Cultural Appropriation Issue

Hey everyone. As some of you know, my family is throwing me a big Rockabilly Luau birthday bash this coming Saturday. We have a Facebook page for the event, so that friends can access the info and directions etc. I did not make the event page private when I created the event, and now I'm regretting it, as I'm told there is no way to change the privacy settings on an event after the fact.

I'm regretting it because there is an individual who is now accusing me on Facebook of cultural appropriation and racism for having a luau, since I am not of Hawaiian/Polynesian origin. She is urging me to cancel the event (which we are not going to do, of course), and unfortunately she is apparently in my local area, so it sounds like she very well might show up at the event and make a scene. Has anyone else had to deal with this issue in their tiki-related events or tiki culture pursuits? I'll paste below how I responded to her comments (several of my remarks re: feminism and hula girls were in direct response to her comments to me), but I'd be really happy to hear from anyone who has had to deal with this and how they've diplomatically responded to it. I don't want any drama at our event, and I'd really just like to have a nice, relaxed, stress-free birthday. But it looks like I might not have a choice in the matter. I would also really, really love to hear from Sven or anyone on the scholarly/historical cultural appropriation/colonization aspect.

Thanks so much,
Tara

Sep 7th, 10:57am
Hello. I'm not going to get into a big back and forth with you on this. I am a scholar of world religions and ethics and well aware of the cultural appropriation discourse. I have been involved in many PoMo womanist v feminist v pluralist debates. But if you'd taken the time to actually look at the event, it is a Rockabily party (and a private party, not a public event for public comment), which is distinctly and clearly American. The vintage hula girls on my page and invitations are American Rockabilly images, not Hawaiian women. Tiki culture was a large part of 1940s-70s American culture, closely related to Rockabilly roots, and a large part of my own personal history. I am celebrating my own personal history and culture. I would suggest reading the works of Sven Kirsten, a German scholar, who has studied the history of the spread of tiki culture across the world, to get a fuller picture of what you speak. As a side note, if you eat pasta or pizza or almost anything other than plain native fruit & veg, you are appropriating another culture. But it is eminently possible to do it with appreciation, respect, and an eye to the genuine historical roots.

Thoughtful people consider whether there is intent of malice before taking “offense”. I think this applies to the whole mid-century Tiki style in general.

Have a happy birthday!

Hi there, Sven Kirsten here - I think you already did a fine job with your response, particularly this part:

"...Tiki culture was a large part of 1940s-70s American culture, closely related to Rockabilly roots, and a large part of my own personal history. I am celebrating my own personal history and culture…."

Except maybe for the "closely related to Rockabilly roots" part :) - How much Rockabilly, Hot Rod, Fezzes and Burlesque culture play into Tiki Pop is a point of contention among Tiki purists and those who are not.

The key point is that we are re-enacting and thus honoring the social traditions of our own elders. Polynesian style was adopted by them out of a love and fascination for Hawaii and the South Seas, as paying homage to Polynesia - not as means to appropriate or degrade the original culture.

That one culture becomes fascinated by another culture has happened since the trade routes brought foreign wares from one continent to another (PIZZA might not be the best example :wink: ), and it WILL happen in the future - with little regard to absolute "authenticity", I'm afraid. That's part of the fun of it.

These people are just petty bullies who have latched onto the "cultural appropriation" fad to pump their own egos by calling others "racist". :roll: There's no "reasoning" with them.

Welcome to the world of "Political Correctness" & the mindset of "Micro Aggression"
where a whole generation can't handle free speech or free thought if it does not jive
with their own narrow worldview, if this person shows up, just call the police
because (she?) will be trespassing at a private event on private property.

but it has been my experience that these types of people are all talk
especially when they can remain anonymous talking heads on the internet.

Agreed with what's said above and your points as well. Enjoy your birthday next week and don't let someone else's self-righteous ignorance hinder your celebration. AND if they do show up, I'm sure the police will assist in removing trespassers from your property. :wink:
Cheers and happy birthday!
:drink:

If you acknowledge Trolls, you've already lost, that's exactly what they want, to draw you into their little world of self-hate. Ignore them.

You could also delete the original event and recreate a private one...

I only have one problem with the event. I didn't get an invitation.

Tell her to stop 'concern trolling' you. And if she shows up call the cops.

Or, you can reverse troll her if you have a mind to. Tell her she's suppressing your freedom of expression, and imply that she is oppressing you in some way. Just remember to post the results here, lol.

Wow, I guess some folks need a hobby. I imagine it won't be Tiki...

Seems you handled it just fine. I would consider cancelling that event posting and setting up a new private one as the poster above said. Otherwise you never know who might show up at your house. If this person is "offended" they could try to make things hard on you simply by promoting your event. Hard to enjoy your day if 200 strangers show up expecting a party. Then you can block her and she has no more means of contact.

Hmmmmm....I had a bagel this morning for breakfast.

Taco Bell for lunch.......

Spaghetti with meatballs for dinner.....

Not sure of the bagel, but I'm sure Taco Bell is a Mexican and the Spaghetti is as Italian as any meal at a Tiki establishment is Polynesian (probably more so, since they are kinda based on Mexican and Italian cooking, as Tiki came from Cantonese, left field).

Shoot, many years ago I was sitting in the break room at work enjoying a piece of beef jerky while wearing a leather motorcycle jacket when I learned that another coworker in the room was Hindu.....that was a bit discerning. I actually apologized if it offended her, but she said she wasn't.

My Dad's side of the family is of German decent. Last time I went to the Oktoberfest celebration here in Port St. Lucie I notice quite a few folks who were not of German decent. I guess I forgot to be offended. From the looks of the others putting on the event, they must of forgot too.

My wife is from the Philippines.....

There's all sorts of "Cultural Appropriation" going on in the US....that's why it's called a Melting Pot. If all these folks had their way, we'd all be in our own little neighborhoods and not intermingling in any way.....and that is pretty racist to me.

howlinowl

[ Edited by: howlinowl 2015-09-07 16:09 ]

Thanks so much everyone for your replies! And for the bday wishes!

Sven, thanks for answering! And thanks for reining me in. Yes, I guess I was stretching a bit. The two are intimately intertwined in my mind--and to a large extent in my personal history--but, historically speaking, the link is certainly more tenuous. And yes, pizza just jumped to mind in the moment, but in follow up I used examples like kitchari and kvass, which have one particular cultural origin, but have become a household name in the US (at least here in Vermont!). Though it didn't really seem to matter--anything I said fell on deaf ears. I wish my words about my own personal history and culture had been received by her, but they were merely met with vitriol. But many thanks for your input and encouraging response.

Ukutiki, all you wonderful Tiki Central folks are invited! Though I imagine Vermont is quite a road trip for most of you :wink:

I continued to receive increasingly harassing messages from this individual today, until I had to resort to turning off all messaging on the page and blocking her from seeing my personal profile, as it became obvious by her remarks that she was cyber stalking me (hopefully only cyber...). Sadly there seems to be no way to block her from the page, unless she posts publicly, and all of her communication thus far has been in messages. So I have been seriously thinking about deleting the event page and creating a private one. My husband thinks I should just ignore her and not let her win by doing this, especially since the URL is on all of the invitations we sent out. But it makes me nervous. I wish she was just a nameless troll, as I could shrug that off, but sadly she apparently lives only minutes from me. I've since discovered that we have mutual acquaintances (on FB and in real life) whom she proceeded to contact today, and she urged them to pressure me, as well. I did contact our local police barracks today to check in with them, and they assured me that if she does come to the event and causes trouble, they will be more than happy to help. I'm really praying it doesn't come to that. I don't want any drama, just a relaxed, joyful birthday.

The whole experience has really saddened me, as we created the page (and our home tiki bar) because we host house concerts and other community events at our home. We don't make a penny off of any of it--it's just a way to connect with friends and neighbors and support local musicians. But I feel unsafe now, and like I should just take the whole page down and forget the whole thing.

But I'm trying my best to let it all go for now and just enjoy the birthday week and party preparations...I do love planning and organizing events! Thanks again everyone for your support and helpful words of encouragement! :)

Enjoy your birthday KKB. Soar like an eagle and don't let the buzzards get you down. As was mentioned earlier, most of this type of people are "slactivists", they harass people from their faceless computer screens and imagine that they are activist making a difference when they are actually pathetic slackers. Even though she is near, I think the chances of her actually showing are pretty slim.

This does serve as a reminder to all of us in the connected age that social media can be a blessing and a curse. It's so much easier than going door to door and inviting your neighbors. But it increases your chances of a crackpot finding you :(

PS - You might check into the cyber-bullying laws of your state to see if you are protected from this sort of activity.

I have plenty of good trolling buddies if you accidentally let slip who the person is.

On 2015-09-07 20:24, kkocka wrote:
I have plenty of good trolling buddies if you accidentally let slip who the person is.

I think you should take kkocka up on his offer.

Sorry to hear about the drama being sent your way regarding your event. I know it can be draining and a bummer. Since this person has elected to only contact you via messaging and not make public posts say's a bunch. Unfortunately it has become the norm now to become outrage or offended by something and use social media as a baseball bat under the guise of being diverse or politically correct when in fact you are just an intolerant coward. While time consuming and often difficult you have to use your own energy and time to give these people a dose of their own medicine. It's the only thing they will understand. I'm betting your mutual friends think it is BS as well. Recruit them in your efforts to call this person out. Post all that has been sent your way and let the chips fall where they land.

Your house parties seem really cool. We do the same thing at my house and bring bands in from Austin. It gives them an extra date along a run of shows and we get to expose our friends to music they would not get to see.

Keep your head and spirits up and make it your birthday month!!

To be honest, I'm surprised there haven't been more topics about confronting accusations of cultural appropriation on here. It's kinda' the vogue thing right now (especially after stuff like the Boston Museum of Fine Arts kimono fiasco). I'm also really sorry that you've had to deal with the darkest side of it, which is self-righteous moral crusaders who can't let a simple disagreement and/or misunderstanding rest, but feel the need to crusade against someone in real life... contacting friends and relations, places of employment and things like that. I'm a more classical liberal and the habit of modern moralists to incite Internet lynch mobs to exact vengeance for imagined slights scares the crap out of me.

Your response was good... The only problem was that there's typically no use trying to reason with people like that. They're out "win," not to discuss fairly and come to an understanding. My response might have been a more concise "then don't come... who are you anyways?"

What I figure is that there is a definite distinction between Tiki - a retro-American pop-culture experience - and actual Polynesian culture, and that it is entirely possible to be aware of that distinction while sustaining an interest in one, the other, or both. It is also possible to like Tiki while being cognizant of the actual social and economic challenges facing Polynesian-Americans. They aren't mutually exclusive and, honestly, Tiki isn't exactly a potent enough cultural force be actively oppressing anybody. The only time I feel a little bad about it is the gods in the Enchanted Tiki Room lanai, and even then I'm aware that, like, over 95% of Samoans are one type of Christian or another and most Hawaiians are either Christians, Buddhists or nothing in particular. I guess I typically prefer the imagery if it doesn't necessarily overlap with people's actual beliefs. I suppose it might be worth asking native Polynesians what they think of it, but in the mean time, I suspect we're all aware that Tiki and actual Polynesian culture are two wildly different things.

THIS:

On 2015-09-07 12:22, Loki-Tiki wrote:
If you acknowledge Trolls, you've already lost, that's exactly what they want, to draw you into their little world of self-hate. Ignore them.

You could also delete the original event and recreate a private one...

From personal experience, there is no reasoning with Trolls. Period. You just go deeper & deeper with them, as the end game in mind for them seems to be only if you do EXACTLY what they want you to do (which you will never do & should not so) & the personal jollies they get out of trolling, which is a driver for them.

You would be best to stop engaging with the troll if you have not already done so. And, yes, consider making a new private event.

So, while, yes, your reply was good & the points made by Sven & others are spot on, there's really no point with a troll.

I hope you have a WONDERFUL party & do your best to not let this put a damper on any of your excitement. Have the police number ready to go in your phone & use it if you need to (hopefully not) - be prepared & all that.....but otherwise just really enjoy it all.

I too am surprised there aren't more stories of this. Next thing you know these "Social Justice Warrior" types will be picketing our favorite watering holes because they display "cultural insensitivity". Anyone who has any deep understanding of history knows that all cultures have taken pieces from each other through trade, migration, etc. American Tiki culture is (in my opinion) just a 20th century version of that. At the end of the day, these politically correct nincompoops wouldn't understand a good time if it hit them in the face. Don't let this person spoil your fun.

Save all messages from this person, just in case.

On 2015-09-08 16:29, SoCal Savage wrote:
I too am surprised there aren't more stories of this. Next thing you know these "Social Justice Warrior" types will be picketing our favorite watering holes because they display "cultural insensitivity".

On the plus side, there has been more and more resistance to them recently as well. The protests against the Boston MFA went over like a lead balloon, for example, and video gamers have been winning their fight despite having almost the entire weight of the mainstream media thrown against them. Luckily you can't really become a part of the Tiki scene unless you're actually into Tiki, which means any attacks on it will always be from outsiders and, for the most part, can be ignored (and generally ought to be).

On 2015-09-09 16:29, EnchantedTikiGoth wrote:

On 2015-09-08 16:29, SoCal Savage wrote:
I too am surprised there aren't more stories of this. Next thing you know these "Social Justice Warrior" types will be picketing our favorite watering holes because they display "cultural insensitivity".

On the plus side, there has been more and more resistance to them recently as well. The protests against the Boston MFA went over like a lead balloon, for example, and video gamers have been winning their fight despite having almost the entire weight of the mainstream media thrown against them. Luckily you can't really become a part of the Tiki scene unless you're actually into Tiki, which means any attacks on it will always be from outsiders and, for the most part, can be ignored (and generally ought to be).

Agree on everything you said. Funny thing is, up until this thread I thought that Gamer-gate was the most ridiculous example of this I had heard of!

aloha spirit

http://i.imgur.com/7wJPGKx.gifv

aloha spirit?
what about respect?
he looked, then went anyway.

Cultural Appropriation - lol

KKB, sounds like she is the racist one to me.

I would just grab your husband and knock on her door, personally. I guarantee she would back down right away if confronted in person. Then you will know who she is and what she looks like if you have issues with her and she will know that you know where she lives and that you aren't afraid of her or of confronting her directly.

This won't likely help much either, I agree with the others to just ignore this troll. She won't do anything to you in real life, I would have no fear of her ever coming to your party.

Have a good birthday and don't pay this person any mind. The best revenge for a troll is to act like she doesn't exist.

KKB,

1948 photo of a family enjoying their luau. Dad looks like a greaser.

On 2015-09-10 02:22, komohana wrote:

aloha spirit?
what about respect?
he looked, then went anyway.

Cultural Appropriation - lol

no idea

source = i dont surf

So if a person who is of Hawaiian/Polynesian origin has a birthday party and has a cake with candles to blow out where everybody sings happy birthday song with balloons and kids running around like wild banshees all American style should Americans get pissed off because they Appropriated OUR Culture?

Or maybe non Americans should not play Baseball, or eat apple pie and stop driving our evil
American cars.
No more Coke for you!
Bet she was wearing traditional American Culture clothing (Jeans) as she wrote you.

American Culture is way more Appropriated than others and respected way less
as well.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Thanks everyone! First chance I've had to respond with all of the event prep (and recovery/disaster zone clean-up!), but I really appreciated all of your comments and support. It helped a LOT when I was getting bombarded.

We were thankfully able to put it all aside and have a wonderful event. The Rockabilly Luau was a huge success! About 130 crazy Vermonters (and some surprise Bostonians) came to Rockabilly the night away until about 3am. We had an amazing band (Moxley Union) and my husband surprised me by putting together a house band of his own (The Moon Frogs! Our home is Frog Moon Hollow :) and performing a bunch of classic Rockabilly songs for me.

The cyber aggressor/stalker thankfully did NOT show up. Phew! I heard that she was thinking about it, but I told our mutual acquaintance that I had called the local police barracks to give them a heads-up, and that seemed to dissuade her. And the torrential downpour might have helped, as well :wink:

Thanks so much for the offer, kkocka! But I'm trying to just disengage completely. I just want her to leave me alone. Since I blocked her on FB, shut down messaging on our public page, made it so that I have to approve all comments on the page first, and our mutual friend told her that she would not be her message carrier anymore, things seemed to have quieted down. Crazy that we'd have to go to these lengths, but I guess that's one of the pitfalls of social media and the extreme openness it evokes.

tikilongbeach, GREAT photo! I love it!

I have been ruminating on the cultural appropriation issue more and more. As a student of comparative religion, I guess I've always been in this mix to some extent. I was the only white student in classes on African religion at both Temple U and Yale and the only non-Jewish student in classes on Jewish culture, identity, and literature. I've been an observer (and participant, when invited) in religions and cultural celebrations from Seder to vodou rituals to coming of age initiations and grieving/burial rituals in multiple traditions, and much, much more. In many cases, there was some reticence and hesitation at first, but in every case, once they saw that I had respect and appreciation and a genuine desire to learn, I was welcomed and encouraged. So after decades, my experience tells me that appreciation and respect are the key elements in this issue. If someone of a certain tradition, who I knew and respected, came to me and had an issue with it, then I'd welcome a dialogue with them and I'd want to hear what they had to say. But an out-of-the-blue cyber aggressor who is a total stranger (and has no connection to the tradition in question)? I think not.

Enough of the heavy stuff! Just for fun, coupla party pics: hubby and I in our '63 LeSabre and a few wacky friends taking over the bar and trying some "creative" mixing in the tiki lounge...

Glad to hear things went well! :tiki:

Just now reading this, so sorry you had to deal with a stalker. I am happy to hear that your party turned out well.

I just don't get the anger and bullying of others just because they don't like your color, religion, political beliefs, ethics, food choices, gender, level of education, the way you fart....etc. etc. etc. I am adopted and have no history to cling to which I think is an advantage in life. We all blend the things we like in this world into our core...that is the whole melting pot philosophy. If you respect diversity of any kind you don't put others down. I may not like a certain life style or belief system another person has, but it is not my place to harass them for it. Social media has made it easy for people to be mean to others, but on the flip side, it has also brought some of us together. I think your original responses were spot on, and good to have been pro-active by letting common friends know you have contacted the police to help prevent serious problems.

Good lesson learned from you about making your page private on FaceBook. Those are wonderful pictures you posted.

I thought this quote should go here...

"For four decades, the Kahiki drew in people from all walks of
life, uniting them around a shared fantasy. As tiki archivist Otto
Von Stroheim told a reporter upon the restaurant’s sad demise,"

“Nobody is offended by a luau.”