I have often had problems with the simple question "Where are you from?", because I sound funny, not local. The follow-up of "OK, where were your parents from?" doesn't add any information. Similarly, when I fill in a survey question that asks me to identify my ethnic origins, or worse, indicate which single origin I most identify with, then it causes a mild state of panic that, in the first instance, I don't forget any, & in the last, that I can show my preference appropriately.
You see, cultural identification is just not simple for me. Seven of my eight great-grandparents were born here in Australia, yet I would never say that I was 'culturally Australian', because that has no meaning to me, even if my upbringing was in the vicinity of a hills hoist. The eighth great-grandparent was born in England of predominantly Irish ancestry, & obviously at a time when Ireland itself was under British rule (note how I switched terminology). The Irish are distinct people from the English in so many respects, but there was also a lot of migration both ways. I have Irish ancestors of English heritage, too.
I identify more with my Scottish ancestors, though, & prefer to note my ancestry as 'Anglo-Celtic', rather than British, because the former is cultural, ethnic, & shows a mix, whereas the latter is somewhat geographical & also implies the Empire. There is an idea that my (Scottish) family name, however, had its origins in an English trader of Norman origins nearly a millennia ago.
Don't even get me started on my German heritage.
I am surely not alone in this confusing ancestry. I may have grown up in Sydney suburbia surrounded by people who looked like me (a long time ago, trust me), but scratching the surface quickly revealed the Catholics of predominantly Irish background, those other Celts called Mac or Mc, the rangas, & other little differentiators that showed how the majority of my classmates were, like me, ethnically from the British Isles rather than Europe, with the occasional noteworthy exception. Of course, it's possible that German ancestry, in particular, might have been still considered unfavourable.
I was thinking all this when I stumbled across historical controversies over Gwen Stefani's catalogue of pop songs. I don't mind her music, but she jumps around quite a bit, so I never noticed just how broad a range of topics & styles she covers within pop music. She is often 'inspired' by a culture or sub-culture. To me, that's the definition of pop music - reflecting popular culture.
However, as an Italian-American (not my designation), she's been lambasted for using the style of ... well, so many different groups it would be hard to list, but this would include native American, African American, Latin American, & Japanese. Even those labels show a kind of cultural imperialism that befuddles me. We're back to Celts in the British Isles (nomenclature which dates back to Roman times) being called 'British', regardless of their current location or language, for example.
To me, Gwen is doing what the music industry has always done - adapt something for popularism. Pop, born of rock, born of blues, has taken something once close to the hearts of a sub-culture - ordinary Afro-Americans (I won't define that), & made it shiny & exciting & acceptable to Euro-Americans (see what I did there?). However, the 'owners' of the cultures she is representing in her music - probably not anyone in the music culture of that designation - project on her the crime of cultural appropriation. Let's face it, she's got Italian heritage. How dare she advertise a perfume with a Japanese name!
WTF?
Surely, as a perfume, the company that created it has an intended market & a branding, & only it (& its advertising campaign managers) knows whether Gwen best represents their concept of the product. The product itself is not cultural. There is nothing intrinsically Japanese about the concept of perfume. Most perfumes are designed with a primary market in mind, & a company can decide whether to take that global or not, because it's their product. To see a perfume & think that it's Japanese because it has a Japanese name is also a form of cultural appropriation. You're making an assumption on behalf of the perfume manufacturer.
It reminds me of (Euro-) people who would get tattoos in Sanskrit or Kanji or something as abstruse, claiming to know what it meant. The equivalent was seeing Tshirts in China or Japan with a few words in English that didn't make sense (because they're too clever to be tattooed). Is this cultural appropriation? You could think of it as a counter-culture or else tagging the morons to make them easier to round up when the revolution starts. It doesn't matter. There's nothing wrong with it.
What am I saying? Chillax.
By all means, embrace some cultural heritage - yours or someone else's - & keep some tradition alive if it makes sense, but don't judge others for doing likewise. Genetically, there are almost no Afro-Americans who aren't marginally Euro-Americans (similarly Latin-Americans), so the whole seething mass on those two continents, with the exception of a few pockets of first nations people, are effectively related & share a culture - both in the past, & in the future in terms of world-culture (exemplified in pop music).
We are one, but we are many. I am Australian.
