A serious question deserves a serious poll

[megwrites]

I know, I know. It's that Cultural Appropriation Thing^TM again, but hey. The worst thing we could do is pretend that it doesn't exist, right?

Don't worry, it won't hurt. Just take the poll.


[Poll #1352312]

Comments

[ladyslvr.livejournal.com]

The problem, in my mind, with the cultural appropriation issue is that any time one says that white people (or dominant people) shouldn't be able to share in other cultures, the implication is that those other cultures also have no right to share in the dominant culture--and that's racism at its core. As soon as you start drawing lines about who has rights to what, then you're making race/privilege/etc. the only real point of interest.

I'd even grant allowances in the situation you give example of: taking a religious object and using it as a paperweight. If that were done knowingly, then it's disrespectful and negative. If it's done out of ignorance and no correction is offered/forthcoming, then it could be a sign of respect: one is showing appreciation for something from another culture in one's own way. Now, if one continues to use the object as a paperweight after being corrected, we're back at disrespect.

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.

Of course. In fact, it's not that there could be. There will be.

However, in the long term, every culture gets to share in all the roles. Sometimes cultures are the dominated and sometimes the dominant. To scream foul when a culture is being dominate is to have no sense of history.

Especially, it misses out on how incredibly often a dominated culture--or aspects thereof--can sneak in and completely take over. Early American culture certainly made every effort to squash the cultures of the Africans who were transported here. Yet, three hundred years later, significant chunks of what makes our culture beautiful and distinctive (read: our art, in all its forms) is heavily influenced by, if not directly appropriated from, those same African cultures. Was the slave trade right? Of course not. But jazz, gospel, blues, rock n roll, hip hop, and rap ... what could be more American? Through appropriation we ended up with beauty in a half dozen or more new forms that everyone can enjoy.