Appropriation: The Politically Correct Reverse Racism

Appropriation has got to be stupidest thing to be offended about ever created. The basic idea is that anything that defines a culture should not be appropriated by mainstream culture; to do so is to rape the culture and cause it to lose whatever makes the culture unique. A recent example is the retailer that took some Native American designs and incorporated them into dresses and jewelry designs; some groups were so offended by what was happening that they took to signatures, but the designs actually took off.

The reason for the offense is pretty simplistic: Everyone picks up culture wherever they go. Most people do so unconsciously, such as picking some vocabulary or mannerisms from another place, while others find a sweater that they fall in love with and take it everywhere they go. Some people find a particular type of symbols that they love, that makes them feel comfortable, and surround themselves with them. Others do it more consciously: A particular set of symbols is perfect for a project, and so those symbols are integrated into the project.

There is also cultural leakage: Any cultures in close apporximation will always trade bits and pieces of their respective cultures. Either one of them has a better solution for a particular problem, or a more comfortable style of dress, or even something that just looks cooler; these bits of culture will usually be in constant motion between the two cultures. Over time this creates a culture that is actually a mix of the two cultures with purists trying sometimes vainly to keep the cultures separate.

Worse, from the perspective of the purists, is when fashion and jewelry designers see something that they like. This is usually where the worst sins of appropriation come to play as the culture is mined like a gold vein for ideas which are then converted to fashion and jewelry, usually with none of the stories that made them important in the first place, or when those stories are perverted for the sake of a quick buck. The symbols of an entire culture can thus end up in the malls of the world and the originating culture gets none of the profit from the appropriated patterns. There are some situations where this is done without respect for the culture, such as for costumes or to exploit the culture, such as television and movies are infamous for doing.

Nonetheless, there are a lot of times when no disrespect is meant. There are a lot of times when it just happens, and there are other times when the culture itself puts its symbols and stories into the marketplace. A problem can obviously develop when a group gets tired of seeing of those things it feels defines it being used out of context by others, be it symbols or philosophies; as there are no copyright protections for cultures, this can create some interesting problems.

Making this really interesting is when two cultures tend to grab a lot from each other anyway; rap music is a probably one of the best examples, as it tends to incorporate a lot of different cultures into its lyrics and sound, while itself being grabbed by a number of other groups. In this case it's hard to define where exactly the leakage is happening, but it can get weird to try and track who is borrowing from whom.

Nonetheless, this can create a number of problems. Cultures tend to borrow from each other all the time; this helps create links between the two cultures as well as allowing for the sharing of knowledge. With even minimal sharing two cultures can actually become stronger as they both have more ways of dealing with problems than they had previous. In today's world where we are connected to everyone, this means that we can be influenced and influence cultures from other parts of the world that even a few decades ago we had no idea that even existed, becoming stronger as a world as each individual culture is drawn further into a single meta-culture where ideas and beliefs can be shared.

Of course, there are those that dislike this idea. As noted above there are those that wish to exploit other cultures for their own gain, but they can be stopped by boycotts and by providing better examples of that culture in the same media. This has been seen at work in that films and shows have gotten more respectful of other cultures.

Of course you also have the isolationists who believe that cultures should remain pure, but that's a losing battle; the culture would have to totally isolate itself in order to prevent any contact. However, as even the Amish and various tribes have shown, there is virtually no way to do this; cultures will always mix to some degree, and proximity is not always a requirement, not in the Age of Internet. It's just not a possibility any more for cultures to isolated.

The takeaway here is that appropriation is going to happen, and sometimes it is going to offensive. However, cultural leakage is going to happen, whether by intent or otherwise. All we can do is learn to respect the culture from which it comes and hopefully learn something about it before we take it for granted. About all I can advise for those that feel as if they have been "victimized" by it is to feel sort of flattered that someone loved your culture enough that they though to emulate it, and that they found something that reached out to them; cultural elements should link us, not separate us.