I am confused as to why it is good or bad or neither. Genuinely confused. Please and thank you.
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People draw the line at what is and isn’t all over the place, trying to understand cultural appropriation from a rules based perspective makes no sense because culture exists within the history we have created.
Cultural appropriation refers typically to majority populations and cultures taking aspects of other minority and typically downtrodden cultures to use for their own gain without sharing those gains.
It’s been happening for years. Rock and roll was formed from black music in the US but was presented as a white cultural movement. In recent years as people have become more aware of what we’re doing it’s had a light cast on it.
Some of it seems stupid to me. Hairstyles have mixed cultures for years and if one culture start wearing cornrows it doesnt deprive the other of the benefits of it. However if a western company uses traditional native American sacred artwork to make t shirts then they are stealing the patterns if they don’t pass along anything to the originators.
I always want to be careful with it because some of the greatest cultural achievements in history have come from mixing of cultures and borrowing of bits and pieces. Think of the fusion dishes, the engineering discoveries that have been shared, the artwork generated from multiple disciplines. Experiencing everything the world has to offer is something we humans can do more than ever thanks to communication being the way it is.
But it’s just about being a bit mindful about it.
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