Cultural appropriation is something I'm still trying to find my footing on as well. I think right now there are two key points for me that i'm thinking about.
First is that most people when confronted with evidence of their own racism or sexism or privilege or whatever tend to react very defensively and get wrapped up in feeling like a terrible person instead of looking at the actual issue and trying to learn something. I think that's frustrating for people who are trying to teach someone to look at things in a different way, because it feels like the message isn't getting through - instead, the person you're talking to turns inward and starts feeling like a horrible person instead of looking forward to try to learn what they could do differently to be a better person. I guess it's hard to be told you're racist or sexist or offensive or privileged when you grow up being taught that you have to be better than that. When a moral value is tolerance and acceptance, being told that you're failing doesn't make anyone feel good. But I guess it's the same thing as when you feel dumb at school - no one likes to feel like an idiot, but a lot of times you feel dumb because you just learned something, and that has a lot of value. I've been trying to focus on that instead of castigating myself for not being smarter.
The second thing is about cultural appropriation itself. I don't really know what the right answer is either and I'm still trying to figure it out. But this is my current theory: I think if you approach something unknown and unusual with an attitude that you're trying to learn something, to understand the culture, then that's fine. Like if you see something that you don't understand, and you approach it without any assumptions and you're just like "oh, that looks interesting! what is it? teach me about it!" It seems hard to be offended by someone asking you to teach them something they didn't know, if they seriously ask you and are seriously interested in learning and understanding it. And I guess part of that is also having the understanding, "well, I'm certainly not going to understand all the nuances, but my current understanding is such-and-such". Like, you're not going to try to explain black holes when Stephen Hawking is standing right behind you. You're going to ask him to explain it. But if he's not there then you might be like "well, you should ask Steve, but my limited understanding is ...etc."
The appropriation bit comes in when you can show up and say, "oh, that looks pretty. hey, that matches my kitchen! It would look great there." without any interest at understanding. And especially if the "pretty" thing is a religious icon or a cultural tradition...it's going to be pretty offensive.
Another problem would be approaching things as if a short amount of study can make you just as knowledgable or even more knowledgeable than someone who has been studying it all their life. I certainly think that a white woman might know more about chinese history than I do - it depends on her background and how much time she put into studying it and such. She could be a professor of asian studies. But the problem comes about when people *assume* that they know a lot when they really have just read the cliff notes. And there can always be more to learn - a professor of east asian studies might not know the specific culture *I* grew up in, for example. But I think this sort of offense happens in more than just race or sex...like if someone tries to explain the details of lasers because they saw a TV show on lasers to me, and here I am with a phd in lasers - I'm going to be pretty offended.
Anyway, I guess this is just a really long-winded way of saying that I don't think the issue is about *what* you know or don't know, but rather *how* you approach the stuff you know or don't know about a culture. And, also, caveat, I'm still trying to figure this all out anyway, so if you ask me in a month I might be like, "wow, I was SO DUMB then!" *grin*
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First is that most people when confronted with evidence of their own racism or sexism or privilege or whatever tend to react very defensively and get wrapped up in feeling like a terrible person instead of looking at the actual issue and trying to learn something. I think that's frustrating for people who are trying to teach someone to look at things in a different way, because it feels like the message isn't getting through - instead, the person you're talking to turns inward and starts feeling like a horrible person instead of looking forward to try to learn what they could do differently to be a better person. I guess it's hard to be told you're racist or sexist or offensive or privileged when you grow up being taught that you have to be better than that. When a moral value is tolerance and acceptance, being told that you're failing doesn't make anyone feel good. But I guess it's the same thing as when you feel dumb at school - no one likes to feel like an idiot, but a lot of times you feel dumb because you just learned something, and that has a lot of value. I've been trying to focus on that instead of castigating myself for not being smarter.
The second thing is about cultural appropriation itself. I don't really know what the right answer is either and I'm still trying to figure it out. But this is my current theory: I think if you approach something unknown and unusual with an attitude that you're trying to learn something, to understand the culture, then that's fine. Like if you see something that you don't understand, and you approach it without any assumptions and you're just like "oh, that looks interesting! what is it? teach me about it!" It seems hard to be offended by someone asking you to teach them something they didn't know, if they seriously ask you and are seriously interested in learning and understanding it. And I guess part of that is also having the understanding, "well, I'm certainly not going to understand all the nuances, but my current understanding is such-and-such". Like, you're not going to try to explain black holes when Stephen Hawking is standing right behind you. You're going to ask him to explain it. But if he's not there then you might be like "well, you should ask Steve, but my limited understanding is ...etc."
The appropriation bit comes in when you can show up and say, "oh, that looks pretty. hey, that matches my kitchen! It would look great there." without any interest at understanding. And especially if the "pretty" thing is a religious icon or a cultural tradition...it's going to be pretty offensive.
Another problem would be approaching things as if a short amount of study can make you just as knowledgable or even more knowledgeable than someone who has been studying it all their life. I certainly think that a white woman might know more about chinese history than I do - it depends on her background and how much time she put into studying it and such. She could be a professor of asian studies. But the problem comes about when people *assume* that they know a lot when they really have just read the cliff notes. And there can always be more to learn - a professor of east asian studies might not know the specific culture *I* grew up in, for example. But I think this sort of offense happens in more than just race or sex...like if someone tries to explain the details of lasers because they saw a TV show on lasers to me, and here I am with a phd in lasers - I'm going to be pretty offended.
Anyway, I guess this is just a really long-winded way of saying that I don't think the issue is about *what* you know or don't know, but rather *how* you approach the stuff you know or don't know about a culture. And, also, caveat, I'm still trying to figure this all out anyway, so if you ask me in a month I might be like, "wow, I was SO DUMB then!" *grin*