Farah, using your expression, absofuckinglutely! This response is SO spot on, and so well-articulated, and I thank you for it. You have highlighted exactly some of the arguments I have been trying to make with people who are firmly stuck on the cultural appropriation bandwagon, and seem unable to think rationally about what actually is racism, and what isn’t. I was in a situation recently (which is my reason for now being very interested in this topic) of defending a white women who had dreads and who had set up a healthy eating business with a Rastafarian ‘one love’ type angle to it. A person I know had participated in a hate and bullying campaign against her — “calling her out” on social media and trying to get others to boycott her business and also the festival she was attending to market herself, because she was a “racist who had appropriated black culture.” It seems the perpetrator of this bullying campaign didn’t get the irony behind their making a potentially racist assumption of dreads as representing all “black culture”. But that aside, this situation did very much upset me, because that woman with dreads (who experienced a lot of stress and could have lost her business, had this campaign gained more credence) had set up her business from a place of adoration and respect. She is not the oppressor. As you so rightfully point out, the issue with honing down on cultural appropriation is that the blame then gets pointed at individuals, rather than the structures that are upholding real oppression. So again, thanks so much for this wonderful piece.
