Cultural appropriation is the theft of elements of another culture for personal gain.

The argument

The argument turns on a distinction familiar in every other context and, on this account, simply applied here too: there is a difference between borrowing and stealing. Cultural appropriation names the second of these — taking elements of another culture for one's own gain rather than engaging with them. What marks the difference is who benefits. Cultural appropriation, on this definition, is when someone steals from another culture for their own financial gain. The example the argument offers is a person who is not Native American beginning to make jewellery in a Native American style and selling it for profit. The forms, motifs and techniques were developed within a particular community, over generations, and carry meaning there. The revenue from selling them accrues to someone outside it. Nothing returns to the people whose tradition made the product saleable in the first place. That extraction is what constitutes the theft. The seller has acquired something of value without acquiring it from anyone — no permission sought, no relationship established, no payment made — and is then charging others for access to it. The community that originated the style bears a further cost, because a market supplied by outsiders competes directly with its own makers, using the authenticity of their tradition as the selling point while they see none of the proceeds. Framing this as theft rather than as insensitivity is deliberate. An objection framed as offence invites the reply that no one was harmed and that admiration is not an injury. Framing it as an appropriation of value identifies something concrete that has been taken and someone concrete who is worse off, which is what makes the claim a claim about property rather than about feelings. So on this account cultural appropriation is not participation in another culture but an exercise of access without cost — the elements are removed from where they came from, and the gain is kept.

Context

Borrowing from another culture is a gesture of appreciation and is not cultural appreciation. Stealing or exploiting another culture for financial gain is cultural appropriation.

Premises

Counter-arguments

Ideas don't work like physical objects - you can't "steal" them; if I use your idea of an aspect of your culture, you still can have it at the same time. Cultural expressions belong to the realm of ideas, which propagate and multiply when shared. Sharing culture makes it richer, and cultures that are not shared become abandonded and die.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P2] Cultural appropriation does not require personal financial gain.