Using a name from another culture / cultural appropriation

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes cultural appropriation is bad. So just to satisfy the liberal morons, you'll have to stop eating chinese food unless you're chinese. No spaghetti for you unless you're italian.

Ishare your sentiment and I'm about as liberal as the day is long. Maybe ease up a little with the broad brush?

It's maybe not so much the "broad brush" as it is the selective outrage over certain things while ignoring the fact that given America's nature as the melting pot of the world, we are an amalgamation and "appropriation" of all of the world's cultures. And it even goes farther back than that - the English settlers who came to America for example were themselves an amalgamation of Celtic, Roman, Germanic, Dane, Norse and other cultures and traditions all overlaid and interwoven with each other.

Again, unless something is directly and tangibly offensive in a very specific way (such as a derogatory depiction of Native Americans saying "how" and making tomahawk-chop motions or whites doing an exaggerated Al Jolson blackface) then it's not really all that relevant or meaningful of a discussion to be having.

[Anonymous]

PC has gone so far that its cannibalizing itself with this nonsense. As to salad versus pot - some.of us melt, some.of us mix - how dare we tell each other what to do or even think we have control over it? A melting pot also makes a delicious /stew soup. Ita not like a salad (which would be like the American ghetto neighborhoods my mom grew up in) is the only way to go. You can have both in different places at the same time. But when America itself gets ghettoized we are probably looking at calls for its breakup like Canada went through a few decades ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't get it. I was raised that the U.S. is a cultural melting pot, and that that's a good thing. Art, language, music, dance, and food all get better when influenced by other cultures. I can see the point of some cultural appropriation arguments -- for example, the demeaning "noble savage" view of Indians -- when the use is racist and causes real harm to how the target culture is treated, but a name does not belong to a particular culture, and especially if the name is of an admired artist.

I'd find a kid named Geronimo or Pocahontas odd regardless of the parents' background, but that's just because I haven't heard it very often. If I met a child named Running Horse, I might suspect the parents were a little loopy or trying too hard without some sort of Indian connection, but that's only what I think now. I thought the same thing the first time I ran into some of the old man/lady names that are very popular now.

I'm one of the AA moms above who doesn't care who uses what name. I also grew up with the melting pot analogy here in the US but I am glad that we have moved on more to the salad analogy. In a melting pot each individual ingredient is lost and everything becomes the same. In a salad each ingredient comes together to enhance and make the whole better, but each also still retains its individual nature.

Canadians describe themselves as a mosaic.

[Anonymous]

I am proud to be a "cultural appropriator". People who are not brain damaged fascists call it being cultured and cosmopolitan.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
My children have one name for each of their direct ethnic origins. They look like they belong to just one ethnicity in particular, so most people probably wonder a bit when they give out the first name they use, which doesn't visibly correspond to their face!

I could not care less. Go right ahead and use a name you love.

My child is 1/2 Indian 1/2 white, and has an Indian first name but looks completely white. When he went to a birthday party with his (white) dad, one of the (Indian) parents asked DH why his son had an Indian name! I guess that won't be the last time!

All half-half indian/white boys I know that have indian first names have ones that are as 'least indian' as possible - like Neel.

I'd be curious if you named your son something ultra indian like sivakumar or balakrishnan.

anyways this topic doesn't pertain to you as you are not appropriating from something outside of your culture or your dh's culture.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't get it. I was raised that the U.S. is a cultural melting pot, and that that's a good thing. Art, language, music, dance, and food all get better when influenced by other cultures. I can see the point of some cultural appropriation arguments -- for example, the demeaning "noble savage" view of Indians -- when the use is racist and causes real harm to how the target culture is treated, but a name does not belong to a particular culture, and especially if the name is of an admired artist.

I'd find a kid named Geronimo or Pocahontas odd regardless of the parents' background, but that's just because I haven't heard it very often. If I met a child named Running Horse, I might suspect the parents were a little loopy or trying too hard without some sort of Indian connection, but that's only what I think now. I thought the same thing the first time I ran into some of the old man/lady names that are very popular now.

"Cultural melting pot" is not a microagression. Keep up with the times!

[Anonymous]

But who are the people who care about this stuff?

[Anonymous]

Blacks created their own names so that they did not have to appropriate white culture.

White conservatives routinely mock this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm white (Italian and WASP) and we gave our DD a Russian name that can Americanize. I don't think I'd have given her a stereotypically black name.

Why did you say that? Are you just trying to cause trouble.

[Anonymous]

Whoever it was that started this nonsense about "cultural appropriation" is a twit with not one actual clue about culture, heritage or history - and I say that because virtually EVERYTHING about modern American culture has been appropriated from some other culture.

[Anonymous]

I'm Italian American and have met about 4 Asian "Dominic"s this past year alone.

I think it's great. The more we share our cultures, the more we have in common and the less differences there will be to fight over.

(My kids have very non-Italian names because the names are from DH's culture, which is far from the white American cultural norm!).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm white (Italian and WASP) and we gave our DD a Russian name that can Americanize. I don't think I'd have given her a stereotypically black name.

Why did you say that? Are you just trying to cause trouble.

Yeah, Italian American here. That's a really rude thing to say. SMH

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm white (Italian and WASP) and we gave our DD a Russian name that can Americanize. I don't think I'd have given her a stereotypically black name.

Why did you say that? Are you just trying to cause trouble.

Yeah, Italian American here. That's a really rude thing to say. SMH

I'd love to see a black ethnic Russian LMAO

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am proud to be a "cultural appropriator". People who are not brain damaged fascists call it being cultured and cosmopolitan.

People who are not brain-damaged call it pretentious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
My children have one name for each of their direct ethnic origins. They look like they belong to just one ethnicity in particular, so most people probably wonder a bit when they give out the first name they use, which doesn't visibly correspond to their face!

I could not care less. Go right ahead and use a name you love.

My child is 1/2 Indian 1/2 white, and has an Indian first name but looks completely white. When he went to a birthday party with his (white) dad, one of the (Indian) parents asked DH why his son had an Indian name! I guess that won't be the last time!

All half-half indian/white boys I know that have indian first names have ones that are as 'least indian' as possible - like Neel.

I'd be curious if you named your son something ultra indian like sivakumar or balakrishnan.

anyways this topic doesn't pertain to you as you are not appropriating from something outside of your culture or your dh's culture.

What an odd response. Actually, he does have a obviously Indian name that has been in my family for generations. I'm guessing that's why the Indian parent asked my DH about it, because if he had said our son's name was "Neal" it wouldn't have sounded like an Indian name. The reason I posted is because someone looked at my son and his dad and didn't know me, and thought it was odd that a white child had an Indian name.

I agree PPs that the cultural appropriation argument is silly. What if you name your child after a dear friend from another culture? That's not "cultural appropriation."