chronologicque:

mirandaadria:

One thing that really kills me about the ignorance of white people regarding the difference between trans-cultural diffusion and cultural appropriation is that even the shittiest high school history class should have explained what trans-cultural diffusion is. Trans-cultural…

While I totally agree that blatantly shallow cultural appropriations are distasteful, I think the strictly black and white “appropriation vs. diffusion” dichotomy is nonconstructive rhetoric. There are definitely obvious examples of each, but the line gets blurred both nowadays and historically.

With diffusion via conquest especially, a lot of that could very easily be argued as unethical appropriation in a modern context, but it doesn’t get viewed that way in retrospect because many aspects of our culture that we view as inextricable were born from highly questionable (at best) circumstances (like, say, colonialism).

Modern examples aren’t always quite so clear cut, either. The white suburbian girl donning a bindi is an easy go-to because the cultural gap is so wide, but what about a situation like what you see all the time in modern America, like whether or not it’s acceptable for white people to rap? What kind of experiences does a white person have to have to be seen as “legitimate”? Where do you draw the line, if at all?

Granted, this is the voice and perspective of a white-ass guy from BFE. I simply try to be sensitive to these sorts of issues to the best of my ability; I want to promote constructive discourse.