Joe Hefferon
Aug 25, 2017 · 5 min read

Short answer to the question in the title: No. More appropriate answer: The whole idea of cultural appropriation in overused and misleading. As an example, we’ve seen students angered by Taco Tuesdays at the college cafeteria because the school is appropriating Mexican culture. I saw a video of a young woman screaming at a young man at a college because he had dreadlocks. She and a male friend blocked his path and wouldn’t let him walk away (the right thing to do) until she vented,demanding he shave. No doubt they put this kid in fear for doing what he only thought was cool and never intended to cause harm, but her violent over-reaction did. These pocket outrages water down legitimate complaints of what you’ve termed in the past as inadvertent racism or purposeful cultural and ethnic debasement and discrimination.

I’ll be all over the place here but I’m busy and squeezing this in because I respect your opinions; I’ve read other pieces by you.

The idea that people who aren’t Buddhists shouldn’t incorporate elements of the religion into their lives is to deny history. I’m an atheist but spent twelve years in Catholic school. As Christianity spread north and west through Europe the proselytes incorporated existing pagan symbols into their preaching as a way to demonstrate commonalities in those they hoped to convert. Similar things happened with Buddhism as it spread north into Tibet and then across China into Japan. Certainly the brand of Buddhism practiced in Japan is markedly different from that practiced in India. Was it cultural appropriation then? I think it was the evolution of ideas.

Sharing each other’s food, music, habits and language is how we assimilate and evolve. Should we not have a pizza night at the firehouse because we are appropriating Italian heritage? Or wait, the Italians should not be allowed to eat pasta because they got it from the Chinese and as long as we’re on the subject, we should cancel all fireworks displays because…China.

Travel through any port city such at Marseilles or look at the history of trade cities such as, Kathmandu, and you’ll find an eclectic melding of cultures, habits and restaurants that have all, over time, incorporated the new and curious into their existing cultures.

I mentioned I’m an atheist but I find I like the teachings of the Dali Lama. He speaks to me when he talks about looking at a situation with compassion because every past and future decision is in that moment and we shouldn’t and couldn’t (possibly) judge all those decisions so what is best is to do the kind thing in the moment. If I am drawn to his teachings about kindness and begin to incorporate books, wisdom in the form of prayers or even symbols of Buddhism into my life, is that cultural appropriation or the beginnings of a conversion? Would you deny me that enlightenment in this one short life I have?

You can’t conflate the headless Buddha with appropriation. Every religion deals with violence and disgrace of their religions. Look at the way ISIS has slaughtered the Yazidis. Christian creches are regularly defiled during the christmas holidays, Muslims have been driven to homicide over cartoons about Muhammad and do we even need to discuss the current crop of nazis who offend Jews in a way you and I can’t possibly fathom? None of these things have anything to do with cultural appropriation yet you conflated them, I imagine, as a way to link hatred with assimilation.

What I mean is, societies have, since the dawn of societies, taken in parts of other cultures that they found interesting, enlightening, useful or just fun. We continue to do this today. Check out the Thanksgiving feasts of ethnic cultures around the US and you’ll find lasagna served the turkey and pho alongside the sweet potatoes. This is how life works; there’s nothing inherently wrong with it.

I should mention I have an adopted Asian son. He was born in Vietnam. Yes, I am more sensitive to Asian cultures than I was fourteen years ago and better off for it. I cringe at the way people lump all Asian cultures together or assume everyone who looks Asian is Chinese. When I say things like, “actually, she’s Japanese,” I’m met with responses like, “same shit.” I can’t tell you how that kind of ignorance infuriates me because the same people get pissed off if I offer, “Italians, French, Portuguese? Same shit.” Somehow they can see those differences but can’t see the Asian ones. It’s frustrating but I would never tell my son the best way to fix it is to smash windows in the town square. No one wins with that kind of action.

All racism, discrimination, hatred and violence are bad things unless you are immediately protecting yourself or the life of another, in the moment, not as a cultural imperative. Inadvertent racism should be discussed and pointed out as a way of edifying people, not slamming them because they don’t understand. I am a former cop and for a few years had a black partner. We spent many nights discussing all aspects of life, including racism. From him I learned many of the subtle things that are done to or around black people that are offensive and I’m a better person and father because of what he taught me. He didn’t need to hit me with a pipe to get his point across. I’ve read your defenses of violence and I’m struck by someone who on one hand, defends Buddhism, a religion of non-violence and on the other hand applauds situational violence as a justified means toward a worthy end. I’m curious how you can compartmentalize these things and I disagree with you but that’s a subject for another time.

Sheesh, I wasn’t going to go on like this but here I am. I wish you nothing but peace and happiness going forward and I hope we can all learn to relax and see what binds us rather than what defines us. However, I have little hope. People have been horrible to others since there have been people on the planet; I don’t see it all suddenly changing. However, adding more violence to the mix won’t help and feeling entitled to a culture or religion to the point of forbidding others to partake only builds walls, not bridges.

Stay well, Kim.

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