Scandinavia and the World
Scandinavia and the World

Comments #9687424:


Halloween appropriation 9 10, 9:48am

@Nisse_Hult
"if you visit any European country it's no contest what so ever - the cultural influence from the US is much, much, MUCH bigger."

I have, and I understand this, but the differences between American culture vs eastern cultures aren't really comparable. And I believe these people are afraid that a culture that is SO DIFFERENT from theirs could EVENTUALLY become as intrusive as American culture as the populations of those people increase. It's the fear of what COULD happen, not necessarily what HAS happened.

"But still some people are extremely afraid of the big bad Muslim bogey man forcing them to eat Halal meat (which isn't happening, by the way), but completely oblivious to the fact that much of what they perceive as their own culture is in fact imported - not seldom from the US within the last 70 years."

I'm not under any illusion that my entire culture isn't imported - my family immigrated here, as did most of the country. And I didn't say anyone is forcing them to eat Halal, I'm saying that when you start seeing the foods/cultural things to become more integrated into everyday life, that is when it's becoming more influential. You claimed these things had zero influence on culture, which is wrong.

"But they're not doing it without my content.
We're talking about legal immigrants moving to my country and continuing practicing their culture - why should I have a problem with that? They're not forcing me to adopt theirs."

Well then you are lucky to be someone who doesn't feel their culture is being threatened in anyway. This isn't the case for many people I know. They see their language disappearing as the majority, their foods being replaced by new ones, traditions being practiced less and less as a community. Those are the things they are afraid of regardless of where the new influence is coming from.

"OK then, I see your point, but that's not what I've ever seen here.
Now would you like to provide some sources for this "flooding" of your area with people demanding that you change your culture? I've never heard of this happening in the US, so it would be interesting to learn more."

I already touched on this in my previous post, that due to all of the movement from other parts of the country into my state, and foreign countries as well, the culture of my state has changed greatly. It makes me sad because this is and always has been my home. If it changes to the point that I hardly recognize my community anymore, where do I have to go to find "home"? Nowhere.

See Figure 1 for the population boom I'm referring to - and this is ONLY foreign immigration (keep in mind I was born in the 80's).
http://demographics.texas.gov/Resources/Publications/2015/2015_05_Origins.pdf

https://cis.org/Report/RecordSetting-Decade-Immigration-20002010

https://supremelendingmcclellanbranch.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/2016-01-20_0814.png (this is the population growth of the city over the years)

From other states that have very different cultures than Texas: https://www.texastribune.org/2016/04/20/texas-top-destination-domestic-migrants/

So as I said, I don't have an issue with WHICH cultures are moving here. It's the sheer amount that have flooded our borders over the last few decades and have had significant effects on the state as I knew it. This is what people fear.