Embed Notice

@theauracle haha, I'll try to keep it low impact on us all! I just thought I'd ask your thoughts on an idea I've been turning around, that cultural appropriation is almost too abstract a term? Like, what are we really talking about when we talk about it? Are we really saying that you can steal an idea? That gets into territory that's murky, about ideas as property. I think for me, the two elements that really chafe me (when this happens to Jewish culture, I mean, or when I'm empathizing with Black friends or other cultures/creators that get attacked like this) is the erasure of the people who did the work/creation, and especially the erasure of their roots in their lived reality/experience/ history of their ancestors lived reality/experience. And then after erasure, it's the profiteering off that work, without those resources flowing back proportionately to the culture makers and creators. But you actually point a third point, that I think is crucial: the thief is actively also working against the culture that he's erasing and profiteering off of! He's still upholding white supremacy while selling songs that couldn't exist without Black culture or so on. Does that make sense?

TL;DR Appropriation Station is actually three little stations: Erasure, Profiteering, Conspiring Against The People