I’m generally on the side of “getting mad about cultural appropriation is stupid” due to the reasons others have shared above, and will add some more reasons to the mix. “Lionel Shriver's full speech: 'I hope the concept of cultural appropriation is a passing fad' | Lionel Shriver | The Guardian”
Being half Chinese, I’ll admit that if I go to a Chinese restaurant and see a white chef in the kitchen, I feel a bit odd. But if the food’s good, I’ll still go back. I see Chinese people working in Vietnamese bakeries, and Japanese Sushi bars, and Korean BBQ all the time. Most Australians couldn’t tell the difference. I once found a “Lebanese” kebab shop run by Italians. This is part of living in a multicultural society, and it is not a bad thing, though the cultural appropriation bandwagon may think otherwise.
However, there was a recent ad which got me to briefly reconsider my position. The bank ME used the Hallelujah Chorus to advertise themselves (https://youtu.be/rreyC4L7xI8). I am a Christian, and to me, the Hallelujah chorus is about what I hold most sacred, about the God who I worship. Does anyone here think a bank is worthy of worship? because to anyone who knows what the song is about, that is what ME implies about itself.
Do I consider the song itself to be sacred? Until I heard the ad, I would have said “certainly not”. The Hallelujah chorus is a musical masterpiece whether people understand what it means or not. Given my general stance on copyright and sharing culture I want to say “feel free to remix it however you want!”. Though it’s a Christian song, Christians don’t have exclusive rights to it, and it is a recognisable tune in pop culture. When Dumb and Dumber used it (https://youtu.be/sLB-uMPj27s) I chuckled, even though the scene is completely disconnected from what the song is about. But when I hear ME’s ad, it just feels wrong. The whinger within me wants to say “you can’t use that song that way”.
They aren’t doing it out of malice, just cluelessness.
I think that’s part of what annoys me so much about ME’s ad. Maybe it’s the fact that ME turned it into an awful earworm. But the ad gets at me in a way that parody or mockery, or actual malice, against my beliefs doesn’t.
I’m not jumping on the “Cultural appropriation is bad and is to be avoided at all costs” bandwagon. It is, and should be, within the rights of ME to use the Hallelujah chorus in their ad. Free speech includes both the right to deliberately offend and the right to express things ignorantly, causing offence; and I value free speech above cultural sensitivity. And more broadly, the cultural appropriation bandwagon generally misunderstand what culture is and how it works. But I hope that by using this example that I can help you understand that there is more than just a “crumb of truth” in the arguments.
I have previously shared an article about Aboriginal people wanting to ban fake Aboriginal art (Indigenous arts community lobby Government to make it illegal to sell fake Aboriginal-style souvenirs - ABC News;
see Indigenous arts community lobby Government to make it illegal to sell fake Aboriginal-style souvenirs for the discussion). Even if the fact that their art is the primary source of income is removed from the equation, they still have a legitimate interest in protecting the authentic.
From the original article:
“Each cultural group has their own cultural stories and their own ownership of designs and patterns and stories,” said Valerie Keenan, the manager of the Girringun Art Centre in far north Queensland.
“And that’s particular to those people and it’s not something that someone else can take on and try to reproduce.”
The Girringun Aboriginal Art Centre has been working for the past two years to develop their own line of products, but it has been a slow process.
In the meantime, Ms Keenan said they were up against an insurmountable tidal wave of fake products.
“What is actually being seen out there is a very commodified product I think,” she said.
"It’s a kind of imitation art which undermines the artist’s ability to express the real story.
“What you are seeing is just a mish mash of something that people think, ‘oh that’s Aboriginal art’, but ultimately it isn’t particularly good art.”
TL:DR
I used to think the concept of cultural appropriation was completely stupid, but then I experienced the appropriation of my own culture and began to understand why people think it’s wrong. Now I only think it’s mostly stupid.
I do like the nuance in the article Devdsp shared, so when we come out against the concept, we also need to be appropriately nuanced.