“Stolen,” explained:  Two points of view

bornabitch-allthedaysandnights:

bornabitch-allthedaysandnights:

jtem:

Stolen in the real world:

You own a car. You drive it home, park it out front and go inside. The next morning you wake up and your car is gone… STOLEN!

Stolen in the Social Justice Narnia:

You own a car. You drive it home, park it out front and go inside. The next morning you wake up and your car is still there exactly as you left it, only some WHITE PERSON is driving around in a car exactly like yours… STOLEN!

Here’s how traditions are ACTUALLY stolen.

One of the most common side effects of cultural appropriation (especially the kind of appropriation that includes decontextualization of the tradition) is a concept known as crystallization, which is where the tradition is no longer able to change or evolve according to the needs of the people actually in the culture, effectively taking it away from them. This is especially common in formerly colonized countries with large tourism industries. Having relatives who work in the tourism industry, I have seen this first hand.

This is not even including that when people of color immigrate to Western countries, they are forced to give up their traditions to survive and not experience racism and hate crimes (aka forced assimilation), and yet the white people who use the same traditions are praised and honored, or deemed ‘cultured’ or ‘trendy. Again, this is equivalent to stealing because the actual members of the culture are unable to practice their traditions while the people taking them are celebrated. See for example, the fact that people have been attacked in public in North America and Europe for speaking their home language instead of English (or French or German, etc), while people learning that same language can use it as a boost for their resumes.

As for food, you can make it so that traditional ingredients are no longer available to the culture that originally cultivated it. Quinoa is a perfect example. When quinoa became the “new superfood” the price got so high due to demand from Europe and North America that Bolivian farmers could no longer eat their staple cultural foods because it was too expensive to prepare them. This led to widespread malnutrition, particularly among children.

Stop making silly strawman arguments and actually engage in the discussion next time. You might actually learn something.

I love it when people have no logic or evidence to back their claims so they resort to ad hominems. It really shows their desperation.