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Obession with being thick in black cultures : blackgirls

Main Post: Obession with being thick in black cultures : blackgirls

| Forum: r/blackgirls

Redditors who have friends of different cultures, races, colors, religions, creed, etc. What have you learned from them that made your life better and vise versa?

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EG; Would be noticing all my Vietnamese friend's families always had scissors in the kitchen with the knives for cutting foods or cutting packaging etc.

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I have a Dutch girlfriend and lived in the Netherlands for a while. The Dutch value directness above everything else. They like to always tell the truth, and see little white lies like 'that dress looks amazing on you' as meaning that you don't actually like or care about somebody. I have learned to be open and honest with people I like, and to tell them what I think straightforwardly. I'm still English though so I don't go quite so far as to seem rude.

Living in Egypt I learned about generosity, but also about how to continually fend for myself and to interact with a ridiculous number of people daily. I was given dinner ('iftar', the evening meal after the daily fast in Ramadan) by people who could themselves barely afford to eat. I was brought dinner by the low paid office assistants when I had to work late, and invited to eat with them even though 90% didn't speak English. I also had to learn to avoid being scammed though, but to exercise patience since most of the people trying to hustle you are just horribly poor and see you as a way for them to be able to eat that night.

In France I have learned the value of good living. What's the point of working 60 hour weeks when you don't get to enjoying your life? Drinks after work, good food, relaxation, they are essentially the point of life and working. Don't live to work, work to live.

November 5, 2014 | Forum: r/TrueAskReddit

Reddit, what is biggest "culture shock" you've ever received either after moving or while vacationing to a new place?

Main Post: Reddit, what is biggest "culture shock" you've ever received either after moving or while vacationing to a new place?

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I was surprised at how outgoing Americans are. Apparently it's completely normal for strangers in a queue or similar situations to start small talk.

July 23, 2015 | Forum: r/AskReddit

Reddit, is criticizing different races and cultures racist?

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I've seen a lot of upset people today because of memes about "pulling up your pants" and reddit being "racist," and this made me wonder if there is any room to discuss responsibly the negative aspects of any particular culture. For example, is saying "white people should be more tolerant of other cultures" racist because it stereotypically makes it seem that all white people are not tolerant or is it a starting point for a discussion? I guess I'm just a little confused on what people think is racist on here and why they feel that way. I personally think no culture is off limits to be criticized and we all have room for growth, but how is this done responsibly without being considered "racist?"

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Hey OP, I want to give you three examples that may help you try to think through your own relationship to this issue:

Case 1: In Somalia 98% of women will undergo female genital mutilation. Other nations have similarly high figures but this is certainly a case of a practice being part of a culture. Many outside of Somalia want this practiced stopped, but is it right for them to ask this of Somalians?

Most would say yes, as it is a cultural practice that directly infringes upon the autonomy of half the population. Not only is it explicitly coercive and harmful long term but it is discriminatory toward a specific type of human (woman) and is violating what some call a human's right to be proper to only themselves (ie bodily autonomy). I'd stand by these people: the Somalians are perpetuating both psychologically and physically dangerous sexism so I don't think the critique is racist nor even ethnocentric.

Case 2: There is a part of the world known by Anthropologists as the semen belt. This area of the world got its name because many different tribes in the area have a practice whereby young boys have to give the elders blowjobs to successfully become men.

Would criticizing this practice be racist? No, the critique probably has little to do with the fact of these tribe's races. Is it ethnocentric? I would say yes, and I think this is a problem. Just because the US tells me people cannot consent until they are 17/18 does not make that a fact of nature; perhaps some groups of people raise more responsible children, perhaps we are just too conservative in the US...there are countless claims I could make to show why someone criticizing the tribes of the semen belt is too immersed in thinking their culture = natural or juridical law.

Case 3: Media outlets in the US observe several instances of African American males punching white people. They call the affairs "the knockout game" and spread fear of it across the nation. Aren't they just reporting the fact?

Nah, this is racism and ethnocentrism. No one aside from national media has erroneously connected these random assaults and called them a game African Americans play —I can tell you my friends in Harlem never heard of this 'til it hit the NY news. It's also ethnocentric in that it asks the broadcasting audience (people who are probably white) to demonize a specific cultural practice that the media is creating. They tell us to dislike African Americans because they do something that is not normal to us.

You are perhaps right in making the normative judgement that no person or culture is immune to criticism, but people that blindly advance this claim miss the point. Context, intent, and position of the critique are all important to consider when making a judgement. Is a practice wrong because you don't like it or is it wrong because it is normatively harmful? If it is the former then you're probably being ethnocentric at the least, as you are saying that your cultural upbringing is objectively better than that of another (a judgement that people usually appeal to the status quo to reinforce, even though the status quo is often predicated on such judgements). If you said the latter then you may have an actual case. Let me end with one last example to illustrate this

Case 4: You encounter someone speaking ebonics and tell them to speak correctly. What should we say about you in this case, OP?

We'd first want to ask why you singled this dialect in particular out? That may have elements of racism. Then we would ask why you take issue with a dialect in general. That probably has elements of ethnocentrism. But no, you say, the think they should speak "better" because if they don't other people and employers won't take them seriously. Loaded into your appeal to good will and benevolence are a whole plethora of assumptions condition by the fact that you were conveniently born into the status quo and they were not. So congrats, if you do this you're an asshole justifying his racism on the internet by hiding in the fact that he was born into a set of dominant beliefs —not that you actually are, OP.

Edit (on two fronts): First and foremost I'm happy to receive a gold in an anthro subreddit. Secondly, I think that the detractors of my comment on knock out games would be wise to remember that racism does not need to be explicitly intentional, in fact some of the most violent racism is internalized. I personally find it odd that on reddit, where people are so quick to discredit the media for its biases, is now fascinated with stories that the media has (almost) entirely fabricated and connected with no basis. That exceptionalism is racism.

December 9, 2013 | Forum: r/AskAnthropology

Travelers of Reddit: What cultural norm were you most shocked about when visiting another country/region?

Main Post: Travelers of Reddit: What cultural norm were you most shocked about when visiting another country/region?

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Croatia: it's a standard expectation that you clean the street outside your house as part of cleaning your house (at least in the small towns i was in -not sure about the cities). The cleanest streets I've ever seen and a real sense of communal civic pride.

February 3, 2017 | Forum: r/AskReddit

Humankind Cultures 3.0

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I'll be posting links to all the announced Humankind cultures here. If I miss an update, please reply to this thread, and I'll toss it up ASAP! I'm on reddit... constantly? Constantly. I might not catch everything that gets posted, but I'll catch every post reply. I'll include their focus, Emblematic Unit, Quarter, and what region of the world they're from (Northern America, Latin America, Europe, Middle East and North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, Southern Asia, Eastern Asia, Oceania). Unconfirmed cultures will be listed without a hyperlink, focus, or emblamatics, and will only be included if we have art, devtalk, or gameplay of them.

Note: I understand some of the regional differences may seem arbitrary. To some extent, all regionalization is ultimately arbitrary. If you'd like to think of a different system or assignment of regions, feel free to do so - but I've found extended debates about this have ultimately been fairly fruitless.

Ancient Era Map

Ancient

Classical Era Cultures

Classical

Medieval Era Cultures

Medieval

Early Modern Cultures

Early Modern

Industrial Era Cultures

Industrial

Contemporary

A map connecting all the cultures with some sense of continuation. Feel free to suggest edits!

• https://embed.kumu.io/03b1fb54a39438e9181d2c54116903f7#untitled-map

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Get this person a free copy of the game! Great work!

June 2, 2021 | Forum: r/HumankindTheGame

I have seen enough posts on how to write cultures based on real-world marginalized races that I wanted to add my two cents.

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Intro: Look, coming up with cultures from scratch is hard. real-world cultures are incredibly complex. They contain thousands of customs and patterns of behavior that developed of centuries as a result of complex internal and external processes. It's much easier to just take stuff from existing cultures than try to simulate one. That is ok it's what humans are great at, synthesizing existing ideas to make new ones. but, where this gets tricky is when you choose to base your culture on a culture you are either not from or on one that has historically been marginalized by the mainstream.

Body: Guess what, it's fine to do this. increased representation of marginalized cultures in books is a net good thing. but there are things to be careful of.

It matters how you execute it but generally basing your villains on minorities is racist storytelling. Also you shouldn't do a 1 to 1 parallel between real world marginalized peoples because you run the risk of misreprestation or appropriation. If you want to do this because you're really interested in researching these cultures in order to portray them with nuance, go ahead! But, if you're just doing it to seem "exotic", don't.

Keep in mind that as writers we have the enormous privilege of shaping peoples opinions through our work. So negative and/or insensitive depictions of marginalized peoples can cause real world harm. This doesn't mean you can't have dark people as villains in your book, but if ALL your villains seem vaguely middle eastern, that's bad.

If people like this piece I have a whole lots thoughts on allagories for racism.

Tl;dr: Do your research so you don't butcher other cultures in offensive ways and don't make marginalized people the stand in for your books villains.

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Okay, reading through this, I've come across one problem.

"If all your villains are middle eastern, that's racist"

It isn't. It's only racist if all middle eastern people in your book are dickbags, not if all dickbags in your book are middle eastern.

July 26, 2019 | Forum: r/fantasywriters

I believe the moral imperative to "respect all cultures" is destructive and cruel. CMV.

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This came to mind after watching this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-J7_TKgw1To.

I went to a good American university where I was taught to respect all cultures and cultural differences. Adulthood since then has been a long process of unlearning this moral aphorism. Eastern cultures torture animals because they think the meat tastes better. Middle Eastern cultures force children into marriages. There are many more instances of fucked up shit going on in the world, but those two are more than enough to prove my point.

Now, before you say "but the west used to be like that", yes. Key word there is "WAS". The west has outgrown such barbaric traditions. Other parts of the world have not and there is no reason to respect barbaric traditions or feel obligated to not point out the obvious: this shit is fucked up and the people doing this are fucked up.

Edit: I've never been more disappointed with this subreddit. The responses--and the downvotes--are more what I'd expect from r/politics than r/changemyview.

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Were you taught to respect all cultures or were you taught that being raised in a certain culture affects your values and that you should be carful with imposing those values on people who have different cultures and values? Because there is a big difference between the two.

"The West" puts elderly people in care homes where care can be very inadequate, visitations by family members can be rare, and facilities outdated. Other regions has children take care of their elderly parents. Does that mean "The West" is barbaric for the way they treat the elderly? Or should other countries aim to put the elderly in care homes to stop being barbaric? Should other countries respect the way we deal with our elderly or should they denounce those traditions as barbaric?

Another example: intensive farming has led to the development of certain types of broilers which reach adulthood in about 7 weeks. They need a lot of antibiotics to grow in time and when they are old enough they can barely stand on their feet. Around 7 weeks they look something like this. That isn't a healthy chicken at all, and it leads a pretty shitty life. That type of broiler is a western invention. How fucked up is the Western world for developing this type of breed and profiting immensely from it at the moment? How fucked up is that that resistant bacteria are becoming more and more prevalent due to Western farming habits?

The problem is that once you go down that road every culture becomes barbaric and everyone is fucked up. That leads us nowhere, and that is what your university was warning you about. If you have a problem with an aspect of a certain culture then by all means criticize it. However, you do need to realize that are always people who are part of that culture who are also trying to change things. By calling the culture barbaric you are also calling them barbaric. That little girl in the video is part of the culture which you're criticizing. She just isn't part of a certain aspect of it. By calling the entire culture barbaric you are also calling her values barbaric. That is the problem with simplifying complex cultures to a single term.

August 2, 2013 | Forum: r/changemyview