Mark Dice - Liberalism - Find a Cure

White rappers have often been accused of “stealing” black music, thus committing “cultural appropriation.” Singer Halsey once ripped Iggy Azalea, calling her a “fucking moron” for her “complete disregard of black culture,” simply for being a white rapper. 163Singer Bruno Mars has also been accused of the “crime” because they say he “copies black music and profits off of his racial ambiguity in a way that other black artists are not able to do.” 164Bruno Mars (whose real name is Peter Hernandez) is half Puerto Rican and half Jewish.

In 2017 members of the World Intellectual Property Organization urged the United Nations to ban cultural appropriation by expanding international intellectual property regulations to protect “Indigenous designs, dances, words and traditional medicines.” 165

It’s getting so bad that a school board in Toronto decided to stop using the title “chief” for various job positions and changed it to “manager” out of concern that “chief” was offensive to Indians. No indigenous person or group even complained about the word “chief” being used for various titles, but some SJWs on the school board decided to take it upon themselves to make the change after imagining that calling people “chief” of a certain department is a “potential microaggression.” 166

A student at Bethel University in St. Paul, Minnesota wore a Chicago Blackhawks hockey team shirt to class one day and triggered a professor who vented on Facebook, writing, “So your college professor is a Native American. A Native American who has spoken multiple times about the offensiveness of Indian Mascots. Yet you come to class with an Indian mascot sprawled across your shirt… Bold move sir.” 167

The student then met privately with the teacher and shortly after that he offered a public apology. So either out of fear or ignorance, or maybe succumbing to the liberal brainwash—instead of the student standing up for his right to wear a shirt supporting his favorite hockey team and ridiculing the snowflake professor for getting offended—he apologized! The professor then said, “They have truly matured and learned from this experience and we have taken big steps in the reconciliation process.” 168

The Adidas shoe company actually encouraged censoring the name “Indians” on sports jerseys during a commercial because they consider it to be cultural appropriation. 169In an ad titled “Create Positivity” the person doing the voice over says “many teams are starting to change their names” as it showed what looked like a high school basketball team called the “Indians,” but the players put a piece of tape over the name on their jerseys.

Adidas also offers financial assistance to high schools if they will change their logos or mascots from Native American imagery to something else. 170

The Washington Redskins football team had their trademark canceled by the U.S. Trademark Office because they deemed it to be “racist” against Native Americans. The Redskins then waged a legal battle to keep the trademark, and after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on a related case about a different “offensive” trademark, they were luckily able to keep the registration and prevent others from producing knockoff merchandise using the name. 171

After President Trump launched a few Tomahawk missiles at a Syrian airbase in response to the Syrian Army using chemical weapons on the rebels in the ongoing civil war, the editor of Mother Jones expressed concerns that “a lot of Native Americans” were probably “outraged” because the missiles are called “Tomahawks.” 172Someone responded to her on Twitter saying, “Probably just Elizabeth Warren.” 173Another said, “Real journalists must be enraged that you call yourself one of them.” 174

A burrito cart in Portland was forced out of business after some lunatic locals accused the two white women who ran it of “cultural appropriation” and said they stole Mexican “intellectual property” after the owners admitted that they “picked the brains” of taco stands in Mexico to find out what kinds of ingredients would taste the best in order to come up with their recipes.

The website “Mic” wrote a story with the headline, “These white cooks bragged about stealing recipes from Mexico to start a Portland business,” and complained that, “The problem, of course, is that it’s unclear whether the Mexican women who handed over their recipes ever got anything in return.” 175They later changed the headline to read that the white cooks “bragged about bringing back recipes” instead of “stealing them” after backlash over such an incendiary claim.

The local Portland Mercury newspaper posted a follow-up article covering their investigation into more “food appropriators” but later took it down, possibly after threats of a defamation lawsuit for such a ridiculous story. An editor’s note reads, “Due to new information that has recently come to light, we have taken down our blog post, ‘This Week in Appropriation: Kooks Burritos and Willamette Week.’ It was not factually supported, and we regret the original publication of this story.” 176

The story read, in part, “Week after week people of color in Portland bear witness to the hijacking of their cultures. Several of the most successful businesses in this town have been birthed as a result of curious white people going to a foreign country. Now don’t get me wrong: cultural customs are meant to be shared. However, that’s not what happens in this city.” 177

It went on to say that, “Because of Portland’s underlying racism, the people who rightly own these traditions and cultures that exist are already treated poorly. These appropriating businesses are erasing and exploiting their already marginalized identities for the purpose of profit and praise.” 178

The food appropriation controversy in Portland got so big that it made national news. The Washington Post asked, “Should white chefs sell burritos?” and reported that a local resident had created a list of businesses that are committing “food appropriation,” including one named Voodoo Doughnut which was accused of unethically profiting from African Voodoo! 179

The Washington Post writer struggled with the topic, saying, “Who can’t identify with a campaign to support the people whose voices are muffled in a culture still dominated by white males?” but then confessed he had trouble fully embracing the food police. He was, however, uncomfortable when, “a white person profits from the cuisine” or “becomes the leading authority on it, rather than a chef born into the culture,” and pointed out that white chefs like Rick Bayless is known for his Mexican cuisine, Andy Ricker for Thai food, and Fuchsia Dunlop for her Chinese cuisine.

If you’re white, I guess it’s racist to cook food other than hotdogs and hamburgers.

An RA [Resident Assistant] at Pitzer College in Claremont, California sent out a campus-wide email telling white students they can’t wear hoop earrings because that too is “cultural appropriation.” She had also painted a sign on a “free speech” wall in the dorm reading, “White Girl, Take Off Your Hoop Earrings.” 180

The email read that she and other “women of color” were, “tired and annoyed with the reoccurring theme of white women appropriating styles that belong to the black and brown folks who created the culture. The culture actually comes from a historical background of oppression and exclusion. The black and brown bodies who typically wear hooped earrings, (and other accessories like winged eyeliner, gold name plate necklaces, etc) are typically viewed as ghetto, and are not taken seriously by others in their daily lives. Because of this, I see our winged eyeliner, lined lips, and big hoop earrings serving as symbols [and] as an everyday act of resistance, especially here at the Claremont Colleges.” 181