My Costume Only Comes in One Color

Does this come in white?

I saw a post on Facebook recently that inspired this colorful rant. Let me first share the link that was posted and then the posters comment.

What’s Wrong with Cultural Appropriation

The person who posted this added this comment:

Just a little PSA for the Halloween season. If part or all of your costume includes pretending to be from a non-white racial group, this is cultural appropriation. It’s also hurtful and in poor taste.

I want to address the “cultural appropriation” in the context of the comment. As I read this, she’s suggesting that if I, as a white man were to dress as President Obama or Gandhi, this would be hurtful and in poor taste. Really? Because of the color of my skin, I apparently have been bestowed this magical gift called “White Privilege” and while this allows me to perform all kinds of miracles that those with a different skin hue than my own cannot, I am now also restricted from certain types of behavior. It was certainly news to me that my list of Halloween costume choices was now shortened to include only Caucasian characters (I’m still not sure if this includes dressing as a ghost. They are usually depicted as being white, but I’ll have to check with the Political Correctness Overlords for a ruling.)

Heritage of Hate

A rose by any other name…

I touched on this subject in my last post and I guess I didn’t get it all out of my system (as is often the case). I’d like to take a moment to counter all of the misguided and ignorant arguments in defense of the Confederate flag. If you live in America (and probably even if you don’t) you would be hard pressed to have missed the commotion recently about a particular symbol from American history: The battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia, or as most people know it, either the Confederate flag or the Rebel flag.

A Slice of Tolerance

In recent weeks two stories in America dominated the headlines. At first they might seem unrelated, but closer examination reveals a few philosophical connections. The two topics of which I speak are the controversy over the Confederate flag and the Supreme Court ruling about marriage equality. Let’s take a look, shall we?

In the wake of the tragic shootings of nine people in a black church in South Carolina, public attention was once again directed towards a symbol that many feel represents hatred, oppression, slavery and treason: the Confederate flag. There is no end to the disagreements about the origins and history of this flag, and certainly a great deal of misinformation is flying around the internet. Two things, however, are painfully clear and cannot be disputed:

An Insightful View Into the Loss of Intellectualism and Critical Thinking

This is a first for me on my blog. Normally I would take an article like the one I’m about to show you and use it as inspiration for my own thoughts, which I would then write about here. In this case, there’s no possible way I could write a better article than David Niose has on what I believe to be the very heart of much of what is wrong in the world today.

Now, having just read those words, please don’t tune out. I know many of you want to only expose yourself to happy, positive thoughts, (not that this article is necessarily negative) but I believe this article is so profound and important that it should be read by everyone. I believe this so much so that I’m reposting it here.

The intended audience is the American public, but I think this relates to just about everyone, everywhere. Anti-inellectualism and lack of critical thinking is pervasive in nearly all cultures and societies globally and is really at the root of much of our human dysfunction. Please feel free to share this with others.

The Flames of Freedom

I’ve been seeing a lot of photos and conversation lately concerning the desecration of the American Flag. I wish I could say that most of the conversations have been comprised of intelligent, reasonable discourse over the importance of the First Amendment and the concerns of those who burn or trample the flag, but sadly this is not so.

What I have seen rather, is the usual bigoted, “Love it or Leave it” sort of blind patriotism that all too often dominates these conversations. Allow me to illustrate. This meme was recently posted by a conservative Facebook page.