“Let’s start at the very beginning; a very good place to start”.
—Oscar Hammerstein II
“Cultural appropriation” is an incoherent concept, and the purveyors of cultural appropriation mythology impoverish all of humanity by jealously hoarding ideas and concepts they have no moral claim over, whilst simultaneously claiming to be victims. The purveyors of cultural appropriation discriminate by race and ethnicity. The purveyors of cultural appropriation have allies among those that do not agree that they are right, but refuse to denounce them as wrong.
“Cultural appropriation” is when a member of a ‘dominant’ culture uses the ideas, concepts, beliefs, and aesthetics of a culture that is not ‘their’ culture. This is regarded as morally wrong, and something one ought not do. No amount of ideas, concepts, beliefs or aesthetics copied by a minority culture from a dominant culture is cultural appropriation; the purveyors have defined their transgressions out of existence.
What do people mean when they say ‘this culture is mine’? Most often, they mean they were raised in an environment and community where their parents and community members copied the ideas and concepts of previous generations. Copying the ideas of previous generations is not regarded as problematic. In fact, it is celebrated. Good ideas should be copied, and bad ideas should be discarded. Cultures contain a mixture of a lot of good and bad ideas, but there is nothing inherently wrong with copying ideas. Ideas cannot be appropriated because appropriation requires a rightful owner to be deprived of the original idea. There are no rightful owners of ideas conceived long ago by people long since dead, and copied ideas are copied, not ‘appropriated’. Otherwise, every single person on earth is appropriating the very culture they were raised in.
But cultural appropriationists do lay moral claim to ideas they’ve copied. They believe that people they deem outside their community have no moral right to copy or develop those ideas. The usual demarcation of ‘outsider’ is ethnicity or race, but not always. And so we get an ethnically white person petrified of celebrating Día de Muertos because she might be seen to be culturally appropriating, even when that person considers themselves an owner of the same culture (because they were raised in it). But any person with Mexican ancestry will never be accused of cultural appropriation of Día de Muertos, even if they were not raised in that culture.
Copying good ideas enriches humanity. A good idea can be a concept, a story, an architecture. Braiding your hair in an aesthetically pleasing way is a good idea. Stories about creatures that appear human but are really scary monsters can be good stories. Nobody alive today can claim they originated these concepts. Nobody alive today can claim moral ownership of these ideas. Nobody alive today has a good reason to take offense if someone copies or reimagines these ideas, because they are not the originators. Even when we can define somebody as the originator of a realised idea (like a song or novel) we don’t allow her descendants to profit exclusively from that idea forever. (Apparently, 50 years after the death of the last collaborator is the agreed period).
When people object to others using ideas they claim to own, they impoverish humanity’s use and enjoyment of those ideas. Ideas are not sacred.
JK Rowling re-imagining ‘skin walkers’ for her book was not morally wrong. The people who object to her re-imagining believe they own the concept, but they do not, because nobody does. JK Rowling including re-imagined skin-walkers in her book will be another element that will bring joy to her readers, especially if these readers have not encountered a similar idea before.
The purveyors of cultural appropriation mythology and their allies would stamp out this joy. They impoverish everybody with their selfish, misguided sense of entitlement. They discriminate by race and are proud of it.
They are not the music makers or the dreamers of dreams. They want to stop the people who are.
—Oscar Hammerstein II
“Cultural appropriation” is an incoherent concept, and the purveyors of cultural appropriation mythology impoverish all of humanity by jealously hoarding ideas and concepts they have no moral claim over, whilst simultaneously claiming to be victims. The purveyors of cultural appropriation discriminate by race and ethnicity. The purveyors of cultural appropriation have allies among those that do not agree that they are right, but refuse to denounce them as wrong.
“Cultural appropriation” is when a member of a ‘dominant’ culture uses the ideas, concepts, beliefs, and aesthetics of a culture that is not ‘their’ culture. This is regarded as morally wrong, and something one ought not do. No amount of ideas, concepts, beliefs or aesthetics copied by a minority culture from a dominant culture is cultural appropriation; the purveyors have defined their transgressions out of existence.
What do people mean when they say ‘this culture is mine’? Most often, they mean they were raised in an environment and community where their parents and community members copied the ideas and concepts of previous generations. Copying the ideas of previous generations is not regarded as problematic. In fact, it is celebrated. Good ideas should be copied, and bad ideas should be discarded. Cultures contain a mixture of a lot of good and bad ideas, but there is nothing inherently wrong with copying ideas. Ideas cannot be appropriated because appropriation requires a rightful owner to be deprived of the original idea. There are no rightful owners of ideas conceived long ago by people long since dead, and copied ideas are copied, not ‘appropriated’. Otherwise, every single person on earth is appropriating the very culture they were raised in.
But cultural appropriationists do lay moral claim to ideas they’ve copied. They believe that people they deem outside their community have no moral right to copy or develop those ideas. The usual demarcation of ‘outsider’ is ethnicity or race, but not always. And so we get an ethnically white person petrified of celebrating Día de Muertos because she might be seen to be culturally appropriating, even when that person considers themselves an owner of the same culture (because they were raised in it). But any person with Mexican ancestry will never be accused of cultural appropriation of Día de Muertos, even if they were not raised in that culture.
Copying good ideas enriches humanity. A good idea can be a concept, a story, an architecture. Braiding your hair in an aesthetically pleasing way is a good idea. Stories about creatures that appear human but are really scary monsters can be good stories. Nobody alive today can claim they originated these concepts. Nobody alive today can claim moral ownership of these ideas. Nobody alive today has a good reason to take offense if someone copies or reimagines these ideas, because they are not the originators. Even when we can define somebody as the originator of a realised idea (like a song or novel) we don’t allow her descendants to profit exclusively from that idea forever. (Apparently, 50 years after the death of the last collaborator is the agreed period).
When people object to others using ideas they claim to own, they impoverish humanity’s use and enjoyment of those ideas. Ideas are not sacred.
JK Rowling re-imagining ‘skin walkers’ for her book was not morally wrong. The people who object to her re-imagining believe they own the concept, but they do not, because nobody does. JK Rowling including re-imagined skin-walkers in her book will be another element that will bring joy to her readers, especially if these readers have not encountered a similar idea before.
The purveyors of cultural appropriation mythology and their allies would stamp out this joy. They impoverish everybody with their selfish, misguided sense of entitlement. They discriminate by race and are proud of it.
They are not the music makers or the dreamers of dreams. They want to stop the people who are.