Cultural appropriation trivialized to this level by rampant identity posturing actively harms marginalized cultures because it leads to their legitimate concerns being dismissed.
Originally shared by Kevyn Winkless"Cultural appropriation" is not just borrowing, not just copying not just mixing - it has a context of undermining important cultural works by misusing or commoditizing them.
Untold damage to truly endangered cultures comes from the trivial use of the term by certain groups. This case is one example.
Borrowing, mixing, blending: these are powerful, natural cultural processes. But there's context. And for culture, context is everything.
No that's fine. I've watched some very important concepts get eroded and trivialized over the last 2 decades and this is one of them. Seeing CA turn into an all-purpose bully pulpit for superficial posturing makes my blood boil, because it leads to situations exactly like the one described in the article.
(It's even worse when it gets trivially misused by people with legitimate grievances, because it leads to the tragedy of the trivium overshadowing the true problem, and both being swept away when the trivium is legitimately mocked. But that's a whole other conversation)