What determines culture?

Question

So this is from a post, not sure if you saw it. But it was about a girl who went to prom in a Asian inspired dress. Some thought it was cultural appropriation and others did not. It got me thinking of what determines culture. I don’t think she was, but someone could be of different race and raised that way culturally. If so, what cultural would they identify as, and do you think it’s more excepted if an Asian person had worn the dress and posed even if they have never even been involved in there viewed culture. I was just curious, because I’m Asian, but I was raised in a white community and my parents are white, so in my option I would say culturally Im closer to Caucasian traditions than my Asian ones.

Answer

Your culture is weighted by geographic location, race, family, neighborhood, friends, exposure to the customs around you. I was raised and went to school in a black neighborhood until I was 10. I was white, and the minority 🤣 It still didn’t change the fact I was raised with minorities in a black community. That made an impact. I’m very sensitive to the disparity in public education in those communities. I was also impacted by music, food, clothing, manner of expression, etc. I enjoy these things. It’s NOT appropriation. It’s where I come from! I just don’t act like I came up with it, invited or discovered it. Everything comes full circle. I live very close to where I grew up. My family is the minority in the neighborhood. I don’t care. My daughter braided my hair the other night. I picked up my son from work, and stopped at the gas station. I could see an older gentleman giving me a look. I looked right back 🤓 I’ll wear my braids if I want. You don’t know me, or where I came from. People need to stop being so myopic and critical. If someone is being a disrespectful ass or taking credit...have at them! Otherwise you just don’t know. Ask somebody 😑

Answer

How I feel is that culture is definitely where you’re from, how you were brought up, what things you do (traditions in culture), the people you’re around, and how you act. 
But not race.
I grew up in Hawaii and then moved to the mainland and Hawaiian culture is SOOOO different compared to what is considered the “normal” in the mainland. The norm for us were hoike (celebratory ceromonial event), hula dances/dancing, surfing on the daily, two or three times a week we’d have our culture class at school where we learned some Hawaiian words, learned to play the ukulele, learned about Hawaii’s history, etc. There were so many things from day to day life that were so different just in elementary school alone, not to even mention the rest of it.
It is one thing to be a local and grow up and live there forever, and it’s one thing to be a tourist. COMPLETELY different things lemme tell ya.
Living in the mainland, my family and I definitely keep up with the traditions and do what we’d normally do but we live in the Midwest now so it’s hard and I’ve grown up too. Every holiday, we make Hawaiian food and every time I finish a college semester I get a lei and at the end of the year we’ll do a hoike. Even doing little things like playing our music when we clean the house, and dressing casual in our aloha shirts on aloha Fridays like back home.
I think culture for my family is carrying the traditions with us that we’ve grown with and still acting like the hippie tan local surfers down the street even though there’s no beach unless you want to drive for  11hrs 😂
In my opinion culture is what you learn and grow and love, and with it comes hobbies, habits, traditions, slang, and small little things throughout my day, and even bigger things like what I believe in.
Culture is what you’re brought up in, what youre used to, what you learn and what traditions you hold. It’s not about race because hell, I’m not Hawaiian one bit, an African brought up in London is going to act like a regular European. It’s all about the environment, the people who impact it, and what you do in your usual day to day life.

Answer

I think it’s a bit of both. I’m also adopted and was raised by white people so I feel a lot more connected to Irish and white culture than Latina culture. I do feel a little connection with it because we spoke Spanish a lot in the house and lived in a Predominantly Latino area. I think for me it’s 80% family 20% community. For me 0% is actually about my genetics.

Answer

I’m white as white. My name is Mrs. Chin. Not kidding. My husband is half Chinese. My son is a little blonde baby, he’s Mr. Chin of course. We are Chinese and German we embrace that! My race is white but I am for sure connected to the Chinese culture. So family I think.

Answer

both

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I think if you grew up in the culture, understand the meaning & know what you're wearing, then it's fine. But if you just picked something pretty or edgy, and you don't know the meaning behind it aside from a Google search, don't wear it. As a Native American, I can tell you I saw a lot of things from my culture that are extremely political, sacred, meant to be modest or are reserved for only special ceremonies or individuals. And it was worn improperly or disrespectfully by a non-Native. Or they bought an imitation version that was made all wrong. 
It also doesn't help that (at least where I am) we have an extremely rocky past with the White settlers who nearly wiped us out, outlawed our culture, our dress, sent our kids to residential schools and put us in prison for having our ceremonies. And many of them today are still racist toward us, write hateful things about Natives all over Facebook & say ignorant things on Native issues. So you could imagine why it angers us to see these people wearing our headdresses at Hochelaga, buying knock-off moccasins or dressing White models in leather bikinis.
It's not so much "Who's wearing who" or "Who wore it right." Sometimes it's a whole complicated, political issue that has to do with a long history of colonization, institutional racism & abuse of minority populations.

Answer

Both??
It’s easy for kids born and raised by their parents. 
But I think about adopted children. They may biologically be Hispanic but be raised by a lovely mixed race black & white family.
Nothing wrong with them taking part in their adoptive parents culture as well as researching and exploring their biological culture as well.

Answer

Ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, where you live, family, age, traditions, education, hobbies/interests. All sorts of things. There’s no one specific thing that determines culture.

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I think culture is the society/home you were raised in or perhaps lived in for a long time. It's not necessarily your parents but it could be.

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I never assume culture based on race. I’ve seen that go wrong too many times. A time that stands out is when in middle school a white boy in my class asked the only black kid in our class to tell him about some customs of Africa. The boy was like ? I don’t really know anything about Africa sorry, I was born here in the US. And then the other boy just kept being like “Yeah but you’re black so you must be a part of African culture right??” And it really just made me cringe the entire time, it was very uncomfortable. 
That’s a huge reason as to why I don’t comment on what is and isn’t cultural appropriation solely based on the color of a person’s skin. My friend is white but was born and raised in China and for her those types of outfits that were being discussed were a part of her culture. If someone had told her that she were appropriating culture for wearing that when she was white she would’ve laughed bc she was still literally considered to be Chinese. I also never base things off of race either bc many PoC are white passing and I’d never want to say “You can’t do that bc you’re white” and then have them say “... but I’m not white”. It’s just not my place to tell people what they can and cannot do based off of what I think they look like (which can easily border on inappropriate stereotypes). 
Imo culture is mostly based off of where you grew up, what customs your family practices, if you’ve kept with that culture if you’ve left home, etc.

What determines culture?

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