“We’ve got to learn to distinguish the racist and mocking, which we do call out, from the simply ignorant, which we can help by sensitively adding more info.”
You make so many arguments I’ve made over the past couple of years, but you make them better! There is real cultural appropriation- it’s usually just incredibly rude, and occasionally it’s insanely predatory (like copying some traditional embroidery & then filing a trademark so that they would have to pay you- that actually happened but the ensuing bad press stopped it from going through, thank goodness).
I’m not a fan of taking rad stuff from cultures that aren’t my own and then pretending I made it up, but I am a huge fan of cultural hybridity. Get in there and learn it, live it, and love it!
When I took my dna test I found out that I was part something I’ve never been mistaken for, and zero something I’m mistaken for constantly (including by members of that country), but also a surprise part something that explains why people are often mistaken about me. It was absolutely an awesome and illuminating experience that explains why I’m a racial/cultural Rorschach Test. Now at least I can say, “no, but I do get that a lot. I’m actually X.”

    Betty Jordan Wester

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