What are your thoughts on ‘cultural appropriation’ ?

31 comments

1. The basic idea is fine. That we shouldn’t be taking things that are holy or sacred to other cultures and use them in disrespectful ways.

   The problem is there’s a bunch of folks online who took that idea and think it means that no one can ever use something made by a different culture.

2. 90% of the time the term’s used, it’s used wildly incorrectly by idiots.

   I’m reminded of the time people ranted and raved about an actress wearing a kimono…ignoring the fact she was half Japanese. And at a film event in Japan.

   But there is that 10% that’s valid and unfortunately gets drowned out by the assumption it’s part of the 90%.

3. I think people often are too sensitive about it, providing the subject isn’t being overtly rude or disrespectful. A white person with dreads or a black person in a kimono is pretty harmless and not cause for outrage in my opinion.

4. I think 95 percent of the time it’s used, the person using it doesn’t know what it means.

5. Cultures are intended to be appropriated.

6. There was a complaint about cultural appropriation that stuck out to me. A major nationally distributed cooking magazine gave a lot of publicity when publishing their non-Asian New Yorker chef’s ‘Authentic Pho ‘.

   They couldn’t / wouldn’t seek out a Vietnamese chef for this article. But the publication was definitely striking while the Pho iron was hot. In the easiest, no effort, inward looking, homogenous way possible.

   And I’m glad there were people yelling “you suck” when they did so. If you don’t know any Vietnamese people when you want to make a splash about Vietnamese food — put your adult panties on and go meet some Vietnamese people.

7. What it is: wearing a native American head dress for Halloween

   What it isn’t: 99% of the stuff people on the internet are freaking out about.

   I think in this day and age we are far more connected and so we are naturally going to be exposed to other cultures more so than ever before. Because of this cultures are going to intermingle and react more so than they ever have before. It’s definitely important to try and keep in mind the original context of a certain piece of culture so you don’t accidentally disrespect that culture by appropriating it.

   But for some reason you always see someone trying to gatekeep a different culture on behalf of someone else. Most of the time they are demonstrating their own ignorance of a culture instead of actually doing anything good. They also look really really dumb when they do that.

8. I’m for it.

9. I think it exists but can be blown out of proportion.

10. “Cultural appropriation” has been happening for as long as culture has existed. Anytime any group of people come up with a good idea, other groups steal it and make it their own

11. Appropriation vs appreciation occurs when you fail to have empathy for other people with different cultures just because that culture is foreign to you. Like, you’ve exoticized it so much in your mind that you lose sight of the fact that there are real people just like you behind it.

    As an example, US culture places high significance on the Purple Heart. If someone from another culture just thought the medals looked pretty and decided to make choker necklaces out of Purple Heart replicas, a lot of people would find that ignorant and offensive. That would be appropriation.

    If someone from another culture understood the significance and designed a similar medal for their own country that took inspiration from the Purple Heart, that’s appreciation.

    It’s a major gray area which leads to a lot of screeching extremists, but the basic idea behind it boils down to: use common sense and be respectful.

12. If it’s taking something that is sacred or stolen valor, then it is wildly inappropriate. Otherwise, it tends to be an overreaction. It is possible to wear another culture’s hairstyle or apparel without being disrespectful to that culture.

    I actually enjoy wearing handcrafted jewelry, some of which were bought from Native Americans. If someone was up in arms about it, that’s their problem.

13. I hate how people like the Kardashians get rewarded for things that have historically been seen as ghetto, unprofessional, and undesirable among black women. I’m not sure if this is culturally appropriation or a double standard though.

14. Blackface is bad. Having dreadlocks is not.

15. The way I see that term used online? Dumb beyond any rational comprehension and I straight up ignore 99% of it when it’s screamed about. There’s nothing wrong with someone wanting to partake or immerse themselves in the cultural observances of others, especially when it’s being done in a respectful or innocent manner. It’s just one of those buzzwords used in some circles that has been so bastardized from it’s original meaning that it’s essentially a worthless claim. A non-Japanese person wearing traditional clothing at a Japanese festival is not appropriation. A person trying a dish outside of their culture is not appropriation. Yet I’ve seen these listed as examples of appropriation by some.

    The way it should be used? Yes, it’s a very legitimate issue. Taking credit for the achievements of other cultures, using iconography or symbols of another culture, *especially* those of a revered or sacred status, to market products, groups, or events, or using the cultural products or traditions of another without acknowledging it. In some circumstances, that can be very harmful.

16. It is almost always abused and misused by people who throw the phrase around to virtue signal. The “appropriation” of different culture aspects is essential to the idea of maintaining a multicultural society that celebrates diversity. Culture itself isn’t stagnant; it changes and evolves over time from outside influence and interaction with other cultures. To limit certain culture to a certain group is a sure way to see that said culture remains stagnant, and ultimately becomes lost if it becomes obsolete or incompatible with how the society would progress in the future. Sharing culture, and sometimes shifting and refining culture is what would keep it alive.

    The American society would not have existed in this form without “appropriating” aspects of all cultures brought over by generations of immigrants around the world. The American culture is the amalgamation of all cultures around the world, and gatekeeping about what culture is “unauthentic” to use would be impractical. Is European cultural influence appropriation? If not, why would cultures from other parts of the world be automatically off limit. Americanization of different cultures is one of the most important building blocks of national identity of this country.

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18. As other have said there are legit cases. Then there are over blown cases that really aren’t.

    Hairstyle like dreads or braids I don’t see as cultural appropriation. Dreads aren’t limited to the African diaspora. While I think most white people look silly in dreads. If someone wants to look goofy. It’s not gonna bother me. There are a few I’ve seen that don’t look bad with dreads too. Braids have been used for eons by all kinds of cultures.

    Taking something like a Buddhist mala or Catholic rosary and using it as a fashion accessory. That would be something in the wrong. Hopefully most of those cases are due to ignorance. I think most cases should be solved by educating others of the deeper meaning of something to it’s culture.

19. Useful concept, often applied terribly.

20. I feel the entire world is built on cultures taking stuff they like from other cultures and using it in their own way often in ways that the original culture might find disrespectful or wrong. I think that is perfectly fine.

    I think pretty much everyone who screams cultural appropriation is an idiot looking to be offended.

21. Not a real thing afaik

22. It’s not that it can’t possibly exist(it’d be hard to call things like blackface anything else, unless you’re Justin Trudeau anyway), but almost every usage of the term nowadays is utter nonsense. From using slang that originated in hip-hop/street culture to wearing the wrong clothes, if you dare do something your race(read:caucasian) isn’t supposed to do, you’re appropriating culture.

23. I think there’s a huge difference between cultural appropriation and cultural appreciation. I’m white and like Blues and R&B.

24. It’s cringe to engage in another’s culture poorly/half-assedly, take Nat King Cole singing en español for example

    But 1. that depends entirely on how well it’s executed 2. it’s not a sin, it’s just cringe. And I feel like a lot of online culture generally confuses social unacceptability with immorality

25. It’s really stupid 95% of the time. I can see how it might have started with good intentions by encouraging people to be respectful of things important in other cultures/religions. But now it’s just a vehicle for selective outrage for people enjoying anything that’s perceived to be from a different culture.

26. Let me check my “Woke” dictionary.

27. I try to minimise my time thinking about what offends people. Everything offends someone.

28. For the vast majority of human history, cultural was “appropriated.” The sharing of ideas and cultures is as human as anything else.

    If someone wants to call a specific group of shitty actions that relate to the cultures of the world as cultural appropriation, sure go for it. But far too often the term is used to describe the exchange of cultures that has happened since the dawn of time. The attempt to stop the sharing of culture because it could be used offensively, only keeps us divided by keeping us culturally future apart.

29. The main people concerned about it are white liberals.

30. Valid, but overblown

31. 99 out of 100 times where the topic has come up in real life, has been conservative folks complaining about something they saw about a tweet from a college kid with 45 likes and 8 retweets on FOX news, and most of the other 1 out of 100 have been liberals making fun of conservatives complaining about it.

    I’m sure if you’re between the ages of 18-23 and you go to college in a very liberal state, you’ve probably heard some stupid hot takes about it, just like when I was that age and went to college in a very conservative state I heard a lot of stupid conservative hot takes.

    Aside from that, I think it’s an extremely minor issue, but it is usually pretty obvious when it really is an actual issue (like a bunch of drunk WASPs wearing silly sombreros, talking in a fake mexican accent, and mockingly doing the hat dance, or alternatively wearing a plastic indian head dress slapping their mouth with their hand while dancing around going “hey ey ey ey” in a mocking “rain dance.”).

    Other than that, I can’t really say I think about it at all.