This is an essay about cultural appropriation, except that it’s not really an essay about cultural appropriation.
This is actually about the way genuine, complex problems in complex societies get reduced to nattering virtue-signaling nonsense that become used as blunt instruments to ensure conformity and serve as tribalistic us-vs-them markers, in a process of ensuckitude that substitutes sloganeering for genuine thought, bleating of approved bumper-sticker platitudes for engagement, and tribalism for solutions.
Buckle up, Dorothy, ’cause Kansas is going bye-bye.
Let’s look at cultural appropriation
Odds are probably pretty good you’ve heard of cultural appropriation. Odds are also pretty good you have strong feelings about it, and that your strong feelings map closely to whether you self-identify as liberal or conservative, but can you actually offer a cogent description of what it is?
Cultural appropriation is a great proxy for the general dumbification of social justice and the generalized ensuckitude of real social discourse, because, oh my God, the prevailing culture-wars conversation around it is So. Fucking. Dumb.
This is how social justice dumbification in general works:
Step 1: Distort and water down the meaning of “cultural appropriation” until you use it for nothing more than “wearing vaguely ‘ethnic’ clothing” or “styling your hair in an unconventional way.” (To be fair, those who understand cultural appropriation is a real thing sometimes do this step for you.)
Step 2: Ignore and/or disregard actual instances of genuine cultural appropriation.
Step 3: Pretend your diluted, absurdist definition of “cultural appropriation” is the only definition there is; refuse to discuss, or even acknowledge, any other meaning.
Look, I get it. There are folks who make me roll my eyes so hard I can see my own brain stem when they talk about “cultural appropriation.”
Probably the greatest example of an absurd self-own was the Internet goon squad that accused a woman of “cultural appropriation” for wearing Japanese clothing when she was Japanese.
All the cringe. ALLLLLL the cringe.
So yeah, I get it. Stupid gonna stupid, man.
And it ain’t just cultural appropriation. Remember when James Cameron’s movie Avatar 2 came out? Some Native people complained that the movie peddled Native tropes for entertainment without actually recognizing Native history of defending biodiversity.
A lot, and I mean a lot, of white urban liberals jumped onto Twitter (yes, I’m totally deadnaming the name of Elongated Muskrat’s social media platform) to crow about how they were boycotting the movie and dish on people who saw it.
Some folks I know personally, folks I once used to respect and even admire, did this. And you know what was especially pathetic about it? They had no intention of seeing the movie in the first place, oh no. They took to social media to crow about how righteous they were for not watching a movie they never intended to watch, because it made them better people than the ones who did watch it…
…and yet, did they actually materially improve the lives of even one single Native person anywhere? Even one? Even a little bit?
Nope.
See, I might respect someone who went onto social media to say “hey, this movie might be problematic, and here’s why, so I took the $30 I was gonna spend on tickets and popcorn and a gigantic tub of Coke, and I donated it instead to this charity that helps Native populations, and here’s the URL where you can donate too,” but did they?
Nah, bruh, because it was never about the Native people.
It was virtue signaling and bullying. It was “Look at me! Look at me! I’m better than you! Hey, everyone, look at me!” It helped nobody, because it wasn’t intended to. It was about preening and primping, about vanity disguised as social justice.
In love with my own virtue. Image: olly
I didn’t watch Avatar 2, but I didn’t crow about it on social media either, because I never intended to see it in the first place.
Not watching a movie you never intended to watch is not a virtue, and that’s really what this is all about.
But I digress. Let’s get back to cultural appropriation.
“Cultural appropriation” in the academic sense does not mean “woman who kinda looks maybe white on Twitter wearing a yukata that self-righteous white craft-beer liberal dumbfucks think is a kimono.”
Cultural appropriation is when a white businessman sees a Navajo pattern, thinks it’s pretty, and commissions a sweatshop in China to make millions of knockoffs that he gets rich from without, you know, contributing to the people who created it, or even bothering to learn anything about it at all.
And that’s not nonsense. It’s a real thing that happens, just like turning other people’s brutal oppression under colonialism into entertainment whilst you eat overpriced popcorn is a thing that really happens.
But bullying a Japanese woman on social media because she looks “too white” to be wearing the clothes you don’t think she should wear doesn’t actually strike a blow against cultural appropriation, does it?
The difference between social justice and bombastic bullying
Liberals tend to whine about conservatives who mock and deride “social justice warriors,” but if I’m to be perfectly honest, a lot of that is our own fault. We liberals are easy targets, because we have a habit of taking our own values and reducing them to bumper sticker platitudes that we use to bully others without, you know, actually doing anything to solve the problems we claim to care about so much.
I would like to propose a test to help separate genuine concern with social justice from the general enshittification of morality into empty tribalism and bullying. Don’t worry, it’s a simple test, one that can be applied in less time than it takes to drink a single soy-milk latte. Just ask yourself these questions:
- At the end of your social justice venture, can you point to any person whose life or situation is now a bit better for your actions, in any way, however small?
- Was your social justice venture invited by the people you, a rich white person, claim to be speaking on behalf of?
- Is your social media venture targeted at the people who are responsible for the injustice you see, rather than bullying people for not doing what you want them to do?
If you can’t answer “yes” to all three of those questions, maybe you aren’t as virtuous as you like to pretend you are.
I am a white woman. My Black multiracial wife told me that wearing my hair in dreads wouldn’t be cultural appropriation on my part. We also went to a natural hair salon to get our hair done. I’m the only white in the entire place. Everyone else was Black. My hairdresser told me I could pull off dreads.
I decided not to get dreads because they are hard to take care of – and I don’t want to be mistaken for a cast member from Portlandia.
Thank you. You have put together an extremely logical argument which validates many of the issues I’ve had with a lot of well meaning people, and I for one appreciate it.
Now hold up a bit,question no 2 isn’t applicable in all situations
1)A lot of abolitionists campaigned against slavery,none of them were asked by slaves
2)A lot of dominant caste men in India have fought for equality of dalits(untouchables) and women.Neither of these communities asked them for it
So one can fight for equal rights without people asking for it
The only questions that matter in my opinion are 1 and 3
Hmm. You make a good point.
I was about to make exact same point. All too often, the people in genuine need of social justice, are not in a position to reach out to anyone.
The most extreme example of cultural appropriation is actually tbe Black Hebrew Israelites, who are trying to take over Judaism and Jewish identity from actual Jews.
Being a true Left Winger for over 40 years, I know the US does not have a real Left Wing. “Liberalism” is in fact Center-Right and does not even come close to what true Left Wing policies and ideas are. And I hate Liberals to the core as I always have felt that in the US they have taken the banner of “being Left Wing” from the true Left Wingers and replaced it with what they think Left Wing should be like. I know that in an inherent Right Wing country like the US, a true Left Wing would not be possible, so they name what is less idiotic and moronic than the US Right Wing and call it “Left Wing” whilst all those who do so would fall flat on their face if they see what the true Left Wing here in Europe stands for. The fact alone that Liberals don’t want to fight the (extreme-) Right Wing that is taking over the US physically and “doesn’t feel good” about killing them or beating the hell out of them, proves they are not true Left Wingers. A true Left Winger will communicate with the (extreme-) Right Wing the only way Right Wing vermin will understand: through violence. This lack of willingness to fight will be the downfall of the US. Let me give an example: back in the 80’s we had somewhat of a neo Nazi problem here in Europe. Being a rather active Socialist/Communist movement, as soon as we heard they (the neo Nazis) were on the prowl and terrorized the “normies”, we gathered and went to them and beat the hell out of this (extreme-) Right Wing scum. This needed only to be done 3 or 4 times and the neo Nazi problem was solved. What in the US is not understood is that the Right Wing is basically a weak, selfish club of bullies who pretend to be strong and manly, but they never dare to take on Socialists or Communists, because those fight back physically. We’re peaceful people with a better and more fair plan for society and we try to avoid violence whenever we can, but we also know that what is happening in the US could have been prevented by using the same violent methods against the Right Wing scum dat is now taking over the country. And the Right Wing knows that. It’s not for nothing that they hysterically scream about Socialism and Communism. They know that in a direct confrontation with those they will lose and with that lose their grounds for existence. By hysterically screaming and blaming Socialists and Communists of everything that is bad, they try to create an atmosphere in which normies think the Socialists are the bad ones. But instead themselves “Left Wing” calling Liberals bicker among themselves about nonsense like you described. Being divided among each other because this guy or that guy doesn’t believe in the things they believe in or promotes. The ONLY way to solve your Right Wing problem in the US is to be united and for f*ck’s sake, fight back with all means possible. Remember that violence is the only thing the Right Wing understands – after all, they use it against you aplenty. You guys are in the vast majority of the population (the Left Wing is always the most popular in any country world-wide), so make that majority known and beat up your extreme-Right Wing neighbor, even if it lands you in jail. At least you can say you actively done something to try and stop the huge danger that is hurdling towards Americans. Make that your focus, not about having blue hair or dressing like something you’re not outside of Carnival or whatever. But you won’t do that anyway and in the end, Liberals will only have themselves to blame when the extreme Right Wing will take over and you’re heading for a world of “fun” in which all your ideas will evaporate and you will be living according to Christian-Nationalists norms: you WILL carry every baby, even if it’s the result of a rape, to term, you WILL have to take care of that baby as the extreme Right Wing doesn’t care about a baby any longer once it’s been born, to name an example. But oh, you wouldn’t be able to live in a world in which the Left Wing hits back or in a world with violence. Ok, fine, welcome to your new future in which fascists and neo Nazis will be revered as upstanding ppl, you will overnight disappear if they know you have a different opinion than they have and everything you ever fought for so hard and long will just vanish. Oh and there will be a massive war, because fascism and Nazism inevitably will lead to war as history has shown. But just go ahead, flame down one of your own because he’s wearing a local costume. Ruin people’s lives because they once said something nasty about a minority or a woman. You’re in for one hell of a ride in that case. And don’t complain, for you are all complicit in it. Even though I hate Liberals pretending to be Left Wing to the core, you’re just lucky that I hate the (extreme-) Right Wing even more.