February 22nd, 2018 @ 10:27 am
sheebs posted a tweet/RT from two other people on IG today, about basic/UO shopping lemmings just now exploiting and “appreciating” asian snacks, while she was (/they were) made fun of years ago for enjoying on the regs. i immediately related, but in a different way (which i also immediately felt bad about).
i can’t relate to cultural appropriation on any level at all. my father wasn’t in my life until i was 21, and my single mom didn’t raise me instilling any cultural traditions or anything. i’m 4 ethnicities between two parents, and i was mostly (barely) raised w the german and irish upbringing. my mother and her very large side of the family also never concentrated on cultural traditions. they weren’t raised that way, either. i think we were raised more as christians than irish/germans (and none of that religious nonsense for me anymore, thank you).
when sheena posted the thing about the snacks, my brain defaulted to my subculture, which i find more of my soul fabric than my own actual cultures. i feel like people might find that offensive, but hear me out.
i got bullied for being into all of that stuff when i was younger, bc kids are fucking jerks. now it’s all the rage bc of bullshit urban outfitters and F21, and MERMAID/UNICORN HAIR, etc. – i get defensive and angry about that. i always feel like it’s not comparable to cultural appropriation, because i don’t have punk blood running through my veins… well, the blood that i do have, from the roots of the places my ancestors came from – i really could care less about it. that sounds really stupid and disrespectful, bc had i grown up with those types of traditions, maybe i’d feel differently. the truth is, those ties are broken. there are now 3 generations of us between those times. even if i went to the little town in ireland where my grandmother and her ancestors were raised, how am i connected to that? i’m already 36, it’s out of reach. i don’t mean to disrespect my family history, but clearly, my family didn’t care.
anyways, i default to punk, but i suppose alternative is a better description of my lifestyle and culture. i was raised loving metal and gothy stuff, i found grunge and punk in my coming of age years, and started going to raves in my late teen years into my 20’s. that music and those concerts has always been there for me, through bad and through good. i’ve made tons of friends over the years through this subculture, and it means more to me than being italian, german, irish or polish.
i guess the point of this post is just that i hope if anyone else finds it, hey, you’re not alone if you feel this way also. i don’t think it’s so wrong comparing it to cultural appropriation. maybe it’s bc i’m a misfit kid from a broken, single parent household. i dunno, but i have absorbed a lot of culture over the years, and i’m happy to have it all in my heart, brain and expressed through my creativity.