The Unpopular Opinions

Cultural appropriation as a concept is bullshit. Complete and utter bullshit. I’m a person of colour, and I come from a culture that has been so homogenized into American culture that you can sometimes barely tell where one ends and the other begins.
And you know what?
That’s fucking awesome. I love knowing people enjoy the food from my culture. I love people enjoying the romance and history my people have contributed. The artists, the writers. The grand scheme of my culture. It’s beautiful. I love seeing people enjoying fashions made popular from my culture. I love seeing them enjoying our contributions to religion, even if I’m not religious myself.
I think people that whine about cultural appropriation are sheltered shut-ins that often don’t consult the actual people they claim to be “protecting”. There’s a post on tumblr going around where people are ready to rip Lady Gaga a new asshole, and an Indian girl steps in and says “Wait a minute, did anybody stop to consult the actual Indians here?” Of course she goes on to explain that Indians find it overwhelmingly positive when people care enough about the culture to wear their clothing. It’s a sign that these people find their fashions beautiful enough to be of merit. It’s basically the best compliment you can pay someone, by saying with actions “Yes, you’ve created something beautiful here, I want to share this with others”.

It’s the same thing with Japanese culture as well. If anyone actually bothered to consult Japanese people that y'know, live in Japan, you would realize they have the same attitude that the Indians do. Wearing traditional clothing when appropriate and making an effort to learn the language is about the highest form of flattery there is. They’ll offer to help you with your Japanese if only you’ll allow them the chance to brush up on their English skills.

This is basically the same with nearly every culture. If you go to the homeland and ask the people what they think? They’ll reply that making an effort and showing reverence, no matter how casual it may seem, is seen as overwhelmingly positive. Not to mention tumblr likes to gloss over the fact that other countries borrow heavily from American culture (yes, we have a culture, and if you don’t understand that I urge you to go do a bit more studying on anthropology) as well. The world is slowly becoming a melting pot of ideas and lifestyles being merged and shared.

The only people I’ve seen against it are quite frankly, racists and segregationists, and a bunch of people on tumblr who want to be 2edgy4u. Here’s a hint: Just because you have African heritage, it doesn’t mean shit if you’re talking about cultural appropriation from Africa if you grew up in Alabama. If you have Japanese heritage, it doesn’t matter if you grew up in New York. You are American by culture. You do not know how these people live, nor how they view ‘cultural appropriation’. Your family may hold on to cultural customs that differ from those around you: I know mine do, I’m the child of first-generation immigrants who don’t even speak English very well, and often rely on me to translate as their only truly bilingual child (my older brother was born before they immigrated, and he’s still having a hard time grasping English). But I’m still an American before I am my ethnic background. So. Are. You.
In fact, I would go as far as to say you’re insulting the people who are that heritage both by birth, ethnicity and culture. You are speaking OVER them, claiming that your word is law.

Stop it.
Stop trying to paint cultural appropriation as this horrible thing. It’s not. Every culture in this world has “appropriated” shit to form what we now think of as the modern cultures. It’s all an amalgam. The Chinese could wage a cultural appropriation war against the Japanese for stealing basically the entire infrastructure of their ancient societies. The Romans stole basically everything from Greece. The Egyptians borrowed from Arabic, African, and Mediterranean cultures. Mexican art draws heavily from Spanish influences.

History has repeated itself over and over and over until we reached this very moment, and it will continue to repeat itself.

There is nothing wrong with keeping traditions alive, but this can exist side-by-side with “appropriation”. That Native American warbonnet isn’t any less special and culturally signifigant because someone wore feathers and beads in their hair to a music festival. Those kanzashi aren’t any less beautiful and unique because someone wore jeweled chopsticks on their head.

I have yet to see one argument against cultural appropriation (when I use this, I’m using the tumblr definition, which is basically “everything ever that didn’t come from people in your ethnic bloodline”) that doesn’t sound like a reactionary clutching their pearls and sobbing over Big Scary Change. Absolutely nobody is saying things like the Native American cigar store Indian are things that are cute or should stay around. But simply borrowing a hairstyle, outfit, language, food, entertainment, music, etc, from another culture?

Listen to those of us who actually have roots within the countries you’re claiming to fight for. Appropriation is overwhelmingly positive, and it’s often a chance for us to see our cultures influencing the dominant American culture. It’s a great thing to see, and it feels honest and right, considering we borrow an awful lot of American entertainment, food and culture ourselves.

Being part of the big melting pot is an honour. Stop trying to kick our ingredients out of the stew.