To my mind, the flip side of railing about "cultural appropriation" is a - covert, at best - call for some sort of cultural "purity" in which mixing is discouraged or even punished.
See, this is what really disappointed me about the Cultural Appropriation Debate of Doom - nobody ever got around to serious discussions of what is and isn't cultural appropriation, and what is and isn't negative about it. Everyone got really sidetracked talking about race and racism, and in just defending themselves and wow did it get messy.
Not that race/racism doesn't tie into the issue, but boy did it ever drown out any other subjects.
I would really have liked to have seen more serious posting and commenting about this topic, and about what it is means, what it's effects are, and the people affected by it.
Especially since I tend to agree with you. The idea of cultures swapping words and music and food and clothes and all sorts of things seems to me to be a good thing. But, at the same time, I'm wary of being that simplistic.
Because cultures aren't just two equals at a swap meet. There can be dominance, there can be one culture drowning out another. There can be unfairness in the process, and there can be abuse.
An extreme example of something bad, I think, would be taking something sacred to another culture (like, say, a religious object) and using it as a paperweight on your desk. That sort of thing is disrespectful and negative.
But of course, we didn't get around to talking about it because things just went kablooey in the space of a couple of days and no one could ever wrangle the topic back on track.
no subject
See, this is what really disappointed me about the Cultural Appropriation Debate of Doom - nobody ever got around to serious discussions of what is and isn't cultural appropriation, and what is and isn't negative about it. Everyone got really sidetracked talking about race and racism, and in just defending themselves and wow did it get messy.
Not that race/racism doesn't tie into the issue, but boy did it ever drown out any other subjects.
I would really have liked to have seen more serious posting and commenting about this topic, and about what it is means, what it's effects are, and the people affected by it.
Especially since I tend to agree with you. The idea of cultures swapping words and music and food and clothes and all sorts of things seems to me to be a good thing. But, at the same time, I'm wary of being that simplistic.
Because cultures aren't just two equals at a swap meet. There can be dominance, there can be one culture drowning out another. There can be unfairness in the process, and there can be abuse.
An extreme example of something bad, I think, would be taking something sacred to another culture (like, say, a religious object) and using it as a paperweight on your desk. That sort of thing is disrespectful and negative.
But of course, we didn't get around to talking about it because things just went kablooey in the space of a couple of days and no one could ever wrangle the topic back on track.