Cultural Misappropriation
The most recent one I read was a woman who was upset about a child wearing a Pocahontas costume. The woman bringing the charge is not a Native American Indian. But she believes the Native Americans would (or should) be offended. She’s demanding the product be taken off the market.
Cultural appropriation isn’t limited to costuming, though we see the most complaint about this. It can involve ideas, symbols, literature, artifacts, clothing, fashion, jewelry, music, dance, language, folklore, cuisine, medicine, and religion. Non-Jewish friends recently visited Israel and brought home a mezuzah to hang by their door as a show of solidarity. That isn’t what a mezuzah is for, but is it wrong or offensive for the Gentiles to do this? Would the watch guard of cultural correctness call this misappropriation? What about visiting the Netherlands and returning with wooden clogs on our feet?
As a person who has always had an interest in international cultures and brought it into our home, these ideas trouble me. Have I been guilty of misappropriation? At two different elementary schools I created cultural heritage days. Classes learned craft, music, folk dance, folk tales, geography, and history. And yes, on the big day they wore handmade costumes “to look like” their country, performed the dances for their parents, and shared the food they’d learned about. They wrote pen pal letters that crossed the sea. Tonight, I wonder. Would Filipinos be offended by American first graders dressed as their school children would be dressed while dancing the tinikling? I’m not Ukrainian, but I wore a beautiful costume that belongs to a friend, including the red beads and red boots while dancing with the students dressed the same. Was that appropriating? Was that offensive? I’ve never fled for my life and hidden these beautiful clothes in trunks to keep them out of Russia’s destructive hands. But, I can appreciate what a treasure the clothing is. Does that mean it is wrong and offensive to put the clothes on?
Proponents of cultural appropriation consider it to be mutually beneficial resulting in cultural empathy and healthy interaction. Opponents view it as a continued oppression of the oppressed, the history of racial or ethnic colonialism.
It’s difficult in a country as diverse as ours to draw the line between interactive appreciation and wrongful appropriation, since much of our own culture is an amalgamation of appropriation. The word appropriation is understood to mean theft by taking without permission. When sharing culture, from whom do we seek permission? And when? And who is the gate keeper of culture? Does anyone really own culture? Most culture, mores, practices, in every country has a history that came from somewhere else, and often in terrifying ways. Does sharing culture strengthen it through knowledge, appreciation, and education? Does gating it create elite or superior culture that no one outside the realm should experience?
The anti-cultural appropriation groups say authors should not write outside their own culture. White people shouldn’t write from a black perspective. Americans should not write from a European perspective. It’s inappropriate for white people to speak for Native Americans. Three college professors lost their jobs in the last year because they disagreed with that viewpoint. In 2016, author Lionel Shriver spoke at a literary festival asserting the right of authors to write from any point of view including through characters from cultures other than the author’s. She attacked the idea that if an author wrote from the cultural majority in a voice of one from a cultural minority it is not unethical or misappropriation. It’s what we do!
The research behind The Mysterious Life of Jim Limber and McIntosh Summer taught me so very much. I’m not pretending to be Black, or Native American. I’m neither. But buried in research I didn’t find it difficult to get into the minds and souls of my characters, sharing their heartache and joy. I discovered emotions are generally universal. I wanted to tell their stories accurately from their point of view. Cultural majority and colonialism has nothing to do with literature and art. I hope these anti groups lose their momentum soon. My mother taught me where no offense was intended, no offense should be taken. I wish their groups would adopt that axiom. Perhaps it would be healthier if everyone tried to understand the point of view of other cultures, and took no offense when none was intended. Just my opinion.