Cultural colonization would be a better term

The argument

The complaint here is one of naming rather than of substance. "Appropriation" describes taking something and treating it as one's own, which by itself covers a great deal of ordinary cultural life. Borrowing of that kind happens constantly and in every direction, and when the cultures of one dominant class are borrowed by another dominant class nobody objects — no offence is registered, and no one reaches for the vocabulary of harm. If the term named what it appears to name, those cases would be objectionable too, and they plainly are not. What people actually object to is narrower. Offence arises specifically when a colonial power appropriates the culture of a people it has oppressed — when the taking runs along a line of domination, and when the group being drawn from has historically had little power to refuse or to set the terms. The wrong being identified is not borrowing as such but the asymmetry in which it occurs, and the history of coercion that produced that asymmetry. "Cultural colonisation" names that directly. It locates the objection where the objection actually lies, in the relationship between the parties rather than in the act of borrowing, and it makes plain why some instances provoke anger while superficially identical ones pass without comment. The term in general use does neither. By describing the act without the power relation, "cultural appropriation" implicates exchanges nobody thinks are wrong while obscuring what is wrong about the cases that matter — which in turn invites the objection that the concept is applied inconsistently and according to taste. A term that cannot distinguish the cases it exists to distinguish is not doing the work of a concept. On this argument cultural appropriation is a meaningless term, and cultural colonisation would be the better one.

Context

Cultural appropriation is when a dominant culture borrows or steals elements from a minority culture. Cultural appropriation fails to adequately encapsulate the colonial aspect of cultural appropriation. Therefore, cultural colonization would be a better term.

Premises

Counter-arguments

In Canada, indigenous people boycotted the Canadian Indigenous Music awards over the nomination of a singer that uses traditional Inuit throat-singing techniques despite not belonging to the specific tribe that uses those techniques. This case of cultural appropriation goes against the notion of cultural colonialism as a better term. The singer was Cree and was, therefore, a minority herself, belonging to a minority group with a history of marginalization in North America. However, those that are accusing her of cultural appropriation are also minorities. This is not a form of cultural colonialism, as the Cree tribe are not oppressors nor a dominant race. However, evidently minority on minority cultural appropriation still has the power to cause offense and should be included under the banner of cultural appropriation.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] Minority on minority cultural appropriation exists and can be as damaging as majority on minority appropriation.