here is an example of cultural appropriation. i wrote a setting for RPG's based on Bantu mythology -you know, Kongo, Swahili,, Great Zimbabwe, Zulu, etc? i read hundreds of journal articles and kept the PDF's so i can cite my references, instead of the 'dark continent' BS, i create a thriving Empire on the level of Renaissance europe that uses magic as technology. when i presented this to the RPG community, the first objection was to one optional character race i included, the !tsharg, which are sapient
mandrills. i was told that having any kind of talking monkey in an african themed RPG would be offensive. i responded that all humans are talking monkeys, and that if one pays attentions, chimps have the same skin color as europeans. it didn't go over well, in Bantu culture, baboons are always thought of as being a sentient people.
here's the PDF of the setting
WajabuPDF
but the real problem was with how i i presented the pygmies. meaning the Twa, Sanadwe, etc. in real life, during the Bantu expansion, most of these cultures were destroyed. in Bantu society, if you want to get married, you have to pay a price to the bride's father, usually in cattle. to avoid that, some people just abducted pygmy women, often killing their husbands and any other males, and 'married' them. doesn't happen now (rarely), but that was the process. also, during the Rwanda/Burundi genocides, the local pygmies were slaughtered, in once case, killing 30% of the population. i didn't like that shit, so in my world, i gave them a leg up, some special magical powers, but mostly, i made them a different race that could not interbreed with humans, thus preventing the main problem.oh, hell. in RPG's, when you do this, you present a template of that race's physical and mental abilities. i lessened strength and height only, and gave a boost to health to compensate. no chance to IQ or anything. the critics when ape shit. one said that i had 'created a fictional oppression and genocide of a real people, who in fact live in harmony with the Tutsi and Hutu, in order to present myself as their savior, when i was actually ripping off their culture'. at one point that person said i had the 'white imperialist mindset'. i said that assuming i'm white, and calling me that was racist. a mod intervened and said 'saying you are white when you are white is not racist. back off'. note that nowhere on this site is my ethnicity identified. i responded to that, and was banned for life from the site.
truthfully, though i look like a white norteamericano, that is not how i identify myself. for one thing, my maternal grandfathter was a light skinned black who pretended to be indian in order to marry a white women, by those rules, 'one drop pollutes', i'm black. i've never tried to present myself as such, as it would be ridiculous and offensive, but it is true. for myself, i believe that my soul comes from an extinct race of pygmies that lived in north america before what we call 'Indians' arrived, such people did exist -
Monte Verde and i believe this and wrote up our creation story before knowing about the evidence. so, i'm not white. i'm one of the realpeople, as we call ourselves, but you can call us the 'ohcanyousea'. here's a link to our story- [URL="https://weirdnessconfessions.wordpress.com/2015/05/12/confessions-of-a-weirdness-magnet-part-11/]ohcanyousea[/URL]
these people are vicious, and off their nuts, that's what i'm sayin.
