3 ms·

Spot on. This is a perfect example of appropriation. --- Cultural appropriation is the inappropriate or unacknowledged adoption of an element or elements of o

Spot on. This is a perfect example of appropriation. --- Cultural appropriation is the inappropriate or unacknowledged adoption of an element or elements of one culture or identity by members of another culture or identity. This can be controversial when members of a dominant culture appropriate from minority cultures. According to critics of the practice, cultural appropriation differs from acculturation, assimilation, or equal cultural exchange in that this appropriation is a form of colonialism. When cultural elements are copied from a minority culture by members of a dominant culture, and these elements are used outside of their original cultural context ─ sometimes even against the expressly stated wishes of members of the originating culture – the practice is often received negatively. --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_appropriation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_appropriation EDIT: instead of more stupid downvotes people could bother reading the wikipedia page.

School-Cotton 4y ago
Why are Americans the “majority” and Asian Buddhists the “minority” in this exchange? And what makes this “colonialism” ?
- goodpoint 4y ago
  "majority" and "minority" are not about raw numbers but power dynamics in this context. "colonialism" refers to extracting whatever idea or artifact is seen as valuable from a culture or a land without consent and/or without respecting the moral rights of who invented or made it. Additionally, you can read the wikipedia page. (edited for clarity: different people use majority/minority differently depending on the context. In this context it's not about raw numbers.) (edit: an example of power dynamic could be a large multinational food chain that takes a lesser-known dish from some culture and sells a butchered version worldwide without clearly indicating the origin and/or that it's not the real thing. By doing this it can easily distorts the idea of the dish in the minds of millions of people.)
  - amadeuspagel 4y ago
    > "majority" and "minority" are never about raw numbers but power dynamics. So the concept "minority rule" is a contradiction in terms, since if a group rules it's per definition the majority?
    - goodpoint 4y ago
      If you are talking about power, it is an oxymoron. If you are talking about numbers, it is not. In this context it's the first.
  - honkdaddy 4y ago
    I’ve heard the power dynamics argument before and admittedly it’s never held much weight for me. There are just too many edge cases for a heuristic like that to make any sense, in my mind. So culturally powerless people may extract from culturally powerful people until what point? If a Ukrainian appropriates a part of Russian culture to be their own, who is the victim here? Recently, being Ukrainian has become a much more respected cultural identity than being a Russian, does that mean the power dynamic has shifted? The more you pick away at the idea of cultural appropriation, you realize that the rules people set out for it make very little sense outside of the egregious examples of something like headdresses at Coachella, etc. My personal rule is just not to disrespect people and parts of their culture they find important. The color of my skin or the actions of either of our ancestors shouldn’t play into it, IMO.
    - burrows 4y ago
      > My personal rule is just not to disrespect people and parts of their culture they find important. What even is named by the word “disrespect”? Is disrespecting me just any behavior that I call “disrespectful”? Seems like bullshit to me.
      - honkdaddy 4y ago
        To me, disrespecting you is any behaviour which _I_ find disrespectful. If I was mistaken, I'd apologize. I can't control how you feel, burrows, I can only control what I say.
cuteboy19 4y ago
The whole concept is absurd, reading Wikipedia won't fix that.
ffwszgf 4y ago
This definition is so broad you can basically classify anything you don’t like as “cultural appropriation” depending on how loosely you define “minority”, “majority” and “context”. And in fact that’s what usually ends up happening. Certain forms of blatant “cultural appropriation” are not criticized or even considered as such as long as they conform to the cultural zeitgeist of Western academia. For example, famous BLM activist Blair Imani is convert to Islam. After her religious conversion she soon after came out as a proud queer woman and upon being questioned she claimed there is no conflict between homosexuality and Islam. She subsequently gave media tours proudly proclaiming to the world her marginal view of Islam. This idea obviously only exists in some marginal Muslim communities in the west and goes against the beliefs of 99% of Muslims in the global south. Is this not blatant cultural appropriation? She took Islam and warped it to fit her western morality much to the anger of its emotional adherents. Obviously we will never see an article calling her or the Nation of Islam cultural appropriators.

School-Cotton 4y ago

Why are Americans the “majority” and Asian Buddhists the “minority” in this exchange? And what makes this “colonialism” ?

goodpoint 4y ago
"majority" and "minority" are not about raw numbers but power dynamics in this context. "colonialism" refers to extracting whatever idea or artifact is seen as valuable from a culture or a land without consent and/or without respecting the moral rights of who invented or made it. Additionally, you can read the wikipedia page. (edited for clarity: different people use majority/minority differently depending on the context. In this context it's not about raw numbers.) (edit: an example of power dynamic could be a large multinational food chain that takes a lesser-known dish from some culture and sells a butchered version worldwide without clearly indicating the origin and/or that it's not the real thing. By doing this it can easily distorts the idea of the dish in the minds of millions of people.)
- amadeuspagel 4y ago
  > "majority" and "minority" are never about raw numbers but power dynamics. So the concept "minority rule" is a contradiction in terms, since if a group rules it's per definition the majority?
  - goodpoint 4y ago
    If you are talking about power, it is an oxymoron. If you are talking about numbers, it is not. In this context it's the first.
- honkdaddy 4y ago
  I’ve heard the power dynamics argument before and admittedly it’s never held much weight for me. There are just too many edge cases for a heuristic like that to make any sense, in my mind. So culturally powerless people may extract from culturally powerful people until what point? If a Ukrainian appropriates a part of Russian culture to be their own, who is the victim here? Recently, being Ukrainian has become a much more respected cultural identity than being a Russian, does that mean the power dynamic has shifted? The more you pick away at the idea of cultural appropriation, you realize that the rules people set out for it make very little sense outside of the egregious examples of something like headdresses at Coachella, etc. My personal rule is just not to disrespect people and parts of their culture they find important. The color of my skin or the actions of either of our ancestors shouldn’t play into it, IMO.
  - burrows 4y ago
    > My personal rule is just not to disrespect people and parts of their culture they find important. What even is named by the word “disrespect”? Is disrespecting me just any behavior that I call “disrespectful”? Seems like bullshit to me.
    - honkdaddy 4y ago
      To me, disrespecting you is any behaviour which _I_ find disrespectful. If I was mistaken, I'd apologize. I can't control how you feel, burrows, I can only control what I say.

cuteboy19 4y ago

The whole concept is absurd, reading Wikipedia won't fix that.

ffwszgf 4y ago

This definition is so broad you can basically classify anything you don’t like as “cultural appropriation” depending on how loosely you define “minority”, “majority” and “context”. And in fact that’s what usually ends up happening. Certain forms of blatant “cultural appropriation” are not criticized or even considered as such as long as they conform to the cultural zeitgeist of Western academia. For example, famous BLM activist Blair Imani is convert to Islam. After her religious conversion she soon after came out as a proud queer woman and upon being questioned she claimed there is no conflict between homosexuality and Islam. She subsequently gave media tours proudly proclaiming to the world her marginal view of Islam. This idea obviously only exists in some marginal Muslim communities in the west and goes against the beliefs of 99% of Muslims in the global south. Is this not blatant cultural appropriation? She took Islam and warped it to fit her western morality much to the anger of its emotional adherents. Obviously we will never see an article calling her or the Nation of Islam cultural appropriators.