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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
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.

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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![/quote]

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. [/quote]

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 [b]the cultural appropriation argument is silly[/b].  What if you name your child after a dear friend from another culture?  That's not "cultural appropriation."

People making this argument don't understand cultural appropriation.

Cultural appropriation is not simply [u]using[/u] something from another culture.  :roll:  That is cultural diffusion. It is a normal part of human interaction. My seventh graders are studying this. Things you can do without any "white guilt":  
Use algebra.
Have a pinata at your 4 year old's birthday party. 
Eat bagels and lox.
Wear snowshoes.
Name your newborn "Nzinga" after the famous 17th century Angolan queen who defied Portuguese slavers.

Cultural appropriation occurs when this borrowing is[u] disrespectful[/u]. For example, "Columbusing": celebrating claims by a person of your ethnicity that her or she discovered something that people of another ethnic group have done for a long time. A good example of why this frustrates people of color is Miley Cyrus "twerking". My Chinese coworker says she finds it irritating when she sees whites and AAs with tattoos in Chinese characters and they can't tell her what the word or phrase is in Mandarin. Sometimes, they actually have a totally different concept inked on than they paid for.

Imagine the difference between 
1. a coworker adopting a technique that you created and your boss acknowledges as your work
2. a coworker adopting a technique that you created and using it to get a raise or promotion because your boss won't acknowledge that it is your work.

Many minorities are frustrated because cultural appropriation is a continuation of unfair practices in place for centuries. Many patents awarded to whites in the antebellum era were actually the inventions of slaves and free people of color, but their intellectually property could not be legally or socially recognized.

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This is all such bullshit. Please tell me that this isn't part of the 7th grade curriculum - that, instead,  this is your way of "padding" the guide with crap.

Cultural misappropriation stems from ignorance - not knowing the difference between the spoken Mandarin and Cantonese and trying to impress your in-laws with the wrong version. It's not intentional.

And do you honestly think that anyone intelligent (from any race or culture) would consider twerking a "black invention" to be proud of?  Furthermore, using the term "Columbusing" is both offensive and in this case, ironic.

Your other examples are plagiarism - intellectual theft.  This is intentional. Stealing patents from slaves and free persons is still plagiarism, unless you're defining the institution of slavery as a culture.

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The institution of slavery was a cultural practice. What do you think "culture" is? Musical compositions and architectural designs only. Every culture in human history has had some form of slavery with attendant beliefs, values, practices, and social frameworks.  So, yes, the institution of slavery was cultural and continues to inform US culture.[/quote]

Slavery as it existed during the period of European colonialism in the 1600s-1800s was appropriated from African culture.  Yes, Europeans took advantage of it and expanded on it, but they didn't invent it.[/quote]

Europeans had slavery long before they began importing Africans to the sugar islands during the period you specify. They simply got a supply of slaves from Africa and then applied their own cultural idea of slavery (lifelong chattel status of an ethnic other) to it. Neither Africans (those held in bondage) nor Arabs (the traders of African slaves) saw slavery this way.[/quote]

It wasn't just Arabs selling Africans into slavery, it was Africans as well...  And obviously they didn't value human life much to do so.[/quote]

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