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There are no easy answers here. That should be obvious.
There isn't any easy way to talk about this subject.
Over the last five weeks, I've realized that covering cultural appropriation in five posts is pretty foolish.
Still, you work with what you've got.
I've tried to start this post for several days, and each time it has gotten too long and I didn't get to the point.
So, I'm going to put the point of the post at the beginning. I know, that's backward. That way if the post gets long, I'll just cut the rambling nonsense.
How To Be An Ally In Your Own Work!
1. Do the research. Find out what you can about a story.
2. If your story comes out of a marginalized culture, find storytellers - you notice I have suggested going to more than one person - and find out whether or not it is okay for you to tell that story. They might be fine with it so long as you give proper context or credit. They might not.
3. Pay attention to how you introduce the story. Are there elements of the story that seem odd or unusual. Find out more about them.
4. Find variants of the story. Compare them.
5. Be aware of the language. How are you talking about the story? How are you describing the people? Are you offering context by the people who told the story or the people who told about the people who told the story?
6. If you are working with a story from history, find the story's origin. There are historical anecdotes and references that were made up by the "victors" but do not come out of the cultures about which they are told. Don't spread colonializing, degrading nonsense in the guise of history.
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For instance: How many people actually know who Pocahantas was? How much of what we were taught about her is accurate and how much of it comes out of John Smith's complete misunderstanding of what was going on around him?
I was trying to find images of this young woman. She died at the age of twenty or twenty-one. This is supposedly a good likeness of her. I don't know.
As for the other images I've seen, they are either romanticized images of her or images of other women who people thought were her.
How do you tell this story? What exactly do you tell?
Are there more rules of thumb for dealing with this difficult subject?
I have no doubt.
Do I have any idea what they might be?
Not a bit. I suppose I could keep coming up with them, but I'm pretty sure that wouldn't be helpful to anyone. Myself included.
Was I an idiot to try to tackle this huge topic in five blog posts?
Yes, most assuredly.
As I talk to people do I realize that there is so much more to say, learn, and do??
Yes. Definitely.
Could I write posts about this for the next couple of months and expand on the topic in never-ending spirals?
Yes.
Do I have any interest in doing that?
Absolutely not.
You might ask:
If this is such a difficult subject, you didn't want to write it, and it involves a never-ending conversation, why did you do this?
Good question.
I've had some conversations with other people from marginalized cultures and discovered many of us have the same thought about this subject:
We Are Tired!
We feel like we keep coming up against people who get upset when we don't tell them what they want to hear about cultural appropriation. What they want to hear seems to be, "Do what you want."
If you don't say that, they argue you blue trying to tell you why they can do whatever they want.
We need allies. We need people to care enough to do the work themselves. We need people to understand why it is important.
All of us, whether or not we are from marginalized cultures, can learn to be better in the way we use language and images to share thoughts and stories.
My blinders are as debilitating as yours. I am as unable to see what I can't see as you are unable to see what you can't see. In so many ways we are the semi-blind leading the semi-blind. If we work at this together, all of us will see better.
This gets into another topic that could take months: Privilege.
I'm not even going to touch that.
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To everyone who wants to be an ally, thank you!
Let us keep on keeping on.
Talk to me.
I'll talk to you.
Let's learn this as a community.
Happy Telling!
Part 1 - Cultural Misapproriationis A Better Term: Some Thoughts
Part 2 The Cost of Cultural Misappropriation: Invisibility
Part 3 - Cultural Misappropriation Is Easy To Do: The Accidental Appropriator
Part 4 - How Do You Know If You Don't Know Enough?
Part 5 - What Does It Look Like to be an Ally in Your Own Work?
Yes! So many of the conversations we need to have as a culture are complex and layered and could take months or years to fully address but keeping silent isn't a solution either. Thank you for your insightful discussion and the time and energy you put into addressing it so well.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for this wonderful series, Donna. I have learned so much. I have heard some people suggest that "accomplice" is a better term than "ally." Ally both has a remove and a sense of being in an equal but different place, where recognize a border and still go our separate ways. "Accomplice" has this nice sense, in relation to the struggle for dignity and recognition of marginalized people, that they are in the lead, and those with various privileges need to listen to those leaders and do what they can to accompany them and support them in their struggle, to be of service at their direction and not just proceed alongside them...
ReplyDeleteWow,, this was fantastic to read Donna. Thank you for putting your thoughts and experiences out there. I have learnt from others such as yourself, to approach stories from many of the ways that you speak of, although obviously, their will be a great deal that I miss. Currently I am tending to tell stories that reflect my geography of ancestral landscape and of experiences. However as a storyteller, I am greatly interested in other cultures and customs etc. I love some stories from other cultures. You have got me thinking about what stories that I choose to tell or leave alone and why. I realise that along my long path of learning about stories and their power to do so many things. I realise that I am attracted to stories that have a strong human, artistic/artisan or nature element that I can relate to. These stoires sometimes come from other cultures. Research has often helped me, I can get lost down a rabbit hole gathering information for hours. I have learnt that most of my best stories (according to others) are the ones where I feel a strong connection. Even if they are from another culture. To conclude, what I think you highlight for me, is that I/we need to be frequently engaged in asking questions of ourselves and of others via research and respectful through conversations, as to should we be telling a specific story and why. The more we discuss cultural miss-appropriation or the ignorance of such, the more we learn.
ReplyDeletePS, I have also learnt over time to drop stories that I either dont understand or have no inner feel for. Very occassionally this can be difficult, if we are commisioned to do a piece of story work. I rememebr being asked to tell an ancient Mayan story once for a school project on Mayans.
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