This is stupid. There are plenty of white cultures that can be and are appropriated. And usually when it happens, it’s in the form of Halloween costumes turning people’s cultures into jokes or “sexy” outfits. For example:



And then there’s stuff like Italian food. Italians are considered white nowadays (fun fact: there was a time when Italians weren’t considered white and were pretty heavily discriminated against) and Italian food has been taken away from my people and turned into cheap, shitty, all you can eat restaurant chains the same as Taco Bell (a restaurant chain started by an American man) does to Mexican food.



Assimilation doesn’t just mean everyone who’s not white has to fit into white culture. It means whatever group ISN’T the dominant group in an area has to fit in with what the dominant group thinks is best, usually for survival. When my father’s parents and grandparents came over from Italy and traveled through Ellis Island, they were forced to assimilate into American culture. They were required to learn English and act like good American citizens or they ran the risk of getting into trouble.



My great-grandfather got on a boat and came here ALONE at the age of 16 and was quarantined at Ellis Island for reasons that are lost to time and poor record keeping. He was forced to drop his culture and adopt the dominant American culture in order to survive.

Wanna know an interesting fact: When Italian immigrants began arriving in the United States in the late 19th Century, they were met with racial prejudice. These people, mainly from Southern Italy, were physically darker than most of the arriving immigrants from Europe at the time and were treated harshly. News clippings from the late 19th century describe these Italian immigrants as a sub-human race and it was not uncommon for Italians to be hanged by mobs in the southern states, especially around the city of New Orleans.

But you know what? Over time people changed their minds about Italians, and now Italians are considered white. And suddenly because of that little change of opinion, it somehow makes all the suffering of the Italian people go away. It makes costumes like this:

and this:



completely acceptable because apparently, you can’t appropriate white cultures. You can’t oppress white people. White people have never faced any suffering or discrimination at the hands of others, even other white people.



And we could sit here all DAY and discuss what the Irish have been through, only to have their entire culture watered down and turned into, “Hey, once a year let’s get SUPER FUCKING WASTED BECAUSE THAT’S WHAT THE IRISH DO RIGHT??? AM I RIGHT GUYS?? FUCK YEAH IRISH! Haha irish people are drunks.”



And I’m not saying that non-white people have it any better. But white cultures, throughout history, have been just as amazing as non-white cultures, and a lot of those cultures have been appropriated, turned into jokes, or watered down into stereotypes thanks to the assimilation in 20th century USA and the prejudices of people in the US and plenty of other countries the same way that non-white cultures have.

