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One big problem with appropriation occurs when the native culture has been forcefully damaged via colonization. Many people in the minority have only tenuous co
by groby_b 8y ago
One big problem with appropriation occurs when the native culture has been forcefully damaged via colonization. Many people in the minority have only tenuous connections to their culture, because it deliberately wasn't taught.
If, in that situation, the dominant culture appropriates (and muddies) a concept, it becomes very hard to discern what items in your culture even mean.
This element of power imbalance or colonisation is what makes cultural appropriation harmful. It's also, at least the way I see it, what makes it appropriation - otherwise it's an exchange, and that's vital for cultures to grow.
So what you defend when you protest cultural appropriation is specifically the transfer with an existing power imbalance. It's not "what you're born into defines you", but "people have already taken so much, let us keep what little we have"
- paulddraper 8y ago> "people have already taken so much, let us keep what little we have" To clarify: Does "keep what little we have" mean "let me practice this custom"? Or does "keep what little we have" mean "let me practice this custom, but no one else"?
- groby_b 8y agoIt means "do not water down the meaning of this custom". If you manage to practice it exactly according to meaning, I don't think there'd be a large debate. But when you change meaning, you're exercising more of the power you already have over the minority. You're trampling over them to satisfy your own needs. (Which is pretty much colonialism in a nutshell)
- paulddraper 8y ago> "do not water down the meaning of this custom" I don't believe, for example, your practice of Protestantosm in any way affects or "waters down" my practice of Catholicism. I understand this is a historically popular belief and many people still hold it. I personally do not.
- groby_b 8y ago> This element of power imbalance [...] makes cultural appropriation harmful You're arguing something, but it sure isn't the point I made. There is no power imbalance between those two religions.
- paulddraper 8y agoMaybe not right at least. Hmmm... I don't think Quaker Oats branding harms the Society of Friends. Though TBH I don't know how to evaluate the "power" of these two groups.