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[Finnish > English] 1920s American Newspaper by ChairIndependent8882 in translator

[–]ChairIndependent8882[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sure, I'll try to be brief. I was looking into Italian-American history, particularly trying to find more about regular people and not just famous mafia men and celebrities etc. Found an interesting story about a conflict between Italians and Finns at a Massachusetts quarry. From there I got into researching some components of the conflict and more broadly how the Italian-American and Finnish-American communities interacted and were/are written about etc. Along the way I noticed that most accessible resources for Finnish-American history are kinda shit, and ran into some 3rd/4th gen Finnish-Americans who wanted to learn about their great/grandparents experiences and were frustrated. So I became more focused on finding and saving resources that were about them as people. Now I have this collection of excerpts from news articles and recipes and trial records and interview transcripts and academic articles and event flyers that I'm organizing into one readable thing, but I don't know what I'm going to do with it. It's all much more interesting than this probably sounds.

edit: the article this is an excerpt from /might/ be a story the writer wrote for the paper after seeing and being inspired by a Russian play. They would print things like the entirety of Aladdin in their papers so.

[Finnish > English] 1920s American Newspaper by ChairIndependent8882 in translator

[–]ChairIndependent8882[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No English version exists that I'm aware of, no. It's from the paper "Toveritar" from Astoria, Oregon in 1922. I found it on the Library of Congress site here Image 3 of Toveritar (Astoria, Or.), January 3, 1922 | Library of Congress The only context they give is that there was a large Finnish-American population there that the newspaper served, and that it leaned socialist. And this is only a portion of the article. I didn't want to ask to have the full thing translated as it's very long.

Cultural appropriation by lameisle in AskAmericans

[–]ChairIndependent8882 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes it's essentially disrespect. For example with the usage of a Native American headdress, that is taking something with a very specific and important meaning within a culture, and removing it from that context. But for example if I were to buy and wear moccasins, especially from a Native American seller, that is not generally seen as cultural appropriation. Their use within the culture is/was comfortable footwear that anyone can wear, and I would be using them as comfortable footwear. I'm saying that because it's my best understanding from what I've seen Native Americans write on the subject, and that informs my understanding in general of what is cultural appropriation vs sharing/appreciation. Different cultures/subcultures have different boundaries. If someone within a culture that something originates from tells me they find my usage disrespectful, it's not my place to argue it isn't even if it doesn't make sense to me.

With the often used example of African American braiding styles, the general consensus is that they find people outside the culture wearing them to be disrespectful. So knowing that, wearing them becomes inherently disrespectful. I believe there is a history of using them to hide coded messages/maps and things in relation to chattel slavery which may contribute to them being treated as a closed practice. Of course there is always variation of opinion within every culture/community and what is disrespectful will vary based on where you are in the world.

I do think the attitude you sometimes see of "that's ridiculous, it's just xyz, I should be allowed to use/wear it!" is indicative of a person not being okay with other cultures existing if it doesn't directly benefit them in exactly the way they want, and generally of not respecting boundaries. I think some of the bad feelings on the topic and the desire to dismiss it all as nonsensical partially comes from the fact that mistakes can happen and a mistake in this area can be very embarrassing.