Americans Now Wearing Masks and Why It’s Cultural Appropriation
White America has yet again chosen violence.
December 1, 2020
By: Julia Zhen
Americans have been notorious for their lack of cultural awareness for years. Seeing a white person with a Chinese character tattoo is like seeing a barnacle on a whale: off-putting, familiar over time, but still tasteless. These days, white Americans have been really getting out of hand as the surge in face masks has been absolutely unprecedented! The cultural appropriation is nauseating.
While the white guy you knew in high school continuously tries to sell you FOREX on Instagram and get those corny Chinese character tattoos, Americans have been buying up face masks like freaking hot cakes. And, if you haven’t noticed before, Chinese people LOVE wearing face masks. They could be seen wearing them either in their home country while using an umbrella on a sunday day or at your university as they don Gucci.
What freaking gives? Why are Americans so pressed to imitate Chinese culture, but the minute that my parents have a conversation in Mandarin in public, we get gawked at and receive unwelcoming stares from strangers. If you want to appropriate the culture, you have to pay some respect to the culture! It’s not that hard! Please go to your nearest park and give each Chinese person you see a fruit basket. This is a form of respect. They’ll know what it means.
Plus, the way Americans have been buying up masks left and right and hoarding them is typical Chinese culture they are also appropriating. In case you didn’t know, Chinese people actually lived through a famine, so they hoard because they still have that mentality. You Americans just do that because of your capitalistic, individualistic greedy nature! If you want to respect a Chinese person, you’re gonna have to call up all the kids you yelled “ching chong” at in elementary school and apologize. And venmo them $5. Sorry, I don’t make the rules.
One last point I’ll make here is that the reason why it’s cultural appropriation is because it’s something that Americans are CHOOSING to do. Ok sure, there’s a “pandemic” so what… Guess who did the pandemic first…Yes, CHINA. Nobody is legally mandating you to wear a mask! And if you are because you all of a sudden care about the “collective” buddy do I have a reality check for you. COLLECTIVISM is one of the founding principles of Chinese culture (remember, there was a famine.) So, for you to just all of a sudden start “caring” about other people around you, well, you better call up your co-worker with a Chinese name and say sorry for all the times you butchered it because you could’ve just asked how to pronounce it instead of guessing.
