Cultural appropriation, you just can’t be too careful

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?