On Hyphenated-Americans.

[P3nT4gR4m]

If you're not welcome somewhere, you're not welcome. Gawking in that kind of way is kinda creepy. Creepy should be never welcome.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

I would say they diverged but still influence each other to a degree. Plus america has the philosophy of do it bigger. Dont year a little green. Wear obnoxious amounts and shades of it.

[P3nT4gR4m]

Here's the thing that strikes me about culture - culture evolves and grows and changes and sometimes it stays exactly the same only because it imposes itself on a younger generation who are brainwashed by their predecessors with a load of shit about "you have to keep our great culture alive and pure cos of roots and who you are and all that good kool-aid shit"

And your holy culture must not be appropriated or diluted or changed in any way cos then it won't be your great culture anymore. Thing I can't help thinking is that if the culture can't stand up to being "raepz0rred" and it dies with the last old fart that just want's to do shit exactly the same as it's always been done then good riddance. The culture was shit. Humanity has voted.

[LMNO]

"You don't have the right to wear the traditional clothing of my people"

"You don't have the right to sing Give Me Shelter, cos you're Justin Bieber"

"You don't have the right to open an Indian cuisine restaurant, cos you're Norwegian"

"You don't have the right to eat meat cos you're squeamish about killing animals"

"You don't have the right to call yourself Punk cos you're fifteen and/or Green Day"

"You can't attend this cultural festival cos you're the wrong colour"

Trollbait!

You have as much right as anyone else to take an interest in the customs and traditions of your ancestors whether you bear any resemblance to those ancestors whatsoever, or not.

You have as much right as anyone else to take an interest in the customs and traditions of people who aren't your ancestors whether you bear any resemblance to those ancestors whatsoever, or not.

You have the right to pick up bits and pieces of any culture and tradition, mix them up with other shit, add your own personal invention and call it whatever the fuck you damn well please.

If you take the hump with this, then that's your bitch - go fuck yourself while you're getting over it.

What we're talking about, to a greater or lesser degree is "Racial Purity". What Hyphenated-Americans and, to the same degree, hyphenated-anythings are, is a bunch of fucking mongrels, arguing from on a stance of racial purity.

Does it get anymore retarded than than?

I'm not sure but I hate to say "never" on issues of retardedness.

At what point does respect come into play, though? I'm thinking here of the gay bar which is plenty friendly to straight people who wanna come in sit and have a drink, but more than a little off-put by weird ass gawkers who's sole purpose is to come in and call dude's "girlfriend," while they giggle and take pictures of their safari into gay culture.

In my experience, the gay tourists get either laughed at, read to filth, and take their money.

[P3nT4gR4m]

On a scale of "Friend of a friend met someone who seen one once" to "Last night the bar was exclusively gay tourists all looking disappointedly at the bar staff" just how common is this gay tourist phenomenon?

Never heard of it before but it's making me chuckle a bit.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Huh, that's interesting. I've become aware recently of such a community but could not understand it, I assumed they're just racists, until now.

There's all kinds of Nordic stuff here, Nordic Ski, Finlandia Hall, Sons of Norway. They're really active together, especially with cross country skiing, they go bananas for that ski shit. I refer to them as Ski Jerks because snowshoes are more badass and I enjoy petty, needless rivalry.

I could not figure it out, but it makes sense if people build a subculture based on heritage. Thanks for pointing that out.

It IS elaborate LARPing, kinda.

Try thinking about it like this; a group of people from the same culture who all speak the same language emigrate to an area, often a remote area, where they are strangers in a strange land. They understand each other and have the same food, holidays, and customs, so they form a community. Generations pass, and the community evolves and is influenced by the surrounding culture, and perhaps they all now speak the language of the dominant culture around them, but retain customs, cuisine, and celebrations, and continue to primarily associate with and marry within their group.

That isn't LARPing, that's how ethnic subcultures are formed.

Think there's such a thing as cultural speciation? Like at some point (maybe when the hyphen's dropped, or the pidgin becomes a creole) does the subculture become a wholly unique culture? Are Cajun or Gullah their own thing?

Definitely! Like there's a language here called Chinook Jargon, it started as a trade language and it's a cobbling together of a bunch of indian languages, French, and English. When the Grande Ronde tribes were forced together onto a reservation (five unrelated tribes, each with their own language) the only way they had to communicate with each other was the shared trade language. Chinook Jargon is now the official language of the Grande Ronde, and most of the original languages of the five tribes are extinct. The Grande Ronde are a unique new culture in their own right, as are the Warm Springs.

Irish-American is really its own thing, in my opinion, regardless of the fact that the name is hyphenated. So is African-American and Italian-American. After a couple hundred years, if a group maintains its own distinct cultural identity, it's it's own thing regardless of what it's called.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

"You don't have the right to wear the traditional clothing of my people"

"You don't have the right to sing Give Me Shelter, cos you're Justin Bieber"

"You don't have the right to open an Indian cuisine restaurant, cos you're Norwegian"

"You don't have the right to eat meat cos you're squeamish about killing animals"

"You don't have the right to call yourself Punk cos you're fifteen and/or Green Day"

"You can't attend this cultural festival cos you're the wrong colour"

Trollbait!

You have as much right as anyone else to take an interest in the customs and traditions of your ancestors whether you bear any resemblance to those ancestors whatsoever, or not.

You have as much right as anyone else to take an interest in the customs and traditions of people who aren't your ancestors whether you bear any resemblance to those ancestors whatsoever, or not.

You have the right to pick up bits and pieces of any culture and tradition, mix them up with other shit, add your own personal invention and call it whatever the fuck you damn well please.

If you take the hump with this, then that's your bitch - go fuck yourself while you're getting over it.

What we're talking about, to a greater or lesser degree is "Racial Purity". What Hyphenated-Americans and, to the same degree, hyphenated-anythings are, is a bunch of fucking mongrels, arguing from on a stance of racial purity.

Does it get anymore retarded than than?

I'm not sure but I hate to say "never" on issues of retardedness.

At what point does respect come into play, though? I'm thinking here of the gay bar which is plenty friendly to straight people who wanna come in sit and have a drink, but more than a little off-put by weird ass gawkers who's sole purpose is to come in and call dude's "girlfriend," while they giggle and take pictures of their safari into gay culture.

That right there is the difference between self-identification and being a dick.

Back to the golden rule:

Don't be a dick.

[LMNO]

On a scale of "Friend of a friend met someone who seen one once" to "Last night the bar was exclusively gay tourists all looking disappointedly at the bar staff" just how common is this gay tourist phenomenon?

Never heard of it before but it's making me chuckle a bit.

If it's a true Boston gay bar, the straights will become massively uncomfortable when they realize the queers really DON'T GIVE A SHIT and will blow each other in the corner and openly mock the straights.

If at the drag show, they'll embarrass the straights into spending their money under the guise of entertainment.

[Roly Poly Oly-Garch]

On a scale of "Friend of a friend met someone who seen one once" to "Last night the bar was exclusively gay tourists all looking disappointedly at the bar staff" just how common is this gay tourist phenomenon?

Never heard of it before but it's making me chuckle a bit.

If it's a true Boston gay bar, the straights will become massively uncomfortable when they realize the queers really DON'T GIVE A SHIT and will blow each other in the corner and openly mock the straights.

If at the drag show, they'll embarrass the straights into spending their money under the guise of entertainment.

This.

There was one bar in Colorado that was unfortunately located right next to the skeeviest meat market in town, and it was horrible there. People would fucking go in on dares and shit. It was pathetic. The staff was predictably rude as fuck to straight people in general until you had proven that you weren't a fucking asshat. And it took quite a while to earn that trust.

OTOH, The Eagle up in North Portland, Bear Bar, dicks and fur and leather and altar-boy porn and such--yeah...not really so much of an issue with gawkers there.