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That's what I might say if I was actually worried that the Irish would flip a shit because we dress up and drink one day out of the year. But then again, shouldn't they be in an uproar over this insensitivity? Or at least shouldn't the progressive, sensitivity police be making their rounds today?
We live in a culture that polices everything from words in elementary school (that aren't even swear words) to foods and drink you can consume to cultural activities you can take part in. Yet, when it comes to today, a great holiday celebrating an amazing saint in a fairly ironic way (watch Boondock Saints if you really want irony), the culture police are noticeably absent.
Not that I'm complaining since I don't want them around telling me I can't eat tacos and shouldn't root for a team called the Chiefs because I'm appropriating the culture of some minority.
And why would the Culture Police (CP) even be thinking about policing this day? I mean, come on, it's a traditionally white holiday and therefore can't be appropriated since white people control the world, right?
Wrong.
I could go on a diatribe about how the Irish have been oppressed many times throughout history (I'm looking at you England and the Americas) but I'm not going to since I know all of you can Google that. (Here's a bit of history to get you started)
Or I could tell you how anything, by definition, can be appropriated by anyone seeing as the definition of appropriation is to take or use (something) especially in a way that is illegal, unfair, etc. But what we are doing isn't illegal, and since it's all in good fun it can't be too unfair, right?
If only that were the case today for the liberal CP. Too many times have parades, celebrations and traditions been axed because of the possibility of insensitivity towards a minority. If we are going to allow the CP to police the world, make them do it for everyone. Make them shutdown Cinco de Mayo festivals, Halloween celebrations, secular Christmas and Easter traditions, Chinese New Years parades and Saint Patrick's Day festivities. It's only fair.
Better yet, we could just order people to not leave their homes and not talk to anyone from any other culture. We could implement segregation to be sure to not offend anyone by not letting anyone know about any other traditions except government controlled functions. Even better than that, we could implement districts where each cultural group is allowed to venture and anyone caught outside of that area would be imprisoned. Who's with me?
OR we could recognize the aspect of human nature that is curiosity. Embrace the fact that cultures do mix not only technology and people but customs and traditions (thus forming some awesome things like Chipotle, rock and roll, Chifa and basketball).
No cultures have ever mixed as much as has happened in the United States, that's why we get the nickname the "Melting Pot of the World," which is exactly why, here in the U.S., we should be the ones leading the charge in acceptance of mixed cultures and diverse ways of thinking.
Accusation of cultural appropriation can lead in a very slippery slope that ends in racial supremacy (see early America and Nazi Germany). The only real way to fight this is to do exactly what has been happening for the past few decades in the form of cultural mixing.
We don't need PC police telling us what we can and cannot say, do, eat or wear. What we do need is an acceptance that not everyone who wears Native American headdresses, Mexican sombreros, Leprechaun hats or celebrates Chinese New Year, Cinco de Mayo, or Christmas is necessarily doing it as a slight to the culture or as an active member of that culture but just because it is an act of cultural mixing.
Or we could go to racist Hunger Games Districts and pit cultures against each other in an Arena every year or so?
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