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<\/a>Sometimes arguments about oppression and privilege feel like that optical illusion where the intersections of white lines appear to contain\u00a0grey squares until you focus on them directly. By cherry-picking examples, treating\u00a0dictionary definitions as gospel, and otherwise dissecting the problem beyond all recognition, those with privilege can make a plain and clear form of oppression disappear. Ta-da!<\/p>\n
First, a few notes on cultural appropriation:<\/p>\n
1. Crystal Blanton, like many other Patheos bloggers, wrote an excellent response to Tom Swiss\u2019s article here<\/a>. She\u00a0shouldn\u2019t have to waste her\u00a0time explaining the same concepts to white people over and over again, but she\u2019s quite generously taken the time to do so, so I recommend you read it.<\/p>\n 2. Do you read Everyday Feminism<\/a>? You should! It breaks down lots of often confusing anti-oppression concepts. Here<\/a> are<\/a> some<\/a>\u00a0posts<\/a> for those who are genuinely interested in learning why we have the term \u201ccultural appropriation,\u201d what people mean when they say it, and why it bears little resemblance to the innocent exchange of ideas that Tom Swiss claims it is.<\/p>\n 3. Reading the original post and the comments, it seems that for many people, the question of whether cultural appropriation is real boils down to whether white people can wear dreadlocks. Are white folks with matted locks the most obvious form of appropriation there is? Nope, and there\u2019s nothing wrong with not instantly\u00a0getting it. But that subtlety\u00a0is exactly why it\u2019s so dishonest to hold up this particular example as definitive proof that the entire phenomenon is made up.<\/p>\n 4. Regarding the dictionary definition of appropriation: Look, I\u2019m truly sorry that dictionaries don\u2019t always reflect the popular definitions of words. I know it\u2019s confusing. When I first got involved in activism, I made a fool of myself because the dictionary couldn\u2019t explain to me why other activists didn\u2019t like the word \u201cliberal.\u201d Once a friend of mine pointed me to Martin Luther King Jr.\u2019s writings, though, I learned more about the word and a lot of pieces clicked into place. If it helps, dictionary.com defines \u201cappropriate\u201d as \u201cto steal\u201d or \u201ctake without permission,\u201d which is much closer to the way it\u2019s used in this context. But don\u2019t fall prey to the lure of using the dictionary to massage ideas into what you want them to be. When I taught college English, my colleagues and I groaned every time a student started an essay with \u201cWebster\u2019s defines such and such as\u2026\u201d because it was always, without exception, a placeholder for actual thought.<\/p>\n 5. Claiming that we should stop using the term \u201ccultural appropriation\u201d because it\u2019s supposedly redundant reminds me a lot of the argument that we should stop using the term \u201cantisemitism\u201d to mean prejudice against Jews. I\u2019ve been told\u2013by non-Jews\u2013that we Jews should just call it prejudice, period. Sometimes people point out that Arabs are Semitic, too, and yes, I\u2019m not going to deny that the term is complicated and imperfect. But antisemitism and cultural appropriation refer to specific types<\/em> of prejudice, and demanding that we stop using specific descriptors for specific phenomena is almost always an attempt to erase\u00a0those phenomena. Pulling over a Black man is not the same flavor of oppression as making a Jew take a loyalty test, and plagiarizing an idea isn\u2019t the same thing as wearing a Native headdress to Coachella. Imagine if the words \u201capple\u201d or \u201cpear\u201d or \u201clemon\u201d were banned in favor of the term \u201cfruit?\u201d It would lead to a lot of confusion and extra explanations that would have been avoided if we were simply allowed to use specific words.<\/p>\n Basic explanations of cultural appropriation abound, if you sincerely want to learn about it\u2013and it\u2019s clear, from Tom\u2019s original post, that he doesn\u2019t. (Otherwise he might have mentioned at least one kind of appropriation that didn\u2019t happen to float across his Facebook feed.) The links above explain it all much more eloquently than I could, and I encourage you to check them out. What I really want to highlight here is how problematic attitudes like Tom\u2019s are from a Buddhist<\/a> perspective.<\/p>\n Now, I\u2019ve been practicing secular Buddhism<\/a> for about six years, but my practice is spotty at best and I\u2019ve never formally taken refuge, so I don\u2019t consider myself an expert. Furthermore, I know almost nothing about Zen, so maybe there\u2019s Zen scripture somewhere that details why it\u2019s okay to call people you\u2019ve hurt \u201cidiots\u201d and dismiss their feelings and ideas as \u201cbrouhaha.\u201d But it seems to me that, when oppressed peoples claim a thing exists, the compassionate and mindful thing to do is to listen to them. Put aside your instant\u00a0emotional\u00a0reaction, consider their arguments, and try and empathize. What experiences have they had that led them to their ideas? Why are they so passionate about those ideas? As a teacher of mine once said, try it on. How would you feel if you were fired for having cornrows while white models flaunted them? If a garment intensely sacred to your people, like a feathered headdress, was worn as a novelty item at a rock festival and then tossed\u00a0in the trash? If your community and ancestors were parodied over and over again at Halloween stores? Cultural appropriation isn\u2019t an exchange of ideas, it\u2019s an exercise in power-over that mocks, denigrates, and commodifies another culture. If someone\u2019s angry about an outsider\u2019s treatment of their culture, that means they\u2019re experiencing dukkha<\/em> (suffering or agitation), and even a casual adherence to Buddhist ethics should compel you to understand and avoid adding to that dukkha<\/em>. Is every single accusation of cultural appropriation completely warranted? Of course not. But the very least you can do, when someone is clearly suffering, is resist the impulse to blow them off and call them stupid.<\/p>\n Furthermore, the precepts of Buddhism are quite clear about issues like appropriation. The second precept, \u201cto avoid taking things that are not freely given,\u201d seems pretty cut and dry to me. It isn\u2019t just a matter of whether you\u2019re \u201cstealing\u201d someone\u2019s sacred items. Those items must be freely given<\/strong> by members of that culture. (Think \u201cyes means yes\u201d instead of \u201cno means no.\u201d) So, jewelry made and sold by Native artists is kosher, but sacred headdresses are not. No reasonable Hindu is arguing that white people aren\u2019t allowed to honor Kali, but that doesn\u2019t mean they\u2019re okay with white people making money\u00a0off of Kali T-shirts. The fourth precept, \u201cto refrain from false speech,\u201d is one that I would especially urge Tom to meditate on. Both of his posts are riddled with strawmen, misleading examples, and false equivalences. His words, by wildly misrepresenting what cultural appropriation is, are actively contributing to oppression by giving people with privilege permission to take whatever they want.<\/strong><\/p>\n I\u2019ll end this post with a message directly to Tom. Tom, I can see, from your second post, that you\u2019re feeling really angry and attacked\u00a0right now. Most bloggers have been there, including myself, and yeah, it royally sucks. But can you see that everyone else involved is angry, too? Can you see that their anger is a direct result of your posts? This is exactly the type of karma that Sharon Salzberg describes in Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness<\/a>. <\/em>Seeds of love and compassion produce fruit of love and compassion, and seeds of anger produce fruit of anger, just as apple seeds produce apples and mango seeds produce mangoes. Please take a breath and find your compassion, because if you\u2019re in any way at all serious about your Buddhism, then surely you can see that\u00a0the seeds you\u2019re planting are toxic. Take a walk. Take a break\u00a0from the Internet. Even turn off comments if you need to. But please don\u2019t return to this discussion until you\u2019re ready to listen.<\/p>\n
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