UW kicks off 'Year of the Arts' with performances, parade from The Badger Herald on Vimeo.

Ayyy Folks,

So I found this video a while ago, but have yet to have a chance to really process what the Year of the Arts means for our campus. While I appreciate some of our staffs dedication to changing the rather dull and drunken culture here, I find some problems with it.

If you have engaged with my music on any level, you might have noticed that my politics and art have beautifully intimate sex. I see art as an inherently political tool and I find cultural art forms even more important to disrupting the white-hetero-male supremacist ideologies of American culture.

The idea of cultural appropriation challenges me hella! As a indigenous pacific islander in MEChA, I find myself questioning when it is appropriate to participate in certain cultural practices: Son Jaracho, Cumbia dances, and corridos. I am definitely, still asking myself a ton of questions about it and havent come to many solid conclusions, but I guess I have a few.

I think white people need to stop using other people's culture as an outlet for your their own expression. Yes, people of color can own things, and our culture is one of them. Taking from our culture and using it to deal with your own guilt or whatever it is that drives you to think you have the right to access our culture contributes to a "racist society that believes people of color and our lands, bodies, cultures, and spirit are up for grabs" (Colin Kennedy Donovan and Qwo-Li Driskill's "Answers for White people on appropiation, hair, and anti-racist struggle").

One thing I have learned about white supremacy in the United States is that it has never been a solely person of color problem. White supremacy encourages white people to give up their own cultural roots in exchange for the opportunity to identify with an american culture. Fuck that, next time you find yourself deciding to take an African Dance Class, or want to cut your hair into a Mohawk or get locks why don't you instead ask yourself, "Where is my culture?" "How am I neglecting my own ethnic roots" "What kind humanity am I denying myself by refusing to connect to my own ethnic roots and traditions"

[EDIT A couple of more thoughts/questions from one of the conversations that came out of this post - big ups to the homie christan beltz for probing me and helping me grow:

At what point do people become "resources" to white people - at what point do classes/spaces stop being about the community (specifically people of color in this context) and when do those spaces start primarily serving white people?
he whole world serves white people, ya dig? so why do people of color spaces, classes, etc - get co-opted and turned into a resource that white folks use for their own benefit rather than benefiting their community.

maybe thats a piece for me too, if a white person taking an african dance class for example - what can they do to serve or give back to the community that taught them that in an honest, humble, anti-racist way?]


Want some more resources? This zine offers great answers and ideas about how to be an white ally and confront cultural appropiation: www.zinelibrary.info/files/dread.pdf

And, this is how I feel about seeing so many white folks practicing people of color culture all over campus. Please, don't do it again.

Skip to 1:35 if you just want to peep my lil cameo.