Is it racist of me to be interested in a culture not mine by birth/ethnicity?
Have I been insensitive, culturally, in learning Japanese? In going to Japan? In cooking Japanese food, watching Japanese films, reading Japanese books, listening to Japanese music? Or in trying to understand a culture not my own; in trying to explain cultural differences as best I understand them, or appreciate traditions that aren't mine? Am I poaching? Stealing? Being insensitive and boorish?
I'm not Japanese, and I never will be--is a different culture off-limits to me? Are my only legitimate lines of cultural enquiry German, Prussian, Welsh, Scots, and Irish? I would not dare to claim American--every southern family claims to have a "Cherokee Princess" somewhere back in their line, but it's purest bullshit. I doubt there is a drop of First Nations blood anywhere in me.
Is it possible to learn a language--to reach a high level of fluency in a language, really--without having a great deal of interest in the cultural milieux from which it comes? For me, I don't think that it is. Should my non-English language selections be limited to German, Polish, Welsh, or Gaelic? (I didn't enjoy German, am deeply apathetic about Polish, and Welsh and Gaelic... I want to learn them, but they are reasonably low on my priority list, not being widely spoken.)
Is my desire to be polylingual an expression of racist or ethnocentric motivations? I have always thought and felt that learning about and participating in other cultures is a way to reach beyond and to learn my way out of the cultural baggage of racism that I, like every white American, have inherited. But now I wonder if I am wrong, if there is racism hidden behind everything that I do, every interest that I have.
