this post was submitted on 14 Jan 2025
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[–] lurklurk 63 points 2 weeks ago (25 children)

The concept of cultural appropriation seems to be pretty useless in practice.

The cases I've encountered where it makes some bit of sense fit better under the concepts of racism or exploitation. The complaints about cultural appropriation online seem to more often attack innocent behaviour or someone genuinely appreciating another culture.

Drink tea, make tacos, wear a kimono, don't be an asshole

[–] [email protected] 18 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (6 children)

The actual complaints I see about cultural appropriation online are mostly directed at corporations trying to sell ethnic stuff. But that's not as controversial.

The silly personal attacks are common in memes just like this one, serving as centrist strawmen to vilify progressives. People love to talk about and ridicule it so much that it seems a lot more common than it actually is.

[–] nandeEbisu 6 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I think a big part of appropriation is either pretending the thing is from a different culture or just divorcing it from any existing cultural context. People just don't think about what an actual effect is so just knee jerk accuse anything vaguely similar of cultural appropriation.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

Agreed on the first point. But even in progressive circles I hardly ever actually see this kind of behavior. Rather we want it to be a thing because it's so satisfying to dunk on those ignorant and self-righteous morons.

So it's been memed hard to the point that the term has become a favorite tool of right-wing pundits pushing culture war narratives.

Just something to consider as we accept and reinforce the trope.

[–] nandeEbisu 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Absolutely, or it's like an internet liberal thing not a real person thing.

I was at a puzzle meet and had brought a harry Potter puzzle and had a moment of "oh shit, JK Rowling is not the best choice for this group" but no one actually cared for something that tangentially transphobic.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago

Its a real person thing, I have had the displeasure of interacting with them.

Of course, they were young college kids who heard the term for the first time in class and were eager to prove how enlightened they were, but holy shit have I heard some hot takes. The college culture at an administrative level also plays into it, since they had an incident where one of the undergrad history professors told students it wasn't their job to educate the class on racism.

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