We have seen rising violence and intolerance on our colleges and universities as some students seek to prevent speakers and claim an ever-widening array of “microaggressions” and cultural appropriations. The latest occurred during a basketball game where a player was attacked due to wearing braids that 20-year-old Hispanic student, Carmen Figueroa, claimed to be cultural misappropriation.
Figueroa pleaded not guilty to charged of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and disorderly conduct. She was arrested after the attack at Hampshire College’s Robert Crown Center on January 27. Figueroa allegedly told the players at the Central Maine Community College women’s basketball team and told them to remove braids from their hair as“cultural appropriation.” When the players refused, police say that Figueroa assaulted one of the students. She was allegedly assisted by another Hampshire College student, who pulled the hair of one of the players. Figueroa is accused of stepping on the student who fell to the ground and further injuring her. She is quoted as screaming racial slurs and abuse and trying to punch the players.
This incident followed an incident at Pitzer College where white female students to warned to take off big hoop earrings as cultural appropriation. Two Latina students were responsible for the warnings.
We also discussed earlier how a students at Oberlin declared the serving of sushi as cultural appropriation while a white student was assaulted at San Francisco State University for wearing dreadlocks by an African American student.
The belief that students can demand changes in the clothing of other students is a predictable extension of the growing levels of speech restrictions on our campuses. After if you can determine what students or speakers cannot say, why not dictate what they cannot wear?
Succinctly put. I miss the 1960s liberals, those flower-child waifs who were wide-open rebels against the cultural police and against walls of cultural separation. Today’s liberals have become the cultural police, and in an almost nauseating reversal are advocating walls and checkpoints between demographic groups.
I hope to have more to say about this later, but let me offer the following:
1. Freedom of expression and association under the First Amendment protect my right to wear corn rows, hoop earrings or clothes pins up my nostrils if I so choose (subject only to extra-judicial veto power which my wife capriciously and arbitrarily claims from time to time). That anyone to whom I am not married may find that offensive is of no legal consequence.
2. Cultural appropriation is a false notion. Culture is dynamic; it invites appropriation. The history of this country is a chronicle of cultural appropriation. Any claim of cultural ownership, or of exclusive use and enjoyment of a particular cultural tradition ought to be summarily rejected as ignorant and dangerous.
Showing how little their is to do at snowed in New England Liberal Arts Colleges in the Winter Months. Middlebury come to mind?
One must try and differentiate between valid concerns for cultural expressions, expressions that enrich all lives, and psychotic behavior that latches on to anything where and when ever. These imbeciles could just as easily be ranting and raving at a white supremacy gathering or the rally of some political buffoon, catch my drift. I don’t think the subject matter is that integral with the behavior. A psycho is a psycho is a psycho.
I remember when I was in the fourth grade and wanted to wear my guns to school. The teacher had warned against this and made me put them in my cubby hole. I was embarrassed; as any nine year old understands, chrome matching cap guns in leather like holsters with lots of bling are de rigor. I should have shot her t*ts off. But I didn’t.
Oh my gosh, Isaac, your post made me roll. Did you have the matching badge, too? That must have been cute.
“I should have shot her t*ts off. But I didn’t.”
Cute? Made you roll? There is nothing cute about this comment. It is rather disturbing, truth be told. “I should have shot her t*ts off.” Let that sink in. There is nothing “cute” about this comment.
It’s about marginalizing white people and labeling them as THE racists so it becomes socially acceptable to censor, discriminate and assault them with impunity while claiming victim status.
Is this “marginalization” crock what the Trump voters believed? Is this how that clown won?
Now, what if Caucasian ladies violently attacked African American ladies who straighten or color their hair, or who buy hair donated by women in India to a temple which then turns around and sells it, completely taking advantage of them? Hmmm? Unless it’s natural hair, it’s “cultural appropriation.” How dare they! The outrage! Cultures don’t share! If you travel overseas you had better not buy a single souvenir, learn a single recipe or cocktail, or a local song, or buy any local music, or else you are a darned cultural appropriator!
OK. This is stupid. It’s just an excuse to bully Caucasians.
If not for “cultural appropriation”, then none of us would have the wheel, or fire, except for the tribes who invented it, who would have probably died out by some plague or Smilodon, and their invention would die with them.
I thought we were all supposed to be one big happy melting pot. That’s why we have Celtic jewelry, Mexican restaurants, hoop earrings, Bo Derrek’s braids in Ten. The current style of dressage show boots is the Spanish top, but we’re not all Spanish, and the “Spanish Riding School” of Lipizzaner fame is is Austria. Why do we have Rodeo Drive, Buccaroo (from vaquero), and most of my music collection is from around the world.
Without “cultural appropriation” the whole Fare Trade cottage industry is going to fold. You can’t exactly buy a fair trade alpaca wool poncho or skirts made from sari remnants if you are not allowed to dress outside of your own “culture.” And what is a Caucasians’s “culture”? Do I have to dress is Scottish tweed because I have Scott ancestry, even though it’s rather hot here? Or should I dress German?
This whole “cultural appropriation” bullying is just violent racism, and should be universally condemned.
People wouldn’t engage in such behavior if they faced consequences, and the ridicule and censure of the general public. Instead, the Left praises such racism, so they feel brave and daring when they are really just racist.
If you’re Caucasian, then you should dress like people in the Caucasus. I’m not sure what they wear, but I’m sure it’s mightily attractive. 😂
And as for the Puerto Rican SJW, I wish the U.S. would divest itself of Puerto Rico. I can’t see that we have gained much from open borders with that mess of an island.
The youth in question is from Brooklyn.
The “youth” is a 20 year-old adult woman who says she is Puerto Rican. She lived in Brooklyn with her illegitimate child before she left to attend Hampshire College.
Females of 20 are not typically functional adults and this one certainly isn’t. You can call me Scotch-Irish, even though I’ve never set foot in Ulster.
You must come from an upper-income background which allows for extended adolescence well into the 20s. Me, I got my first real job at 15 and was out on my own and self-supporting at 18. Most blue-collar young adults are emancipated by 18; either in the military or working after high school graduation. When I was in the Air Force we got tremendous responsibility for our ages, typically 18-21. When you get our you’re an adult; then you go to college with “kids” who have more financial and cultural resources but are amazingly immature. The western luxury of extended adolescence has some advantages in terms of educational and professional opportunities, but the general impression of millenials, the most coddled generation ever, is not good.
BTW, it is Scotts-Irish, not Scotch like the tape. 🙂
TIN – it is Scots-Irish, only one T.
Thanks, Paul.
You must come from an upper-income background which allows for extended adolescence well into the 20s. Me, I got my first real job at 15
Well, bully for you. I live in a world that is, and in a world that is, youngsters of 20 are not typically financially self-supporting. They commonly have jobs, but the jobs provide them with a share of living expenses while studying or provide them with spending money. They live at home or in institutional dormitories and are not making rent. It doesn’t matter what you did do and it certainly doesn’t matter what you claim you did, measures of dependency into the early 20s are what’s normal in this country, and it doesn’t appear this woman is any different.
In the world that is, employed persons sum to 19% of those age 16 and 17, 42% of those 18 and 19, and 65% of those ages 20-24. The share of each set who are full time workers would be 16%, 36%, and 59%, respectively. Let’s just say that your conception of what constitutes an ‘upper income background’ is a bit, uh, expansive.
BTW, it is Scotts-Irish, not Scotch like the tape. 🙂
You’re wrong about that, too.
http://www.scotch-irishsocietyusa.org/journals.html
Interesting, I was all ready to go on a tirade about braids (plaits) being as old as humanity (the classic 3-strand braid, as you expect, for example, on Eastern European girls and Native Americans of all genders) until I found an illus. of a young Cauc female with her hair CORN-ROWED. If THAT is the type of “braiding” involved… well this whole “cultural appropriation” stupidity is a crock anyway!
On a side note, the problem with corn rows in Caucasians is that the scalp is more apt to sunburn along the parts, and both Caucasians and African Americans will experience hair breakage and significant hair loss if they keep their hair in tight braids all the time. It’s fine to do briefly, if you have 12 hours to kill braiding it, but long term is not a good idea.
So instead of howling about cultural appropriation, they should have shrieked that corn rows are bad for the hair as they were attacking the hapless players. You know, so the injuries would be for their own good. Kind of like taxes.
There seems to be a pent up will to violence which is being set loose on the left. Nothing helps people be violent better than a feeling of righteousness. I believe this righteouness is being manufactured by the oligarchy in order to set people against each other.
So, no excuses. Either people need to start thinking for themselves and stop doing hateful, violent things or they can get arrested when they commit assault.
Interestingly, in times of (relative) peace when people traded all across the known world with each other (the silk road for example) there was massive cultural appropriation. Ideas, goods, fashions, etc. were traded freely and taken on by whomever liked them. It is only in times of cultural disassociation, ignorance and extreme warfare that we find people closing off from one another, vowing never to learn from or have fun with each other’s traditions. It’s part of why this society feels like the joyless prison state that it is. God/dess forbid there be any expressions of reason or joy!
Jill – great post. Merry meet! 🙂
Karen,
Merry meet to you as well 🙂
Jeesh, these ididots don’t know history, let alone current events. Adornment, religious and clothing items as well as tools were being culturally appropriated from S. America to Canada about 12,000 years ago!!! Guess those people had no idea how wrong, evil and uncool they were! If only I had a time machine, I’d go back and punch them out for their crimes! Where is the Tardis when you need it!
The most advanced civilizations were the ones with the most trade and interactions with other cultures, where they could all learn from one another. I believe that’s why Greece and Rome were the ‘cradles of civilization,’ whereas geographically isolated peoples took much longer to progress, not due to lack of intelligence, but because they didn’t have the advantage of learning from other cultures.
Civilization developed independently in four separate loci between 1,500 and 2,500 years before the advent of Classical Greece and Rome.
As for our own time, the most affluent and productive of the world’s countries include Japan, Switzerland, and Iceland.
Spot on!
Remember when “imitation was the sincerest form of flattery”? Being of an ‘older generation’, I was ignorant on the subject of Spanish braids. I looked up the images on google. Interestingly, among pictures of many young girls with variations of the style, I found some horses. That gave me a chuckle. (Looked good on the horse.)
When some students took offense to a white with dreadlocks, I checked out the history of dreadlocks. They are not limited to black Africa. They can be seen in cultures all over the world over time, including people with white skin color (Germanic tribes, Celts), from India (some think they began there), Egypt (another pick for where they originated), and so on. Would these students do a simple google search to verify their thinking before going off half cocked.
Reblogged this on Bob's Opinion and commented:
COULD IT BE, that this is to be expected? We turned our institutes of higher ‘dumbing-down’ and propaganda, over to the Liberals decades ago, and now that the liberal professors are tenured … legitimate education has no recourse… Or do we?
This story reminds me of another, about 15 years ago, where a white guy went into beauty salons in NYC and attacked them for creating “bottle blondes,” i.e., for dying patrons’ hair blonde who were not naturally blonde. The “Law and Order” t.v. show later created a loosely adapted version of the story, making this guy out as a nut and a racist. While clearly he was a nut, it appeared that he didn’t want anyone, regardless of race, to dye his or her hair blonde, who was not a natural blonde. Which would keep him quite busy, because blonde is the most popular color of hair dye, according to the news article.
And BTW, Air Force Regs prohibit dying one’s hair a “non-natural human hair color,” i.e., purple, pink, etc., and recommend that anyone coloring his/her hair to go with their own natural color. Thus someone who wants to cover gray hair, for example, should do so with his natural hair color. As to white Airmen with dreadlocks or cornrows, I never saw that in the military. But plenty of black women straightened their hair and wore wigs of “white” colors and styles.
ok so when do we cease funding these cockroaches of society thru taxpayer funded babysitting so-called higher education? All we are doing is feeding the next generation of leeches who will continue to hate the ones who keep them fed and able to disrupt our country.
Most people who take a baccalaureate or associates degree (about 60% IIRC) are studying vocational subjects. About 80% of all graduate degrees are studying vocational subjects. Some such programs are dubious (teacher-training and social work), but only a single digit share of college students study either. Who do you fancy are being baby-sat? The business students? The nursing students? The engineering students?
Hampshire College is certainly NOT a public college.
So, who are these “cockroaches” that you refer to? Do these “cockroaches” have a defining characteristic? How are we to quickly identify one of these “cockroaches?”
The head cockroach usually had the title ‘dean of diversity’. Other roaches include the victimology faculties, half the sociology faculty, half the anthropology faculty, half the English literature faculty, about 90% of the American history faculty, the studio art faculty, the teacher training faculty, the social work faculty, the dean of students, and various and sundry employees of same.
Funny, I don’t think the original “cockroach” poster was referring to the university administration. Based on his silence, I think we all know who and what he was referring to.
Where the Frig is Hampshire College?
It’s in Amherst MA. It was created in 1970 to offer an “alternative” and less-structured type of college experience. For that reason, it attracts students from a wider than usual set of backgrounds. Graduates tend to have careers in the arts, TV and movies, and music. Ken Burns, who produced the Civil War series some years back, is perhaps its most famous alum. Though many college campuses are liberal, this one is among the most liberal. Think of it as being the complete opposite of Liberty University.
For that reason, it attracts students from a wider than usual set of backgrounds.
No, it attracts professional class kids with indulgent parents.
It has no majors and no grades and costs $65,000 per year.
My god. This Figueroa person clearly has no money… so I am guessing she obtains loans to pay for this?
What a mess.
I’m wagering she got a deal because diversity.
I have to change my first response having forgotten that for the USA I suppose Puerto Rico is a sub culture. Correction. If Figuerosota – and if you speak the language you will figure that name change out fast – went to Latin America versus Puerto Rico and tried to pull that garbage she would find herself charged with major aggression and her school that teaches such cRap listed as an accessory. The penalties in most of the country involve penitentiary time which makes the wors of our facilities look like paradise. So her claim of cultural whatever or something is based solely on small island that calls Chinese Women ‘oranges.’ Now THAT is micro aggression of a cultural nature. Hmmmm by small island did I mean PR, Brooklyn….or both
There is a photo on the internet of the lovely 300 lb Carmen Figueroa and her gang banger relatives posing on their stoop in Brooklyn. Reports state that the charming coed left her illegitimate kid and welfare check with grandma, and went to Hampshire College to be indoctrinated by left-wing professors. She learned about nonsense topics like “cultural appropriation” but not about how to behave in a civilized society. Thus when she observed something that transgressed what she learned in her Ethnic Studies class, she responded with what she knew from her Puerto Rican ghetto: a vicious beating and stomping of the girl who offended her. After jail, she’ll most likely end up back in the hood, back on welfare, and popping out more illegitimate kids. America’s immigration policy defines America’s future.
She doesn’t weigh 300#. She’d benefit from some weight loss, but she’s not morbidly obese.
Hampshire College is an institution to unserious to have a legitimate existence. They certainly aren’t doing Carmen Figueroa and youths like her any favors by recruiting them in a self-involved effort to display their diversity tail-feathers. The Carmen Figueroa’s of this world would benefit from vocational instruction at the local community college and (perhaps) at a nearby state college if they perform well enough that they demonstrate they’re (baccalaureate) college material. There are community colleges and state colleges galore within ready commuting distance of where Carmen Figureoa is from. She doesn’t need to be fed shinola at a small town ‘liberal arts college’ in Massachusetts.
Get knocked up so you can get your check.
Jeso Donald: Do something about these itchBays.
Uh, I’m not sure how to break this to you, but, those who are from Puerto Rico don’t “immigrate” to the United States…They are as American as you believe you are…
No, they do not immigrate in a legal sense. In a sociological sense, they are immigrants. The circular migration between Puerto Rico and the mainland has been rife with social pathology.
The belief that students can demand changes in the clothing of other students is a predictable extension of the growing levels of speech restrictions on our campuses. After if you can determine what students or speakers cannot say, why not dictate what they cannot wear?
No, it’s a predictable manifestation of granting value and succor to displays of aggression by students who are the clientele of the worst elements on the faculty and in the administration. The trustees can clean house, but they never do.