You know what I can’t stand? Chinese violin and piano players. [1]
The violin (as we understand the instrument today) and especially the piano are utterly western inventions. They are utterly inseparable with the development of western music, and thus art, and thus culture.
Ditto Japanese blues guitarists, and Arabic hip-hop artists and African opera singers, and the like. [2]
When, say, Asian or African or Arabic people put on tuxedoes and sit in philharmonic orchestras, and do art assocated with western civilization, while not being actual westerners who grew up thoroughly marinated in the culture, they are essentially playing in “whiteface”, pretending to be western. They have no concept of these artifacts of western culture – they don’t gather for jam session in garages, they don’t sit on street corners in the Bronx, they don’t know the feeling of Renaissance-era Italy.
“Wait”, you say – “adopting parts of other languages and cultures into one’s own is an essential part of humanity!”
Huh.
OK. I guess you could say so.
But tell it to this joyless slagathor at the apparently-racist, nativist rag Salon. Who has, by the way, adopted a form of communication – the “opinion piece” – that is not native to her ethnic culture. Why is she turning my culture into a white-face minstrel show? [3]
[1] Not really . This is satire.
[2] See 1, above.
[3] It’s her logic, not mine.
Liberals do not believe in racial equality. Instead they believe that the government, run by a bourgeois elite, should determine which races should be privileged and which should be de-privileged.
Liberals do not believe in economic equality. Instead they believe that the government, run by a bourgeois elite, should determine who shall and who shall not be granted wealth.
Liberals should never be granted the high ground of “fairness”. They don’t deserve it.
The comments to the article are great. But I can see her point. Everytime I am in North Mpls and see blacks kids with accordians and tubas, playing polka tunes, I feel like they have stolen my peoples culture.
Good guess as to why the Salon gal doesn’t like the white gals dancing – she’s a fugly otha mucka and the thin (notice that?) white chicks were not.
Browning shotguns made in Japan where firearms are strictly prohibited, ethnic restaurants staffed by those not of the restaurant’s culture, Malaysian-made
Stratocasters marketed by Fender, and finally a certain high ranking government official who claims an all-American heritage when he actually was not raised within that culture (no, I do not mean Kenya).
Just for kicks, I looked up the origins of “raqs Sharqi”, and apparently they borrowed liberally from other influences around the world.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raqs_sharqi
More or less, her objections to white people doing this are akin to a white man objecting to a black man playing rock & roll–painting himself into a neat little corner where he has to ignore Chuck Berry and a host of bluesmen that came before, and gave inspiration to, the truck driver from Tupelo.
Joe- Do you think that Obama celebrated the Fourth of July growing up?
It’s also worth noting that the Arabic dance of origin, called “ghawazi”, was practiced by those who were not welcome in a well run harem–in short, they were courtesans of the most disreputable type, welcome at seedy bachelor parties and the like, but not elsewhere. So apparently it’s OK in her view for Arabic women to portray themselves this way, but not Caucasians.
Either that, or she has absolutely no clue about this artifact of Egyptian culture. I’ll be gracious and go with that.
Joe, Pow. I visited the Hoover library in Iowa a couple of years ago. They had an exhibit on the childhoods (through college) of Presidents Harding through Bush 43. Other than rich bluebloods FDR and Kennedy, I was amazed at what normal childhoods these great men had. Were involved in sports, were in school plays/drama classes, Boy Scouts, summer camps, church, lifeguards, school bands, part-time jobs, and yes, marched in July 4th parades. And most then went into the military. They excelled at what they did, but these men grew up doing much of the same things my friends and I did. They grew up around normal common people, and were immersed in America.
That made me think about Obama. First living in Indonesia, being raised by an Atheist anti-American mother. Then spending time on the beaches of Hawaii, going to an elite private school, doing pot and cocaine. He says he wants to fundamentally change America. I suppose the America that Harry Truman, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton are from is foreign to Obama.