My forum is not very active but I’ll e-mail you a link.

There’s a kind of ignorance that comes with casually tossing around the word “ethnic”. The kind of people who use the word to describe anything remotely “wild” or “tribal” (that’s another good one) or “exotic” won’t stop to consider the consequence or connotation of their word choice. It’s racist both ways; it assumes that Western fashion is totally white and sterile, some kind of master template, while the rest of the world is a cornucopia of exotic riches to pluck from. It’s such a post-colonial, Orientalist mindset that’s embedded in the Western vernacular and I’m afraid few people care enough to change it.

After all, how many of those “ethnic” prints are faithful recreations of any specific culture? How much money could I bet that it’s just a mishmash of “arabesque” and “oriental” designs all cooked up to look “wild”? The designer’s ignorance will beget the consumer’s ignorance.

Could you tell me more about your forum? I is interesteded.

There’s something to be said for the lack of having an ethnic identity and how it makes me feel like a person made of meaningless marshmallow.

Btw, harem pants make even the models look bad. So they are not ethnic, they are just ugly.

… if I were the devil.

I too am going to play a sort of devil’s advocate. I don’t find the use of the term ethnic offensive, but lazy. I when something actually is ethnic (by which I mean it originates or is inspired by a non-majority group), it needs to be acknowledged as such to avoid it being appropriated and claimed by the majority group or any other group. As of yet, we have not found a way to live without labels; we need them. So, for me, ethnic is more of a lazy label than an offensive label. It is a catch-all category consumeristic cultures use to promote things quickly and easily without actually considering the significance of what they are promoting. Something that I consider to be ethnic to the use (albeit it a very negative thing) is the use of the n-word. In my travels in Spanish-speaking countries who have been exposed to this word through rap and such things, I have encountered non-native American English speakers who will use this word with absolutely no comprehension of what exactly it entails. And even here, among non-native English speakers trying to become accustomed to idioms and such, I have encountered the casual use of the word.

That is sort of a convoluted example, but I think the real problem with the fascination of ethnic things is the lack of motivation to try and understand what it might mean to the originating culture. Like the use of Chinese characters without knowing what they mean. Or the use of sacred objects or symbols in pop culture without knowing the significance of their use in whatever culture they came from.

So, I guess what I’m saying is the problem with the term ethnic is that it allows us to remain ignorant while at the same time giving us a sense of open-mindedness.

Okay, back to the paper. Talk to you later!

From a linguistic point of view, the term ‘ethnic’ is used to describe something that denotes or derives from or is distinctive of the ways of living built up by a group of people. Put into a social context, something that is only particular to a group within a larger community is thus considered ‘ethnic’. This is why it makes sense that in the US, anything that is not of the majority, or ‘white’ if you like, is therefore labelled under the umbrella term ‘ethnic’. In the same vein, what is considered ethnic in the US may be the norm in another social context, and therefore ‘not ethnic’. For example, the Korean hanbok may be described as ‘ethnic clothing’ in the west, but it’s just clothes in the context of Korea; Chinese food can be labelled as ethnic food outside of the Chinese culture, whereas within, it’s just food.

I see in fashion a lot of Indian and African-inspired prints. I’m sure that when these clothing items are sold in India or Africa etc., they are not tagged as ethnic. But being tagged as such outside India/Africa/etc. does make sense. I don’t have an axe to grind about that.