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Cultural appropriation, you just can’t be too careful

By Russell Grenning - posted Thursday, 19 July 2018


We all agree that racism is a terrible, unforgivable thing but even the most enlightened of us are sometimes guilty of what could be called inadvertent racism - I refer, of course, to cultural appropriation.

Put as simply as possible, cultural appropriation is a concept dealing with the adoption of elements of a minority culture including, for example, cultural and religious traditions, fashion, symbols, language and songs by those of a dominant culture. Critics of the practice nowadays don’t just equate it with racism but with colonialism which they see as more or less the same thing.

But all is not lost.

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The United Nations, working with its usual breakneck speed, is riding to the rescue to save us from ourselves. Naturally, this means they have established a committee - indeed, reflecting its paramount importance - it is a specialised international committee comprising delegates from 189 countries as part of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO). This vital work has been going on since 2001 which may suggest a certain sluggishness, but they are working hard on creating on three pieces of international law that would, if implemented, expand intellectual property regulations to protect things like indigenous designs, dances, words and traditional medicines.

Yes, and they want it done quickly. In fact, they said so and now every one of the 189 member states are going through these three draft laws line by line which should more or less ensure that the other principal objective of the UN - international peace and good will - will be achieved first.

Meanwhile, they continue to take submissions to inform their work. One witness, Professor James Anaya, Dean of Law at the University of Colorado (USA) and identified as an “indigenous leader” told the Committee that the proposed new laws should “obligate states to create effective criminal and civil enforcement procedures to recognise and prevent the non-consensual taking and illegitimate possession, sale and export of traditional medicines.

Aroha Te Pareake Mead, a New Zealand Maori delegate, says that the number of occurrences of misappropriation happening to indigenous peoples around the world “seems relentless with no relief in sight” and “we asked the international community to help deal with a problem that traverses international boundaries and we are still waiting.”

But this is not to deny this Committee its successes - why, only recently, a US designer of women’s clothing agreed to change the description of one of her lines of coats from African-inspired to Romanian-inspired after Romania complained. Long journeys begin with a single step after all.

But elsewhere, those objecting to cultural appropriation are not waiting for the UN to complete its critical work and are taking action themselves.

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The Montreal (Canada) International Jazz Festival has cancelled a series of performances in which white performers sang what were described as “slave songs”. Those shows, entitled SLAV. had been advertised as a “tribute to music as a tool for resilience and emancipation” that brought together “traditional Afro-American songs, from cotton fields to construction sites, railroads, from slave songs to prison songs.”

No way said Lucas Charlie Rose who describes herself as a “multidisciplinary hip hop artist” and “leader” of a global “black trans community”. “As a descendant of black slaves, it is my duty to ensure that their legacy is respected. These songs were not written so that non-black folks could charge other non-black folks $60 to $90 to perform these testimonies of pain and trauma,” she said.

Festival organisers who had added extra shows after the first were quickly sold out backtracked and cancelled the lot announcing, “We would like to apologise to those who were hurt,” they said.

American academics are nothing but zealous in their commitment to root out this insidious practice and a Michigan State University has revealed that white people who practice yoga contribute to “white supremacy” and the “yoga industrial complex”.

Religious Studies Professor Shreena Gandhi has co-authored an allegedly serious academic paper entitled, “Yoga and the Roots of Cultural Appropriation” with Lillie Wolff who describes herself as an “anti-racist white Jewish organiser, facilitator and healer”. They are bravely called for “decolonising yoga”.

They perceptively wrote, “Yoga contributes to our economic system, but never forget this system is one built upon exploitation and commodification of labor, often the labor of black people and people of the global south. Yoga, like so many other colonised systems of practice and knowledge, did not appear in the American spiritual landscape by coincidence; rather, its popularity was a direct consequence of a larger system of cultural appropriation that capitalism engenders and reifies.”

The authors bravely tore the mask off the “yoga industrial complex” exposing it for its crude racism and concluded with this rallying cry, “We must ask, in what ways are we complicit in a system that harms People of Color, queer and trans people, poor people, people with disabilities and immigrants?”

Well, go on: ask yourself!

Across the Atlantic Ocean, a 420-themed party at Mansfield College Oxford (UK) was very quickly dumped when it was drawn to the organisers’ attention that participants might turn up in culturally appropriated fancy dress outfits. It seems that a 420-themed party is a celebration of marijuana as April 20 has become for some reason a day to celebrate the weed.

The invitation to students read, “How do I dress as 420? Doesn’t that just mean getting high? No! 420 is not about the consumption of da herb itself, and more about the arts, music and literature surrounding it; it’s a celebration of a rich culture including everything from hippies to Hip-Hop, from Seth Rogan to the Dude.” Oh dear.

No sooner has this mass email went out to students that the party was cancelled and not because consumption of “da herb” is illegal but cause - horror of horrors - some suggested and/or likely fancy-dress costumes would be culturally appropriated.

The organisers announced, “We overlooked the clear issues with this theme and now realise our very significant mistake in the matter. We can’t apologise enough” and just to prove that they could not apologise enough, they added, “We regret and apologise for any offence or distress which may have been caused.”

You would think that they should have known better. Only last year, fellow college Lincoln copped a tirade of abuse for staging a New Orleans-themed ball because, as critics noted, it was clear cultural appropriation and, to add insult to injury, promoted "nostalgia for an era steeped in racism".

Magdalen College is well ahead of the pack at Oxford University as it has introduced compulsory racial awareness classes for all first-year students. These classes will cover racism, institutional racism, cultural appropriation and implied bias". In case you are wondering, "implied bias" happens "when people are accidentally or unknowingly discriminatory or racist to minority groups". Well, there you have it from the UK's major university - you can be a nasty racist neo-Nazi thug without realising it. 

Sometimes, it is sad to relate, people will openly boast about cultural appropriation.

The creator of the Star Wars franchise George Lucas has freely admitted that his blockbuster features quite literally plagiarized the theme of the 1958 Japanese action flick The Hidden Fortress by Akira Kurosawa. But, then again, Kurosawa pinched elements from Shakespeare for his movie and thought he would get away with it.

And don’t get me started on so-called fusion cuisine - what is culturally appropriating what when a dish of rice and sausages is served?

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About the Author

Russell Grenning is a retired political adviser and journalist who began his career at the ABC in 1968 and subsequently worked for the then Brisbane afternoon daily, The Telegraph and later as a columnist for The Courier Mail and The Australian.

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Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

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