LogFAQs > #956013136

As best as I've understood it...

The idea is that you are taking something from a culture that is important to said culture and then using/exploiting it without regard to said culture and treating it, effectively, as your own idea or to be 'exotic' or whatever. This can apply to a multitude of things with food and hairstyles being the most commonly discussed. So having a white person making and selling chinese food would be 'cultural appropriation' because you are exploiting an 'exotic' food for profit.

There's a whole HOST of problems with this idea. For one it only ever seems to go one way. You can have white people exploiting others cultures but you never seem to hear about, say, an african-american exploiting chinese culture. And you'll usually see all white people getting treated as culturally similar/identical and won't ever seem to ever be exploited by other ethnic groups for identical reasons. Nevermind cultures that actively export/invite others to partake (like Japanese culture). Or cultures that developed similar ideas independently (like hairstyles).

In reality it's best to think of it as a bunch of angry twitter mobs attacking people because of their skin color. Maybe the idea of cultural appropriation could have some traction if applied evenly to all cultures; but in reality it's a bunch of dumb twitter people who think a British person making Tiki Masala is racist (it's origins are unclear with it having originated in Britain as one possibility).

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I am the gentle hand who heals, the happy smile who shields, and the foot that will kick your ***! - White Mage