That makes sense, too. If people impose that on you, it’s no wonder you resent it. For OTHER cultures to be considered chic while the original culture is criticized is unfair, small-minded, bigoted, and pretty foolish, actually. And I’d resent it, too.
But I think that disrespect is something different from “cultural appropriation.”
That issue needs to be one of basic respect. We need to get to a place where that kind of dichotomy no longer exists. We’re not close to that yet, sadly.
But I still think seeing many aspects of a culture migrate through humanity is a good idea.
It’s been decades since Italians had to deal with even a semblance of the kind of cultural disrespect that so many others are subject to today [and it was never as bad as it is for many today], but my family in the 1940s and 50s ate peasant food, cheap cuisine that was looked down on, as were the Italians themselves. Now people love risotto and polenta and eat it in the finest restaurants.
It’s certainly not on a scale with the discrimination that many groups deal with in today’s world. It’s just one tiny example of cultural mobility and change.
I hoped we had actually begun to move ahead with how our culture treats everyone when we elected a Black president. Sucks that we were able to backslide so horribly with the introduction of Donald J. Trump to prominence.
Looks like our decency is seriously fragile. But this article deals with sharing, and I think sharing is good.