The Great "Cultural Appropriation" Pumpkin: Psst, Halloween Belongs To The Irish
Yale lecturer Erika Christakis and her husband, professor Nicholas Christakis, were uglied out of the university after she dared to offend the crypussies that pass for college students these days by sending out the mildest call to let people express themselves as they wish on Halloween.
The thing about all these tiny little authoritarian screechers on campus -- they should spend more time going to class and learning the stuff of Western culture that promotes logical thought. Because they don't bother to do the slightest bit of, "Hmm, where does this argument I'm supporting lead?"
Commenter I R A Darth Aggie did this here the other day:
I would tell these ninnies this:Stop appropriating Celtic mysticism which is the heart of Halloween. It's not your culture, and you degrade it with your bacchanalian revelry.
And Jason Brennan takes it full-blown. Brennan has a fab satire up at Bleeding Heart Libertarians, "Halloween Is for Irish People Only; For Anyone Else, It's Racist Cultural Appropriation":
Let's be clear: Halloween is for Irish people and for Irish people only. Or, more precisely, it's for people who are of sufficiently robust Gaelic descent. If you are not Irish, but you celebrate Halloween, then you are engaging in racist cultural appropriation....If you know anything about Irish history (I assume the Yale students in question do not), you know that the Gaelic people have been systematically oppressed, murdered, raped, enslaved, starved, and abused. Even the word "Halloween" stems from cultural imperialism and genocide, as the Christian conquerors replaced the authentic holiday of Samhain with their Christianized holidays of All Hallows' Day and All Hallows' Eve (i.e., Halloween).
Samhain is a rich holiday with a noble and storied tradition. It's a holiday that belongs to a formerly (and to some degree, currently) oppressed ethnic group. Yet most people in the US and Canada, and many in Europe, Mexico, South America, and elsewhere, feel free to appropriate this sacred festival for their own purposes. They mock it by wearing inauthentic costumes, drinking too much (itself a racist mockery of the drunken Irish stereotype), and exchanging inauthentic store-bought candies instead of the traditional treat.
Again, for non-Irish person to participate in Halloween at all is equivalent to a white person donning a traditional Native American headdress or wearing blackface. The American Halloween tradition, which encourages everyone to mock and insult the sacred Irish festival of Samhain, is at least as insulting as Chief Wahoo, the "Redskins" name, or the Blackhawks' logo.
...As we all know, the norm at American universities is that anyone who is slighted is thereby entitled to make demands. On behalf of people of Irish descent everyone, I demand Yale University take the following actions:
1. Yale University's President Peter Salovey must immediately issue a memorandum explaining the festival of Samhain to students and urging students not to participate in Halloween celebrations unless they are of at least 50% Irish descent.
I love this comment there:
Puppet's Puppet
On a legitimately serious note, God bless you Irish-Americans for being the last group in this country to know what America is all about.You came from a part of the world that thought of you as barely human, endured all manner of ugly stereotypes when you came here, and pulled yourself into prosperity, all while having the most raucous fun embracing the most ridiculous, over-the-top stereotypes that anyone has ever fashioned, and inviting the rest of us in on the festivities.
Unlike the rest of us identity-group citizens, you have the brains to know that a WASP chick staggering down Fifth Avenue with a giant leprechaun hat and a "kiss me; I'm Irish" button isn't a sign of oppression; it's a sign of success. My hat is off to you. I'll still be out of your neighborhood by 10, because I'm brown and I ain't stupid, but my hat's off to ya.
And I fucking love the Irish. Oh, and P.S. If you ask me whether I'm Irish, I won't frown and cry "Microaggressor!" I'll smile and then tell you no, my origins are peasant shithole Jew.
via @fsnole1
CNN has created a little chart so you can costume yourself and police the costumes of others.
http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/26/living/halloween-costume-ideas-flowchart-trnd/index.html
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at October 30, 2016 9:48 AM
"I got a rock."
Patrick at October 30, 2016 11:55 AM
"my origins are peasant shithole Jew"
Maybe; but, on St. Patty's day in the US - you ARE Irish along with everyone else.
charles at October 30, 2016 2:27 PM
I had a (Jewish) friend who was absolutely certain that the Irish were the lost tribe of Israel because they could talk as much as Jews could.
mmmwright at October 31, 2016 11:56 AM
If Halloween were Jewish, there would be strict laws about the acceptable type and timing of candy distribution ("The sages permit all candies, but Rabbi Judah holds that only candy corn may be used...")
and Rabbis in the fields with magnifying glasses examining the pumpkins for non-kosher worms.
Ben David at November 6, 2016 2:52 AM
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