tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30412896.post6058810727645307248..comments2024-01-05T02:53:03.358-06:00Comments on American Zombie: Flame on Glambeauxs...get your carnival onJason Brad Berryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18421813599753848735noreply@blogger.comBlogger24125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30412896.post-9558855121779363482014-03-03T23:55:20.044-06:002014-03-03T23:55:20.044-06:00I wish...I don't much of anything anymore. Ro...I wish...I don't much of anything anymore. Root canals...that hits my nerves.Jason Brad Berryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18421813599753848735noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30412896.post-4112014393070606522014-03-02T20:07:36.188-06:002014-03-02T20:07:36.188-06:00Shouldn't you be commenting in Varney's se...Shouldn't you be commenting in Varney's section on Nola.com? Jason Brad Berryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18421813599753848735noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30412896.post-19199201706787660362014-02-28T13:26:02.553-06:002014-02-28T13:26:02.553-06:00I don't think I denied those problems exist. ...I don't think I denied those problems exist. I am saying this is not analogous to those issues. Female flambeauxs does not harken "slavery".<br /><br />It's Mardi Gras time, they marched last night...I don't think they ran to the bank this morning to deposit the thousands of dollars they grafted from the parade route. <br /><br />The world didn't come to an end. Go find some alkaloids and have yourself a fantabulous fucking Mard Gras. We can talk about this in the moments of Lenten sobriety.Jason Brad Berryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18421813599753848735noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30412896.post-69708182996163754182014-02-28T12:51:02.895-06:002014-02-28T12:51:02.895-06:00No kidding New Orléans has a longstanding issue wi...No kidding New Orléans has a longstanding issue with others using the creative work of African Americans for their own profit!<br /><br />Dude, the economic system was called `slavery`, and it was all about stealing the labour power and creative work, and even creative power at the level of babymaking, of African peoples in the Americas. <br /><br />It was about owning the very persons who were capable of creativity, as well as the creative work they did. <br /><br />This system was formative, and it is foundational. <br /><br />Longstanding issue, no kidding.<br /><br />This sense certain kinds of white people have that they really should own and control everything about other human beings is fairly central to just about every problem you could name.<br /><br />And then you see some black folks raised in this culture passing on the harm done within circles where they have power, just as women raised with fewer rights than men can be passive agressive hell on wheels when they have a little zone of power (mother in law, etc.)<br /><br /><br /> Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30412896.post-1964776727852320892014-02-28T04:49:54.946-06:002014-02-28T04:49:54.946-06:00"As population increases, synchronicity becom..."As population increases, synchronicity becomes inevitable."Adam_Zhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01536809581185256773noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30412896.post-84684031875230114192014-02-27T12:42:10.781-06:002014-02-27T12:42:10.781-06:00There have been a number of very thoughtful commen...There have been a number of very thoughtful comments here, and I am sure that this will by no means be the end to the debate. I agree that the appropriation itself isn't the real issue (though I think denying that there is a difference between acculturation and appropriation is an easy way to ignore some of the harder issues that come along with it), but it is the commodification that is often tied with it that creates most of the real problems.<br /><br />However, in New Orleans there has been a long standing issue with others using the work of the traditional African American cultural community for their own profit. Coupled with increasing gentrification and displacement of largely African American communities, I don't think you can unite the Glambeauxs from that entirely, even if they have the best of intentions.<br />Ethan Enoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30412896.post-43855116075847266162014-02-27T11:50:01.825-06:002014-02-27T11:50:01.825-06:00Back in the early 1990s, cultural appropriation be...Back in the early 1990s, cultural appropriation became quite a fad topic in the part of the world I was living in. <br /><br />I still like the comment I made to a friend`s mother lo, those many years ago-- if a writer, say a white man, sits alone in his room imagining a black or native american experience, a female experience, more power to him. <br /><br />We`ve all seen wonderful, sensitively imagined characters emerge from writers who have a very different social identity than the characters they have invented. <br /><br />Where the cultural appropriation debate has merit for me is not at the level of the creative individual, however cool or not-cool their creative output is. <br /><br />Don`t censor the creativity. <br /><br />But take a look at whose work gets published, promoted, made into a TV show, etc. <br /><br />Look at whose presentation of a community or a people is given social and economic power. <br /><br />Where we were then, a famous elderly white man was having his vision of Native American life made into a TV show and a movie. <br /><br />That vision was total bullshit, and better storytellers, with truer and even radically necessary insights into those communities and their lives, were not getting those sweet gigs. <br /><br />Let anyone create. But be sensitive to the racial and other power dynamics when choosing who to give the money and public platforms to.<br /><br />If you are talking street culture, street festival, something connected to Saturnalia, to Catholic traditions of carnival, be prepared to be a little uncomfortable about whether the act you found transgressive is a subversion of a power norm, or the celebration of an injustice. <br /><br />(See this blog`s archive for posts about John Georges`s frat boy friends.)<br /><br />It is probably both. The certain thing that can be said is that the carnivalesque presentation of the thing that seems racy to you made you aware of some dynamic usually less talked about. That itself is profound. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30412896.post-66300739494206592882014-02-27T10:40:55.300-06:002014-02-27T10:40:55.300-06:00thank you for writing this. I too have a retort....thank you for writing this. I too have a retort. it took me a lifetime to create mine.<br />http://skinznbonez.com/?p=398mardiclawhttp://www.mardiclaw.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30412896.post-50790727697570095422014-02-26T23:10:57.279-06:002014-02-26T23:10:57.279-06:00The site containing the original article censored ...The site containing the original article censored my comment. The following applies to the original article.<br /><br />It's certainly an interesting discussion to have, but there's more than just a whiff of the "Born and raised" bullshit embedded within this piece. By that, I refer to the xenophobic attitude displayed by those designating themselves as "native" by accident of birth. This shitty xenophobia results in discrimination and an overly large sense of privilege and entitlement. The counterpunch is saying "fuck all y'all" to the self-entitled "natives" (an ironic term if ever there was one) and doing what you wanna, never mind the haters.<br /><br />As a side note, cultural appropriation happens all the time and it goes in all directions. It's a normal part of the continuation of society. But somehow, the political correctness police only seem to come out when they perceive (rightly or wrongly) that whites are "stealing" something from blacks. This type of myopic enforcement only serves to further a negative vibe.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30412896.post-42461581729504295552014-02-26T17:15:13.470-06:002014-02-26T17:15:13.470-06:00check this out ashe .
http://www.npr.org/2014/02/...check this out ashe .<br /><br />http://www.npr.org/2014/02/16/277882065/texas-town-brings-out-its-debs-for-george-washingtons-birthday<br />GENTILLY YARD ARThttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14456691084396666359noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30412896.post-89495627807102055732014-02-26T13:32:06.998-06:002014-02-26T13:32:06.998-06:00There have been white boys carrying flambeaux for ...There have been white boys carrying flambeaux for some time now. It is a first come first serve deal. Just show up early enough and you can carry. Carrying flambeaux is a hustle to make some money not a cultural thing. When streetcars first started running the conductors were all white men. Now conductors are mostly African American men and women. Should white people be mad a part of their culture was stolen? Hell no. It is just a gig. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30412896.post-86093785712368727522014-02-26T12:24:52.395-06:002014-02-26T12:24:52.395-06:00On behalf of my Gaullish, Celtic and Germanic ance...On behalf of my Gaullish, Celtic and Germanic ancestors, I think everyone in this discussion should be but in a wicker cage and set afire to ensure that Carnival returns next year.<br /><br />Yes I have dressed as a bone man, and made a point of running up Fortin Street and down Maurepas early Carnival Day banging a plastic bucket to call everyone out to Mardi Gras. I felt at least that much obligation to the culture I was appropriating for the purposes of costume. <br /><br />The fact is every aspect of Carnival is appropriated, from the French Creole students who brought some of its key features back from their studies in France, from the tolerance of the Spanish rulers to it (who weren't very tolerant of the original Creoles in general). through the appropriation of Black Indians of Plains Indian dress and yes, I'll go so far as to even call out Fi Yi Yi which--although I believe it as genuine as any other re-adoption of suppressed diaspora culture such as neo-paganism) is not some direct descendent of African shamanism, but its reinvention. One thing you learn in Anth is that cultures change. And appropriate. This cultural diffusion is what made us modern home sapiens with all our flaws. Groups like the Pussyfooters are appropriation of the black dance schools, Muses is a feminist appropriation of male carnival in a way that tepid Iris never was. If we are going to encase our "culture bearers" in carbon freezing and display them behind velvet ropes is the most disheartening thing I can imagine. Honor them, and sometimes honoring them is imitation and appropriation. It is what is called homage in cinema.Mark Folsehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16813261450396857232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30412896.post-50095646935881620512014-02-26T09:55:26.238-06:002014-02-26T09:55:26.238-06:00The Mexican Day of the Dead was to some extent app...The Mexican Day of the Dead was to some extent appropriated from an earlier Aztec festival dedicated to the goddess Mictecacihuatland incorporated into the Christian tradition of All Saints day and All Hallows Eve.<br /><br />mominemAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30412896.post-86847146772993051692014-02-26T08:20:27.080-06:002014-02-26T08:20:27.080-06:00An excellent piece, Jason, and many good points ma...An excellent piece, Jason, and many good points made in comments. One, perhaps because it's too obvious, not yet made is that many consider the existence of the flambeaux as itself racist, the idea that (seemingly) poor black men are carrying the heavy apparatus and bending under its weight for pocket change. Anyone who hasn't seen that and reeled is missing something inside. I'm half-surprised Chachere's stance wasn't one of wishing for more groups like the Glambeaux so as to not have the perceived look of things as wealthy white float riders up on high and poor black flambeaux groveling for pennies in the street. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30412896.post-39124664771072620002014-02-26T00:30:54.673-06:002014-02-26T00:30:54.673-06:00Right?!? Ha!!! Let's do a webcast on that sh...Right?!? Ha!!! Let's do a webcast on that shit! <br /><br />Whook....I'll go through a bottle of scotch and by 3 am I may make a valid point. :)Jason Brad Berryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18421813599753848735noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30412896.post-27467940461957135062014-02-26T00:16:19.789-06:002014-02-26T00:16:19.789-06:00"This discussion is leading into the merits o..."This discussion is leading into the merits of "Anthropology" as a justifiable science and it's going to take a lot more effort to address that issue."<br /><br />Great topic for your first show? Podcast? <br />Ease into the heavy stuff later.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30412896.post-5277253236459290732014-02-26T00:00:53.581-06:002014-02-26T00:00:53.581-06:00This discussion is leading into the merits of &quo...This discussion is leading into the merits of "Anthropology" as a justifiable science and it's going to take a lot more effort to address that issue.<br /><br />Some would argue that the discipline is nothing more than a heightened sense of voyeurism and condescension birthed from a colonial "Panopticon".<br /><br />The attempt to classify culture is a whole other bag of worms. <br /><br />When I see semantic constructs like "cultural appropriation"....to me it's like renaming sex, "forced in vitro appropriation". <br /><br />The term sterilizes and subjectively qualifies an objective reality in the human experience. Jason Brad Berryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18421813599753848735noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30412896.post-64930964810921080612014-02-25T23:51:53.102-06:002014-02-25T23:51:53.102-06:00"Cultural Appropriation is different than acc..."Cultural Appropriation is different than acculturation, and though not necessarily bad, can be used as a tool of oppression, particularly when groups come from different social standing."<br /><br />I understand what the perceived difference is between the two, I'm stating that I don't buy it. Unless you frame the matter in the commodification of culture...in the context of capitalism....I think the whole notion of "cultural appropriation" is simply acculturation.<br /><br />And acculturation is the natural order of human behavior...it's as inherent as sexual desire. <br /><br />I think Varg just stated it in a different way. <br /><br /> Jason Brad Berryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18421813599753848735noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30412896.post-87210585075163136872014-02-25T22:23:27.166-06:002014-02-25T22:23:27.166-06:00At one point, many, many years ago, one tribe of h...At one point, many, many years ago, one tribe of humans and another tribe of humans participated in the act of cultural appropriation with another and as a result we have all the beautiful things that humanity has created ever sense. I am sorry culture is comodified, it sucks. I get it. But no one should let that stop them from what I feel is most important, obedience to the muse. That thing that keeps you up at night and inspires you. Acculturation is a tribute. Yes, one day it will be exploited. Everything does. That can't be denied. But once your glorious contribution to the Universe is out there, sorry you can't take it back. You gave it to the Universe. Like a child. Varghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10894849997475823281noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30412896.post-36695179404047225182014-02-25T22:17:29.240-06:002014-02-25T22:17:29.240-06:00I could freaking hug you for making the point that...I could freaking hug you for making the point that designating certain people `culture bearers`` is often a way of commodifying a culture! Woo hoo! It so is. <br /><br />I am getting entirely tired of hearing this, especially because the people who claim this term, and those who idolize them, always really turn out to be about themselves, not the culture they are claiming to bear. <br /><br />The real transmission of the culture tends to be diffuse, and gentle, and spread out across an entire population, and flexible, and highly idiosyncratic in terms of what things get passed on and what things don`t. <br /><br />Mardi Gras Indians are a little unsettling. So are drag queens, part of an artistic tradition that seems a lot like blackface.<br /><br />Sometimes, I`m not in the mood. Other times, these things strike me as totally amazing, and I love them. <br /><br />Exploring complex and somewhat twisted power dynamics openly, in the streets, is sexy as hell. <br /><br />Except when it all seems a bit much.<br /> Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30412896.post-979341262271022182014-02-25T22:15:29.257-06:002014-02-25T22:15:29.257-06:00Cultural Appropriation is different than accultura...Cultural Appropriation is different than acculturation, and though not necessarily bad, can be used as a tool of oppression, particularly when groups come from different social standing. The easiest example is pop music--in almost every genre, a white artist has appropriated a traditionally black music style and then become both wealthy and famous, while his/her black contemporaries receive neither credit nor financial gain (or at least at significantly reduced levels).<br /><br />While the Glambeauxs are a relatively minor example, and seemingly pretty benign, they fit into a much larger context, and I understand why people might give them the side eye.Ethan Enoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30412896.post-84832385658098282992014-02-25T21:43:55.548-06:002014-02-25T21:43:55.548-06:00FWIW, the Glambeaux have responded to Chachere:
ht...FWIW, the Glambeaux have responded to Chachere:<br />http://louisianajusticeinstitute.blogspot.com/2014/02/a-response-from-glambeaux.htmlAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30412896.post-51950775921478131322014-02-25T21:32:06.359-06:002014-02-25T21:32:06.359-06:00I think you missed the point I was making about th...I think you missed the point I was making about the MGI. I wasn't equating the cultural relevance of the MGI to the Glambeaux's, I was simply stating that even the MGI culture is a product of acculturation and its mere existence offends some members of the culture it was born from. Jason Brad Berryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18421813599753848735noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30412896.post-74424344261719461422014-02-25T21:22:14.190-06:002014-02-25T21:22:14.190-06:00I can't speak for Ms. Chachere and I don't...I can't speak for Ms. Chachere and I don't actually care for her article very much, but I do want to make a point relative to your essay, which I'm reading (perhaps overbroadly?) as an argument of equivalency (everyone's offended, everyone does it).<br /><br />Society isn't a level playing field, actions don't exist in a vacuum, and rich white people seizing things (including culture) historically produced by poor people of color fits into a specific and ongoing history. I think these power dynamics must be acknowledged in any discussion of the subject.<br /><br />Equating the trivial Glambeaux, even for argument's sake, with the cosmically profound Mardi Gras Indians strikes me as a slippery slope, one that descends quickly to the la-la and of "reverse racism" and "sexism against men" and "wall street bankers are the victims of kristallnacht" etc.<br /><br />And now, I will go scourge myself. My partner just asked me from across the room "What are you working on over there?" and I was forced to hang my head and admit, "an internet comment about the Glambeaux."Jules B.noreply@blogger.com