Gonna be straight with you right off the bat. This is barely an essay and more of a long question as there is no conclusion. Ultimately, the reason I'm writing this is to get people to think, or maybe just to quiet some of the turmoil that keeps me up at night. You can come to whatever conclusion you like by the end.
Culture is a word that throughout most of my life was directly linked with images of slavery, Bob Marley and late-night elementary school research projects. Besides television, rich kids and VERY long church services, my childhood was filled with lectures on culture/heritage and why I should appreciate it. As a result, culture has always had this obligatory, ritualistic association to me. It was a chore. “Oh, you better represent your culture!” “Embrace it!” “Do certain things on certain days!” “Eat this, watch that, sing this, dance that.. not that, though” It never really helped the situation that I’ve never really connected with my country’s traditions and culture in general, and it’s only gotten worse as I’ve gotten older. Perhaps it’s because of all the tv, but from when I was very young people would always ask if I was “from foreign.” I’ve never quite talked like everyone, liked the same things, shared the same attitudes or even thought the same. Like I said before, this has only grown over the years, to the point where I think this has directly affected my professional growth as well as, in ways far bigger that I’ll probably ever let on, my mental wellbeing. As a result, I’ve developed a real disdain and even contempt for my country and its culture. This disgusts me. I sincerely believe this.. anger is largely a result of how much my culture has been imposed on me over the years. I remember every summer vacation, I’d get more chill about it because I’m usually in my own house and don’t have to put up with people. Then school would return and I’d hear people talk, hear the music in taxis or public areas; I remember always getting the distinct feeling of “man.. I’m still here..” Growing up, on national holidays, it’s been a rule in my house that we only watch local television and consume local media, of which the options are few (and frankly, unbearable.. for me, at least). So, as I hope I’ve illustrated, my relationship with the concept of culture/heritage has been.. shaky, but as I’ve gotten older- No-no actually, I should say: thanks to the internet, I’ve developed a more nuanced perspective of the concept of culture.
Eventually, I got exposed to the Japanimations and the mangoes (as most kids are nowadays), and I’d already thought Japan was pretty cool with those skyscrapers and samurai and them toilets (have you SEEN them toilets?!) but these new mediums of art hit me a different way, thus giving Japan and its culture a significant amount of my attention. Now, am I a weeaboo? (Yes) No. (Yes) Maybe. (Yes) Only technically, but the point is, for the first time, I was exposed to a culture that had elements that really seemed to click to me. (I imagine that’s the reason why a lot of weebs act the way they do) Some countries actually have these really genuinely COOL stuff that CULTURALLY SIGNIFICANT to THEM that I actually like!! England has The Beatles and tea and Alfred Hitchcock and Peppa Pig!! Italy has Ennio Morricone and pizza and pasta and Renaissance Art and the mafia and stuff!! America has barbecues and.. guns and.. pretty much everything everyone else in the world has.. minus the self-awareness!! These things I like are actually culturally significant to other countries. I ACUALLY ENJOY CULTURE.. just not the one I’ve inherited. Is it unfair to compare first world countries that’ve had power for centuries to my relatively young dot in the sea? Probably? Regardless, I genuinely don’t know why I have to force myself to embrace something I don’t connect with when there’s so much out there that I do connect with. This is what really eats me. It’s not the country’s fault it is the way it is with the culture it has, but I simply don’t connect with it at all and can’t pretend like I do, either. Then there’s the issue they always talk about how the people who get big and could develop the country always leave. The counter to that argument, of course, being that they got big because they left.
On that note, I should also mention that culture isn’t limited to the literal country you come from. Up until now, I guess, I've rarely ever acknowledged my race/ethnicity, because I really don't want that to be a factor in how people receive me and my work. While I’ve given my country lots of heat up until this point, I am grateful to have grown up in a country where I haven’t had to think about my race too often. Many other people in my same position seem to choose to do so, though. It’s always been a thing that’s kind of annoyed me how ‘African American Culture’ has been synonymous with black culture in genera (for my generation, at least). They’ve gone through a very specific set of circumstances and while there’s definitely universality in the history of black people all over the world (if you’re black and live in any country besides Africa- actually, no, Africa, too- your ancestry likely involves slavery, dehumanization and all kinds of oppression), there are specific circumstances that’ve birthed the African Americans’ cultural identity. I think I know all too many people locally who live vicariously through the lives these African Americans and have even deluded themselves into thinking that they can relate to their experience. The grossness of this really shows itself when you think about the black man in my country has essentially the same social class as the white man in America; when you think about it, their attitudes toward the other races in the country, especially the Asians, starts to look really gross. Sure, we haven’t been systematically oppressing them or enslaving them or anything huge like that, but it’s the small things, you know? The attitudes we have towards people of other races. We feel like we’ve earned the right to stereotype and dehumanize other races because we’ve been the victims all throughout history. Truth is, though, this stereotyping and dehumanization is what causes racism and oppression to be a thing in the first place. It’s this us and them nonsense. I, myself, had to actively realize this and stop some of my casual racism as well as bring it up to others.. another realization thanks to the internet.
Also, I don’t know if being an outsider gives me lack of bias or ignorance of the nuances of the situation, but I take some serious issue with some of the aspects of African American culture that seem to be embraced. I don’t want to say too much, having not gone through the stuff they have, but from an outside perspective at least, I can’t not mention my concern about some of the particular aspects of the “culture” that they choose to embrace. It’s honestly a lot when you think about the history of the whole thing, I mean.. they seem to (perhaps accidentally) aestheticize and perpetuate some of the exact stereotypes that get them oppressed in the first place. Like, for real, correct me if there’s some social nuance I’m missing out on (genuinely, please tell me), but the big example that immediately comes to mind is the “gang gang” image that seems to be aestheticized in lots of mainstream hip hop. I know it’s not all of it and I’m not here saying “Oh the music is making the kids violent” or anything like that. I’m not an out of touch old man stereotyping an entire genre, but it genuinely puzzles me how this is such a mainstream cultural image that’s embraced so openly when there’s an actual police brutality problem. I mean.. racism doesn’t exactly come out of nowhere. Again, genuinely, I’m on the outside, so maybe there’s some subtle thing I’m missing out on, but how can you go around saying “abolish the police” while perpetuating this negative image that they already have of you (and were systematically trained to villainize)? Maybe I’ve already gone and said too much being an outsider. Please, and again, I say PLEASE tell me if there’s something I’m missing here before you go and attack me. It just seems like way too obvious of a plot hole yet I rarely hear anyone mention it. And that’s just ONE of the things that puzzles me, but I really shouldn’t go further in my position.
Like I said before, it could just be because I’m in a position where I don’t have to think about my race that I have the audacity to make those criticisms (though since I plan to leave, I’m sure I’ll get my rude awakening real soon). I am allowed to do what I want (for the most part). I’ve never been one to think that there are certain things that you should ‘like’ or ‘not like’ because of something like your race. That sounds like a fundamentally racist notion to me. While I understand that because culture comes from history and region, there may be some generalizations, but that I really don’t think that means you have to subscribe to them. Understanding them, yes, I do think that that’s always important, but I don’t think that it means I have to embrace them. The premise of ‘black’ and ‘white’ music and other entertainment doesn’t make much sense to me, especially since all art is influenced by each other. The same goes for vernacular. The same goes for food. The same goes for mannerisms. Things are things, man. While some things may be deeply rooted in cultural narratives (maybe that you don’t understand), things REALLY ARE just THINGS. A concept like “cultural appropriation” is something that I’d always had difficulty comprehending, though I have become a bit more understanding about it lately (also thanks to the internet). Again, I grew up somewhere where all these complex race relations have never really been a thing people think about (even if they maybe should). Stuff like how “rock and roll”, which is commonly viewed as a white genre now, was actually created by African Americans does irk me. Cases like that when things created by a people are deliberately taken and used by another people (that’ve been actively oppressing them) to appeal to their own are pretty infuriating. It’s as if you’re saying “these people only have worth when we’re using them for our own benefit.” Gross. But then. I like Japanese jazz quite a bit. Jazz is also a genre created by African Americans, but the Japanese have drawn from it and made their own distinct brand. No one complains about that. Maybe it’s because the Japanese haven’t been actively oppressing African Americans, in fact the Japanese seem to love black culture in general.. and we love them right back, Asian culture in general, actually. The relationship between Asian and black culture’s always been one of those things that just brings me joy. People do seem to be pretty cool with how Asians and black people regularly embrace each other’s cultures.. white people can’t do that, though. Is that what it boils down to, in the end? White people’ve lost their culture privileges because they’ve been the schmucks throughout history? Kinda enforces the ‘us’ and ‘them’ mentality that creates division in the first place, doesn’t it (even if they do deserve it)? Can I borrow from their culture? Can I talk like them, act like them, like the things they like, share the same attitudes as them or even think the way they do? In theory, that’s the goal of racial equality, but we can’t quite do that, can we? I can’t act ‘white’. They can’t act ‘black’, either.
Culture.. Way of life.. How? Why? Your past. Your art. Your beliefs. Your attitudes. It’s all very simple, when you look at it objectively (we humans tend to overcomplicate things with our little biases and hang ups). I say ‘Culture… why’ but I know why… culture. It’s all your past, where you come from, who brought you here, what makes you you. Like I said, that stuff is important to understand (I made a whole essay about that), but that knowledge is precisely what should let you know how to move forward. I can smell my own youthful ignorance and immaturity bubbling up, but let’s proceed to the radical stuff, anyway, shall we?
When you think about it, culture’s just another one of the dumb stuff we, as a species, have created to make some sense out of this messed up world. Cultures were created with civilizations. We only became more aware of each other in recent years. We didn’t like how we were different and stuff, so we go to war, we colonize, we enslave, we demonize, we imperialize, all that lovely stuff. Culture is first and foremost a means of identification. Those people are like that. These people are like this. Us. Them. Our people. Those people. You people. I remember how elated I used to get when I found someone else who liked the Japanimations and the mangoes (it wasn’t such a popular thing back then). Especially JoJo. There was a time when I was the only person I knew watching/reading JoJo and no one would listen when I recommended it. Now, everyone knows JoJo and I wish they’d shut up about it! Culture is the reason why I’ll gain some people’s respect when I say something like, I'd never watch a film on my telephone. It’s also why some people started taking me a bit less seriously when I went on my little anime tangent back there.. and others started taking me more seriously. Little cultural references and practices are how we identify each other, for better or worse. Culture is how we group people into masses. It’s how we find our communities.. and also how we reduce people to ideas. Dehumanization rears its ugly head, once again.
Still, we willingly buy into lots of dumb things ‘for the culture’. Like I said before, culture is a result of history, but I think we know that not everything done in history exactly holds up, today. SO, why should we mindlessly participate? There are so many dumb aspects of culture when you think about it. As Tin Foil Hat Conspiracy as it sounds, most of the stuff we value today is just as a result of advertisers. What’s up with brand culture and all that, man? Clothes is clothes. Stop it. All this materialism. Dumb. People are buying all these things they don’t need, traveling to places they don’t need to go, they even behave in ways molded for them. Art can be a real killer. Art imitates life and life imitates art. We value the thing artists tell us to value, we view the world the way they tell us to view it. We act like the characters on the screen. We dress like them, talk like them, like the same things, share the same attitudes, we even think the same. Black people all over the world are here believing that they’re African Americans, because their experiences are the only black experience portrayed in the mainstream media, struggles and all. The rest of us view the world how they view it, as a minority, while in some of these countries, we’re the white man, the majority. You start thinking about how people are portrayed in media, how that affects people in reality. Why are Gen Z kids (myself included) always trying (and often failing) to be clever? Why does our culture make such a big deal over procreation and people’s value as potential breeding stock? Why are dudes praised for getting around while females are shamed for it? Why are dudes shamed for not getting around while females are valued for it? What are you doing? Why do you do the things you do? Why do you like the things you like? Why do you value the things you value? Culture shapes how people interact with each other and the world around them. While this can be cool and make life more enjoyable and structured, blindly following culture can be less than tremendously smart.
The topic of culture could ruin everything you like or accept. I envy people who grew up in places whose cultures agree with them. I’m here haunted by my thoughts wondering if there’s something wrong with me for not enjoying the culture around me. The answer, I think, maybe for my own sake, is no. Culture is malleable. It’s fragile. It’s constantly growing and changing. Why am I taught to embrace some parts of culture but not others? Why are some of these really basic things (that I know are just stuff the adults grew up with) treated as culturally significant? Call me a hippie pseudo-intellectual young person, but I’d really just rather do my own thing. Still, if one day Japan was to stop being Japan, that’d make me sad. If one day everyone decided “Forget it! Let’s toss all the traditions and be our own free-flowing selves” and all cultures were abandoned, that’d be no fun at all, either, would it? Probably mad chaotic, too.
So, what? Culture.. bad? Culture.. not bad? I don’t think it’s that simple. Like I said, culture makes life simpler and more enjoyable, but then, again, just because something’s simpler doesn’t make it better. Culture has as many negatives as it does positives, and frankly, they do all come back to the fact that culture groups us. We like grouping each other, but we don’t like being grouped. We like using the term ‘my people’ but hate being referred to as ‘you people.’ You can’t have your cake and eat it, too. It’s another one of those plot holes. I don’t know. I really don’t know. Culture.. why? Do we still need it? In this day and age? It’s nice. It’s fun. But do we really need it? Yes? No? Maybe? I’ve tried asking people about their thoughts on culture so many times and gotten no response, and I think it’s because it’s such a difficult thing. I’m supposed to be wrapping this thing up, but I’m still just as puzzled, if not more puzzled than when I started it. Sure, I can choose for myself that I’d rather not participate in cultures I don’t like, but would I really want to convince others to do the same? What if (highly unlikely, of course, but, what if) everyone decided to think like me and acknowledge the fragility of culture and abandon it altogether? Would that be the death of societies, the death of peoples? Is that even such a bad thing? Sure, it’s no fun, but is it really a bad thing? Culture is why we’ve attacked and colonized and prejudiced and murdered and all this nonsense. Why? What are the positives of adhering to culture? Besides it being fun, that is.. and orderly.
Maybe there is no real conclusion. Maybe it's better that way. Maybe these are just the ramblings of a fish forced to walk on land for too long. Still, I direct the question to you:
Culture.. why?
Wow.....
Very impressive Judah. Keep going.