Sonny Hallett to continue the conversation, I do think It’s important to condemn cultural appropriation when it’s done in a blatantly disrespectful way and when it’s just serving to promote ill-natured stereotypes. But, by automatically condemning everything that could even hint towards this dreaded ‘cultural appropriation’, people are essentially saying “black people should only do black people things” and “white people should only do white people things”, which is an absurd position to me.
Interestingly, the people who are most hardcore about condemning cultural appropriation usually consider themselves very liberal and progressive. But when you really think about it, in a way that kind rhetoric (x people should only do x people’s things) is the opposite of liberal and actually very nationalistic in nature. Also not far removed from Apartheid rhetoric, really. I find that paradox so fascinating.
