What is cultural appropriation?

Cultural appropriate is really emulation and appreciation

Question: What is cultural appropriation?
Position‹2 of 5›: A cultural appreciation
Argument: Cultural appropriate is really emulation and appreciation

Emulating another culture should be a source of flattery as it indicates that citizens of another culture like elements of another culture so much that want to incorporate it into their culture.

The argument

The argument turns on what the act of borrowing actually communicates. If the Kardashians braid their hair, they are making a statement that they like the way the braids look. Nobody takes up a style they find unattractive or beneath them. The choice is an endorsement, and on this reading it is therefore showing an appreciation to the culture they are emulating rather than an attack on it. What follows is a claim about how such acts should be interpreted. The charge of appropriation reads the borrowing as a taking: something removed from a culture that owns it, used by someone with no entitlement to it. Proponents of this position argue that this misdescribes what occurred. Nothing has been removed, since the culture retains the practice; what has happened is that the practice has been admired and taken up, which is the ordinary way influence has always travelled between cultures. Imitation on this account is the form admiration takes when it becomes action. The conclusion is about the response. Rather than taking offence when another race or ethnicity borrows aspects of another culture, we should see it for the appreciative gesture that it is. Treating emulation as an offence, proponents argue, mistakes the motive for its opposite and penalises exactly the conduct that signals regard, discouraging people from showing interest in a culture not their own and encouraging each group to keep to itself. Because what is called cultural appropriation is in substance emulation, and emulation expresses appreciation, on this view it is better understood as a cultural appreciation.

Context

We emulate behaviour and aesthetic that we find attractive and appealing. Therefore, cultural appropriation is a gesture of appreciation for another culture.

Premises

[P1]When someone adopts an element of another culture, such as braiding their hair, they signal that they like the way it looks. [P2] That signal is an expression of appreciation toward the culture being emulated. [P3] Rather than taking offence, we should recognise such borrowing as the appreciative gesture it is. [C] Therefore, what is called cultural appropriation is really emulation and appreciation.

Counter-arguments

Cultural appropriation is inherently dangerous, even when it is intended as a compliment. By treating another cultural norm as an exotic look or adventure, the dominant culture is reinforcing the idea that the minority culture is “strange” or “different”. Even when this is intended as a compliment, it establishes the minority group as an “other” or alien, which is clearly offensive.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P3] Even if it is intended as a gesture of respect, it has dangerous implications.