Cultural Appropriation My ASS

[Previously posted on another blog I no longer run]

In response to a "Dear White People" open letter by an angry Hispanic-American who doesn't want person's of European descent to celebrate The Day of the Dead:

everyone's entitled to my own opinion.... xD
I just wish people that have ancient traditions to celebrate would be grateful they have them and kindly climb down out out of the “white man’s” ass for a nanosecond and shift some perceptions.
I grew up as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses since age two. Being a JW means:

No Christmas/Hannukah/Kwanza
No New Years (Eve or Day)
No Easter
No Birthdays
None.
NOOOTHINGGGG!!

At Halloween we shut out the lights so no one would knock, and got TP’d by neighbors.
At Valentine’s Day (oh hell, ALL the Hallmark Conspiracy holidays!)sit awkwardly in class trying hard to be above my own embarrassment and awkwardness while everyone exchanged cards.
The never ending questions, hating, and ‘Boy I feel sorry for you” bs.

Estrangement from relatives because we didn’t go to the family holiday gatherings.

Imagine growing up in a family that has NO ROOTS.
Nothing to mark the passage of time-not even birthdays! No sweet sixteen or other coming of age. (No school dances, no after school activities)

I’m 51 now and don’t know where many of my living relatives are or how to find them. Why? I don’t know most of their last or maiden names. I can't recall many things simply from lack of exposure.  Normal exposure you'd expect to receive from your parents and extended family. The family bible I inherited had no weddings or military service recorded. No family tree filled out.

Two years ago was only my second Halloween. I had plastic stickers in the window and a plastic pumpkin wreath on my door. I’m disabled and they were a buck a piece, all I could afford. I bought a real pumpkin to carve and never did it. I put it off because I was stressed and nervous I’d do a bad job. That and lingering guilt and fear.

Thanks so much for the WalMart jab and inflatable lawn decorations.  Tacky?  Maybe.  But also none of your business.  Nothing is being taken away from you simply because someone else decided to celebrate and decorate differently than you.

How many kids in Africa died of starvation while this was typed do you think?

When I pass our four cockatiels on my way to the bathroom, they hiss at peck at EACH OTHER. Why? Because I’m too big to mess with.
And this is all people do.
We can’t fight an economy. Maybe if we all had private little caves in Tibet, but for now all we have is each other and we’re all blowing it over shallow and pedantic bullshit like “don’t do what I do and don’t wear what I wear”

I’m English, Irish, Scottish, Italian, French, “Cajun” Seminole and Cherokee. So, who am I supposed to not culturally appropriate? My blood was colonized and appropriated long, long ago. Many nations war in MY blood, you think?

Get a gentle perspective, light a candle, and pray for all those JW kids who have no family or national traditions to root them to the brotherhood of Life.