My wife loves sewing and is always looking at anything sewing related. Recently she has started commenting about how many sites have started banging on about 'cultural appropriation.' Europeans shouldn't wear clothes with African prints on for example (does these mean Africans shouldn't wear suits? Just showed me this from paper cut patterns facebook site
"In light of the recent discussions online addressing cultural appropriation, racism and hate against Asian Culture, we would like to apologise for naming a collection of our patterns after Japanese cities. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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When we designed these patterns years ago, we named them after Japanese places out of our adoration for the beautiful Japanese aesthetic. At that time, we did not realise that this could be hurtful or inappropriate. We understand that this is problematic and that our actions, no matter how well intended from our point of view, have caused hurt.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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We have never intended to offend or hurt anyone but there is absolutely no excuse for cultural appropriation, and we would like to do better and actively address where we have gone wrong. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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We have removed these patterns from our online store and will be re-naming them immediately. The styles will be available again online once we have completed a thorough process of finding appropriate names; these new names will be reflected in all future print runs from today. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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We would like to express our gratitude and appreciation to those of you who reached out to us and have been brave enough to open the conversation. We wholeheartedly respect and acknowledge the work you’re doing and are proud to be part of a community that’s standing up for Asian Culture - as we all should be. Thank you.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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We don’t and will not support any violent or disrespectful behaviours towards Asian culture, and we would like to encourage everyone to keep the conversations about anti-racism respectful, supportive and educational. We will not tolerate hateful or racist comments in our community, but seek to positively contribute to these important conversations on this platform."
Tbf all the comments from readers including Japanese ladies are as incredulous of why this is an issue as I am. Anyone disagree?
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