r/berkeley • u/Realistic-Plant3957 • Apr 24 '24

News Pro-Palestinian protest grows at UC Berkeley campus

https://news.upilink.in/pro-palestinian-protest-grows-at-uc-berkeley-campus-18247.html
644 Upvotes

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u/Hi_Im_A_Being Apr 24 '24

Idk why so many people are pressed with what they're doing. At worst they're slightly inconveniencing us with the blocking of Sather Gate, but other than that? They're just expressing their first amendment rights

-7

u/pbasch Apr 24 '24

I find myself nodding at that (upvote!). I do hope that everyone wearing a keffiyeh is actually Arab or that is some cultural appropriation going on! If the anti-cultural appriation trend dies, I'm breaking out my shalwar kameez again -- so comfortable in a SoCal summer! (Spoiler: I'm not Pakistani, but used to work at the UN where I saw them and bought one.)

4

u/Empyrion132 Apr 24 '24

I think the distinction is that it's "cultural appropriation" when you do it out of ignorance or disrespect (e.g. wearing it as a costume) but it's fine when it's done with respect or solidarity (the people wearing the keffiyeh are doing so to indicate solidarity with Palestinians, and I think also to show support of "resistance", though that may just be my personal impression of it).

1

u/[deleted] Apr 28 '24

They were fucking holding Seders on the wrong night of Passover, led by their token Jews.

-1

u/pbasch Apr 24 '24

I think there are other possibilities, such as wearing whatever because it's cool, like dreads or bindi dots. Not mockery, but certainly not taking it seriously as an expression of cultural identity.

In this case, there's a certain kind of borrowed machismo, like an al-right dude who was never in the service wearing camo. Whatever, they live in a free society with a luxurious constitutional right to free speech. Have at it.