melting pot. We share our heritage and culture with our neighbors. We teach others how to participate, if they are interested in participating. We don’t say “DUDE, YOU’RE NOT A SUMO, YOU’RE JUST A FAT GUY IN A DIAPER!” The fuck is the matter with you, teach them what is right, and WHY it’s right. Offer them the chance to learn, don’t scold them for trying, and making a mistake. Which leads me to my next point.

YOU DO NOT GET TO SAY THAT SOMETHING IS OFFENSIVE TO A CULTURE WHEN YOU ARE NOT PART OF THAT CULTURE.

Here’s what I mean. In Milwaukee, if you follow college Basketball, there’s a university in town called Marquette. They used to be the Marquette Warriors, but because some white fuck up thought the logo was offensive to ALL Native Americans in the Milwaukee area, they got it changed to the Marquette Golden Eagles. I remember this so vividly because of fucking stupid it was. The logo and mascot itself was of a native american indigenous to the Milwaukee Area. It was not slanderous, nor offensive in any manner. it was a simple yellow on blue silhouette of an indian in a traditional and accurate headdress. The white hoity-toity folk in the area said OH NO.. it’s offensive to native americans, it MUST come down… then some native americans were interviewed and said the exact opposite. It was tasteful, respectful and not poking fun at their culture and heritage. So, because the native peoples of the Milwaukee area were not offended by the logo, the school board voted to change the mascot from The Marquette Warriors, to the Marquette Golden Eagles.

The only people that were bothered by it were the people who were they farthest away from being confused as a native american, and those that were SUPPOSED to be offended, weren’t. Yet the mascot still changed and everyone was confused and up in arms over what the fuck just happened… and that’s when I lost my faith in humanity.

it doesn’t matter who is really offended by anything. it matters who has the loudest voice and the most money. THOSE PEOPLE can be offended all they want, and the world will bend for them no matter the cost.

So what’s the solution: well the solution isn’t an easy one since this is already a pretty rampant cluster fuck of a problem. Mind your own. If you think it MAY be offensive, ask someone who it should offend. If they aren’t offended by it, then drop it and move on. It is NOT your right to state what is offensive or non-offensive to other people. You can only say what is offensive to YOU, and that is probably the crux of the matter. People can’t leave their own hands to themselves, they always have to be poking around in other people’s business, which, honestly… is offensive to me.

The last thing I would like to talk about is blackface. Now there seems to be confusion on WHAT is blackface nowadays.

Blackface is a form of theatrical makeup used by performers to represent a black person. The practice gained popularity during the 19th century and contributed to the proliferation of stereotypes such as the “happy-go-lucky darky on the plantation” or the “dandified coon”. The definition itself is a little offensive itself… dandified coon… that makes me giggle.
NOW, [show picture of Al Jolson] THIS IS BLACKFACE. It’s a white person making fun of black people. Notice the wide smile, the white ring around the lips. BLACKFACE.

Here is a modernized version of Blackface, the makeup is toned down, but STILL, we are making fun of black people. BLACKFACE.

Here we have Garnet from Steven Universe, now I’m not going to go into how fucked up this fandom is because that’s not the subject, but I still want you to look at this cosplay here. This is pretty spot on. In fact, I would say this is best Garnet cosplay I have ever seen. it just so happens that under all of that, is a white girl. Now why isn’t this BLACKFACE?

Well, first off, it’s a cartoon character.

Second, I don’t see any ridicule or stereotype here. The detail this girl put into this costume is impeccable. The massive hair is glorious, the glasses, fantastic, the suit, marvelous, and the makeup… until someone told me, I couldn’t tell that this was a white girl. She honored Garnet by putting so much time and effort into this costume. She is not making fun of Garnet at all, and THAT’S why isn’t not blackface. Now, maybe if she had a hair pick, or a watermelon and fried chicken under her arms, then yes… this would be blackface, but she’s not. There is no stereotype, no insult, no racism, this is just a fantastic cosplay. But still, that didn’t stop the masses for jumping down her throat because one person yelled BLACKFACE, and everyone jumped at the chance to be the social hero. No one bothered to look up what blackface actually is, and no one bothered to learn that this girl isn’t even American. So in her culture, this may be even further from blackface, but since Tumblr thinks that the USA is the center of the known universe, and if you’ve seen Book of Life, you should know that it’s Mexico, they ripped her to shreds online.

Again, respect. There was absolutely none here. First off, the fandom is a piece of shit. HEY, if you think it’s cool to almost put a hotel out of business simply because it kinda-sorta resembled something in a FUCKING CARTOON, then YOU ARE A PIECE OF SHIT FANDOM. If people can’t draw the fan art that they want to in their own style because it’s not CANON and they fear that you will label them bigots, then YOU ARE A PIECE OF SHIT FANDOM.

It boils down to this: everyone on this god-forsaken rock is so caught up with being the hero, and saving our souls from damnation, that none of you even bothered to look around and see that no one, not one of us, actually needs to be saved. We’re all doing fine. Why don’t you mind your own business, before it’s too late, and turns into a past full of regret.