Girl Storms Out Embarrassed After Her Accusations Of Cultural Appropriation Turn Against Her
If you move to a foreign country and plan to live there for a while, you probably want to immerse yourself in the local culture and customs. Assimilating as much as possible can enhance your experience, help you build connections with locals and deepen your understanding of the place. But is it possible to go too far when embracing another culture?
According to some people, if you’re not ethnically Japanese, you’re not allowed to have a Japanese name, regardless of how long you lived in the beautiful island nation. Below, you’ll find a story that one woman recently shared on Reddit, detailing how she had to shut down her roommate’s friend who made assumptions about her.
This woman grew up in Japan, despite the fact that neither of her parents are from there
Image credits: jm_video (not the actual photo)
And after meeting someone who claimed to be offended by her Japanese name, she decided to shut her down in the best way she knew how
Image credits: envato (not the actual photo)
Image credits: Actual_Priority5484
Deciding what to name your child can be incredibly difficult
Naming a baby is never easy. You have to find a name that both you and your partner can agree on, that doesn’t remind you of anyone you already know or previously dated, that isn’t too common, that isn’t too bizarre, that’s timeless and that will suit your specific baby perfectly. And in some countries, you will be expected to choose a traditional name that is government-approved.
Japan is one of the nations, along with Hungary, Denmark, and others, that requires parents to choose their baby’s name from a pre-approved list of approximately 3,000 characters, The Japan Times reports. While parents of a non-Japanese baby can name their children according to the laws in their home countries, it makes sense that they might still want to adhere to the Japanese standards. If they plan on raising their children in Japan, wouldn’t they want them to fit in?
When it comes to cultural appropriation with baby names, Jennifer Moss at BabyNames.com says it is possible, but it completely depends on the situation. If you’re a white American with no cultural ties to Native American tribes or Hawaiian culture, it’s probably best to avoid naming your child a name that is sacred in one of those cultures if you don’t understand the significance and just snag the name just because you like the way it sounds.
Image credits: Amina Filkins (not the actual photo)
It is wise for parents to take culture into consideration when choosing baby names
But cultural appropriation is a nuanced issue. And if you’re living in Japan, embracing yourself in Japanese culture, naming your daughter Sakura, for example, would be a little bit different. You understand what the name means, and it’s important to you and your family’s home.
According to Rina Arya, PhD, a professor at the University of Huddersfield in the UK, “Names, like languages, are sacred; they are bound up with identity, and that takes us back to the central issue of cultural appropriation, which is about safeguarding minority or indigenous cultures,” she told Newsweek. “It’s clear that with increased awareness of cultural appropriation more aspects of culture are going to be questioned.”
But some argue that it’s only natural for names to become more global, as we have foreigners traveling to and living in different countries more than ever before. The way our cultures are intermingling can even be considered a good thing by some.
Image credits: Kha Ruxury (not the actual photo)
The key difference between cultural appropriation and and appreciation is whether the intention is to honor or demean another culture
Discussing names barely scratches the surface of cultural appropriation, however. “Some even talk about the ethics of the right to cook or even consume the food of minority groups,” Arya told Newsweek. “These questions will always raise different viewpoints but they need to continue to be asked because it is vital, in a global world, and one of great historical and current inequality, that the rights of groups with less advantage are protected.”
As far as differentiating cultural appreciation from cultural appropriation, The University of Wisconsin explains on their site that the key difference to understand is whether you’re honoring a culture by embracing some of its aspects, or if you’re dishonoring and demeaning it.
We would love to hear your thoughts on this story in the comments below, pandas. Do you think this woman was right to embarrass her roommate’s friend after being accused of cultural appropriation? Feel free to share, and then if you’re interested in checking out another Bored Panda article, we recommend this one discussing cultural appropriation!
Image credits: Miguel Á. Padriñán (not the actual photo)
Readers overwhelmingly agreed that the woman did nothing wrong by showing off her Japanese
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“The alternative to appropriation is a world where white European people make art about white European people, with only white European references in it. Swap African or Asian or Latin or whatever culture you want for European. A world where everyone is blind and deaf to any culture or experience that is not their own. I hate that world, don't you? I'm terrified of that world, and I don't want to live in that world, and as a mixed-race person, I literally don't exist in it.” ― Gabrielle Zevin, Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow
yes we had a word for that in South Africa and it was APARTHEID.
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Never got that cultural appropriation-thing anyway. Why would I be offended when people think that my culture is cool and want to be like me? I'd be flattered.
I remember the uproar at the World Cup when Westerners were wearing middle eastern attire. The locals were more then happy to share their culture with tourists and were actively promoting it. Shockingly, the only people with a problem were Westerners.......
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Those who accuse others of cultural appropriation are the real racist, because they think that white/euroamerican culture is the default one which everyone can use, while the others are special ones that need to be defended. If not then every not-USA wearing a pair of jeans is culturally appropriating.
Denim pants have existed longer than the US, just so you know. Levi strauss patented a specific cut of the pants, he didn’t create denim
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Cultural appropriation is a real thing - like, say, when people from one country go to another country, steal their stuff, and bring it back to put in their museum. But this whole "appropriation" thing has gotten way out of control. People use the term anytime people learn about or use another culture. I was accused of cultural appropriation for going to a country, buying a dress in a store there, and then wearing it when I got back home. It was sold in a store, I bought it, that's not appropriation, it's commerce. Some people just need to go back to school.
I'm 63 and white 15 years ago I had my hair braided for a vacation. I was approached by a black woman with chemically straightened hair almost to her waist about cultural appropriation. I was flabbergasted. I'm half Greek we have been braiding our hair for thousands of years. Not that I should have to justify that it doesn't matter. Cultural appropriation is a pile of c**p.
I've seen people being angry because a white Sim had braids on the Sim gallery. It goes far.
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It depend on the intent - if it's a caricature of that culture, no. But if it's not, yes.
Load More Replies... I've got a Maori name. My dad is a white kiwi 3gen. My mom is german grew up two different parts of the countrs. Met in London. I was born in germany. Grew up in Nz and germany, speak (quite rusty) english, german and bavarian. Fun quiz: which cultures am I appropriating?
lol as a half asian person who has been accused of lying about travel and speaking in different languages. I can say, this is something that happens. I even had all my roommates sit me down and accuse me of lying. That was the worst. So kuddos to her for hopefully remaining calm.
As if people haven't mixed names, style and cultural stuff for as long as we remember.
"Cultural Appropriation"... I alsways laugh when I think about Michael Sheen complaining about roles which should be for Welsh not being played by Welsh. Yet has a Welsh man he's many other nationalities. Or those who complain that a gay role is played by a hetrosexual (but many roles reserved). At the end of the day, who cares? It seems only the hypocrits who have an enhanced sense of offense...
Wait you are Japanese. You were born there grew up there you are Japanese. Just like I am American. I was born here and grew up here. I'm originally Irish Scottish and french but I'm American.
According to Japanese law, being born in Japan doesn't make you Japanese. No joke.
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Cultural appropriation: The Maori have body art called Ta Moko. It's distinct to the individual and very personal. It has deep spiritual and cultural significance and represents the history of their family and their people. To copy a Ta Moko design would be like tattooing someone else's passport on your body. However, the Maori realized the designs were popular, and rather than simply forbid them, created a new form called Kirituhi that looks similar but has no cultural, spiritual or personal significance. Adopting something with religious and cultural significance without adopting the culture, religion etc. is appropriation. Wearing a hat, speaking a language, having a cultural name, etc. is not (in most cases) appropriation. People need to learn the difference.
I have a French name and I'm Polish, my parents just thought it was a cool name. That doesn't mean I'm appropriating French culture lol
Girl didn't name herself now did she? Imagine getting heated with someone over a name that they did not pick out for themselves.
but that makes it sound like she cant have that name. Whats wrong with having a name thats not from where your roots (supposedly) are??
Load More Replies... Oh god this again. Lets make something clear here. The only person culturally apropiating here is an american girl, that has cero japanese culture, never lived there and doesn’t even speak the language (the basis of any culture) and claiming that is her culture because of genetics
F her. Cultural appropriation is not a thing. A race or nationality of people does not have excusive rights to language, hairstyles, foods, etc. Do what you want. And besides, it's not like you chose your own name. And, having lived in Japan until the age of 14, you are just as much a part of that culture as she is, regardless of ethnicity.
NTA is OP's name and OP was born in the country. People who yell cultural appropriation at everything are just embarrassing and 9 times out of 10 have absolutely no idea what they are talking about, and are even more often not actually born/ fully if even partly from the country they claim you're appropriating.
So a girl is given a name she has no control over. She spends the beginning of her life in another country. Again, no control over. Then, another girl accuses her of appropriating another culture because she has a Japanese name but doesn’t look Japanese? Then, tries the throw down the gauntlet and loses big time. Ummm….girlie#2….you don’t judge a book by its cover. Girl#1 Never apologize for being you.
If this lady was born and raised in Japan, and the other was born and raised in America, technically the other lady is appropriating OP's culture.
ughhh getting so tired of people like that. And because of a name, lol
Cultural appropriation is when for example big music labels take a distinct local type of music that is culturally or maybe religiously important to a small ethnicity and make billions by promoting it worldwide while the original creators get nothing than a wrong picture painted about themselves for the rest of the world. The rest is not cultural appropriation but exaggerated sensitivities.
So when foreigners come here and take on English names, it's not a thing right? She was just being a gatekeeper.
People have various reasons for taking on English names: avoid discrimination (I knew an Italian who had to use an English name to avoid harassment at work); their names are hard to pronounce in the new country; they like a particular name; they don't like their own name that much (a Chinese immigrant didn't like hers because it was a political statement she didn't support).
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Mahomes McCaffrey says that 'you were born and raised in Japan until you were 14. This makes you a Japanese person'. It does not. Japan does not grant citizenship because you were born there ('jus soli'). And, unless one of the young lady's parents was a Japanese citizen, she has no right to Japanese citizenship by parentage ('jus sanguinis'). But, she's definitely NTA.
So, there ARE lots of weeabu, super creepy, Japanophile dorks who will give themselves a Japanese name, which usually winds up being from an anime. Those people absolutely exist, there are many of them, and they are completely serious. So, I can definitely see someone of Japanese descent thinking this OP was one of that type and wanting to smack that down right from the start, because those people start off cringe and just get worse as they go, especially towards Asian women/girls, whom they expect to be very accommodating of this weirdness. She just didn't expect the OP to be legit, and have that as her legal name and to have grown up in Japan for a significant amount of her childhood. The guest treated OP like the everyday horse, but OP was the rare zebra.
It what demented world could anyone say YTA... The "friend" is a terrible person, full stop.
Names really have no serious place in cultural studies. Languages yes, names, not really. This is nothing more than this woman’s racism. Cultures constantly blend and mesh. Especially adjacent cultures. To get into a tizzy about names and accuse someone raised in a particular culture based on skin colored…buuaahahahaaa. We PhD Cultural Anthropologists laugh out loud at the pettiness and ignorance of such individuals.
"cultural appropriation, which is about safeguarding minority or indigenous cultures" What absolute nonsense. People are people. "Culture" in most places is simply because of prior geographic isolation. We live in an era where geographic isolation is essentially non-existent. People can act like people whenever they want and however they want. I can cook "your" food, wear "your" clothes, style my hair like "you", etc etc. This is complete idiocy.
In America, we almost ALL, have names from other countries. Most of them are from places our parents never even visited, in some cases can't even point to on a map. Her parents lived there. She was born there. It's always seemed weird to me, that we live in one of the biggest "melting pots" in the world, but are always first on the keep everyone separate train. If our ancestors had kept separate, we wouldn't be here.
My German brother in law has a traditional Swedish name and they had no ties to Sweden before my bf met me. I suppose I need to lecture him about that.
The cultures of the world would not be what they are without exchange of cultures. Most of the people screaming about "Cultural appropriation" have no idea what they are talking about. I once shut down one of those little girls by asking them if they have an Oktoberfest in their area of the USA and she said yes. I then asked her if she is wearing something that looks like a Dirndl to this event and she also said yes. She had been on a rant about someone famous wearing a chinese dress while she is white. BINGO. I proceeded to tell her that she is the one who should be "accused" of cultural appropriation because a) Oktoberfest is a Bavarian tradition and b) what she considers a dirndl is actually nothing but a cheap, plastic copy cat thing that has nothing to do with the actual dress. Cultural appropriation is when you take parts of a culture to make fun or degrade a culture. I never got an answer from her.
Tell your roommate you're ready to say to her friend that you're sorry. And when that entitled POS shows up, tell her you're sorry for not slapping her across the mouth and that she got off lucky.
Sounds like the Japanese guest engaged in some trendy performative outrage and embarrassed herself because she didn't bother to get all the facts first. Instead of just apologizing, she doubled down to save face. Why can't people just say, "Oh, my mistake, I apologize for making assumptions..."?
I have a friend that spends a lot of time in Japan because of his work. Good take on this is that a real Japanese person would be far more likely to insult her for being a Korean biracial. The Japanese people are extremely homogenous, and racially intolerant on the whole.
You're kidding right? Why would you feel bad this entitled AH embarrased herself?
I tilt my sombrero back and take a long sip of my chai tea. I notice my kimono is a little wrinkled and hope it matches my cowboy boots. My German Sheppard dog offers me a baguette to brighten my mood. Its good living in the land of cultural appropriation.
The people who perpetrate the idea that enjoying something from a culture different from your own culture is somehow appropriation are willfully ignorant. There is no better way to rid the world of cultural bigotry than by sharing your own culture's amazing food, music, art, and customs.
They should do the apology entirely in Japanese. Best of both worlds really.
And it's quite a bit funny to imagine this "japanese" girl calling someone a liar and causing such a scene PUBLICLY in JAPAN.
“The alternative to appropriation is a world where white European people make art about white European people, with only white European references in it. Swap African or Asian or Latin or whatever culture you want for European. A world where everyone is blind and deaf to any culture or experience that is not their own. I hate that world, don't you? I'm terrified of that world, and I don't want to live in that world, and as a mixed-race person, I literally don't exist in it.” ― Gabrielle Zevin, Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow
yes we had a word for that in South Africa and it was APARTHEID.
Load More Replies... Never got that cultural appropriation-thing anyway. Why would I be offended when people think that my culture is cool and want to be like me? I'd be flattered.
I remember the uproar at the World Cup when Westerners were wearing middle eastern attire. The locals were more then happy to share their culture with tourists and were actively promoting it. Shockingly, the only people with a problem were Westerners.......
Load More Replies... Those who accuse others of cultural appropriation are the real racist, because they think that white/euroamerican culture is the default one which everyone can use, while the others are special ones that need to be defended. If not then every not-USA wearing a pair of jeans is culturally appropriating.
Denim pants have existed longer than the US, just so you know. Levi strauss patented a specific cut of the pants, he didn’t create denim
Load More Replies... Cultural appropriation is a real thing - like, say, when people from one country go to another country, steal their stuff, and bring it back to put in their museum. But this whole "appropriation" thing has gotten way out of control. People use the term anytime people learn about or use another culture. I was accused of cultural appropriation for going to a country, buying a dress in a store there, and then wearing it when I got back home. It was sold in a store, I bought it, that's not appropriation, it's commerce. Some people just need to go back to school.
I'm 63 and white 15 years ago I had my hair braided for a vacation. I was approached by a black woman with chemically straightened hair almost to her waist about cultural appropriation. I was flabbergasted. I'm half Greek we have been braiding our hair for thousands of years. Not that I should have to justify that it doesn't matter. Cultural appropriation is a pile of c**p.
I've seen people being angry because a white Sim had braids on the Sim gallery. It goes far.
Load More Replies... It depend on the intent - if it's a caricature of that culture, no. But if it's not, yes.
Load More Replies... I've got a Maori name. My dad is a white kiwi 3gen. My mom is german grew up two different parts of the countrs. Met in London. I was born in germany. Grew up in Nz and germany, speak (quite rusty) english, german and bavarian. Fun quiz: which cultures am I appropriating?
lol as a half asian person who has been accused of lying about travel and speaking in different languages. I can say, this is something that happens. I even had all my roommates sit me down and accuse me of lying. That was the worst. So kuddos to her for hopefully remaining calm.
As if people haven't mixed names, style and cultural stuff for as long as we remember.
"Cultural Appropriation"... I alsways laugh when I think about Michael Sheen complaining about roles which should be for Welsh not being played by Welsh. Yet has a Welsh man he's many other nationalities. Or those who complain that a gay role is played by a hetrosexual (but many roles reserved). At the end of the day, who cares? It seems only the hypocrits who have an enhanced sense of offense...
Wait you are Japanese. You were born there grew up there you are Japanese. Just like I am American. I was born here and grew up here. I'm originally Irish Scottish and french but I'm American.
According to Japanese law, being born in Japan doesn't make you Japanese. No joke.
Load More Replies... Cultural appropriation: The Maori have body art called Ta Moko. It's distinct to the individual and very personal. It has deep spiritual and cultural significance and represents the history of their family and their people. To copy a Ta Moko design would be like tattooing someone else's passport on your body. However, the Maori realized the designs were popular, and rather than simply forbid them, created a new form called Kirituhi that looks similar but has no cultural, spiritual or personal significance. Adopting something with religious and cultural significance without adopting the culture, religion etc. is appropriation. Wearing a hat, speaking a language, having a cultural name, etc. is not (in most cases) appropriation. People need to learn the difference.
I have a French name and I'm Polish, my parents just thought it was a cool name. That doesn't mean I'm appropriating French culture lol
Girl didn't name herself now did she? Imagine getting heated with someone over a name that they did not pick out for themselves.
but that makes it sound like she cant have that name. Whats wrong with having a name thats not from where your roots (supposedly) are??
Load More Replies... Oh god this again. Lets make something clear here. The only person culturally apropiating here is an american girl, that has cero japanese culture, never lived there and doesn’t even speak the language (the basis of any culture) and claiming that is her culture because of genetics
F her. Cultural appropriation is not a thing. A race or nationality of people does not have excusive rights to language, hairstyles, foods, etc. Do what you want. And besides, it's not like you chose your own name. And, having lived in Japan until the age of 14, you are just as much a part of that culture as she is, regardless of ethnicity.
NTA is OP's name and OP was born in the country. People who yell cultural appropriation at everything are just embarrassing and 9 times out of 10 have absolutely no idea what they are talking about, and are even more often not actually born/ fully if even partly from the country they claim you're appropriating.
So a girl is given a name she has no control over. She spends the beginning of her life in another country. Again, no control over. Then, another girl accuses her of appropriating another culture because she has a Japanese name but doesn’t look Japanese? Then, tries the throw down the gauntlet and loses big time. Ummm….girlie#2….you don’t judge a book by its cover. Girl#1 Never apologize for being you.
If this lady was born and raised in Japan, and the other was born and raised in America, technically the other lady is appropriating OP's culture.
ughhh getting so tired of people like that. And because of a name, lol
Cultural appropriation is when for example big music labels take a distinct local type of music that is culturally or maybe religiously important to a small ethnicity and make billions by promoting it worldwide while the original creators get nothing than a wrong picture painted about themselves for the rest of the world. The rest is not cultural appropriation but exaggerated sensitivities.
So when foreigners come here and take on English names, it's not a thing right? She was just being a gatekeeper.
People have various reasons for taking on English names: avoid discrimination (I knew an Italian who had to use an English name to avoid harassment at work); their names are hard to pronounce in the new country; they like a particular name; they don't like their own name that much (a Chinese immigrant didn't like hers because it was a political statement she didn't support).
Load More Replies... Mahomes McCaffrey says that 'you were born and raised in Japan until you were 14. This makes you a Japanese person'. It does not. Japan does not grant citizenship because you were born there ('jus soli'). And, unless one of the young lady's parents was a Japanese citizen, she has no right to Japanese citizenship by parentage ('jus sanguinis'). But, she's definitely NTA.
So, there ARE lots of weeabu, super creepy, Japanophile dorks who will give themselves a Japanese name, which usually winds up being from an anime. Those people absolutely exist, there are many of them, and they are completely serious. So, I can definitely see someone of Japanese descent thinking this OP was one of that type and wanting to smack that down right from the start, because those people start off cringe and just get worse as they go, especially towards Asian women/girls, whom they expect to be very accommodating of this weirdness. She just didn't expect the OP to be legit, and have that as her legal name and to have grown up in Japan for a significant amount of her childhood. The guest treated OP like the everyday horse, but OP was the rare zebra.
It what demented world could anyone say YTA... The "friend" is a terrible person, full stop.
Names really have no serious place in cultural studies. Languages yes, names, not really. This is nothing more than this woman’s racism. Cultures constantly blend and mesh. Especially adjacent cultures. To get into a tizzy about names and accuse someone raised in a particular culture based on skin colored…buuaahahahaaa. We PhD Cultural Anthropologists laugh out loud at the pettiness and ignorance of such individuals.
"cultural appropriation, which is about safeguarding minority or indigenous cultures" What absolute nonsense. People are people. "Culture" in most places is simply because of prior geographic isolation. We live in an era where geographic isolation is essentially non-existent. People can act like people whenever they want and however they want. I can cook "your" food, wear "your" clothes, style my hair like "you", etc etc. This is complete idiocy.
In America, we almost ALL, have names from other countries. Most of them are from places our parents never even visited, in some cases can't even point to on a map. Her parents lived there. She was born there. It's always seemed weird to me, that we live in one of the biggest "melting pots" in the world, but are always first on the keep everyone separate train. If our ancestors had kept separate, we wouldn't be here.
My German brother in law has a traditional Swedish name and they had no ties to Sweden before my bf met me. I suppose I need to lecture him about that.
The cultures of the world would not be what they are without exchange of cultures. Most of the people screaming about "Cultural appropriation" have no idea what they are talking about. I once shut down one of those little girls by asking them if they have an Oktoberfest in their area of the USA and she said yes. I then asked her if she is wearing something that looks like a Dirndl to this event and she also said yes. She had been on a rant about someone famous wearing a chinese dress while she is white. BINGO. I proceeded to tell her that she is the one who should be "accused" of cultural appropriation because a) Oktoberfest is a Bavarian tradition and b) what she considers a dirndl is actually nothing but a cheap, plastic copy cat thing that has nothing to do with the actual dress. Cultural appropriation is when you take parts of a culture to make fun or degrade a culture. I never got an answer from her.
Tell your roommate you're ready to say to her friend that you're sorry. And when that entitled POS shows up, tell her you're sorry for not slapping her across the mouth and that she got off lucky.
Sounds like the Japanese guest engaged in some trendy performative outrage and embarrassed herself because she didn't bother to get all the facts first. Instead of just apologizing, she doubled down to save face. Why can't people just say, "Oh, my mistake, I apologize for making assumptions..."?
I have a friend that spends a lot of time in Japan because of his work. Good take on this is that a real Japanese person would be far more likely to insult her for being a Korean biracial. The Japanese people are extremely homogenous, and racially intolerant on the whole.
You're kidding right? Why would you feel bad this entitled AH embarrased herself?
I tilt my sombrero back and take a long sip of my chai tea. I notice my kimono is a little wrinkled and hope it matches my cowboy boots. My German Sheppard dog offers me a baguette to brighten my mood. Its good living in the land of cultural appropriation.
The people who perpetrate the idea that enjoying something from a culture different from your own culture is somehow appropriation are willfully ignorant. There is no better way to rid the world of cultural bigotry than by sharing your own culture's amazing food, music, art, and customs.
They should do the apology entirely in Japanese. Best of both worlds really.
And it's quite a bit funny to imagine this "japanese" girl calling someone a liar and causing such a scene PUBLICLY in JAPAN.
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