Apropos of a friend’s IBARW post, I went looking for good links that talk about Cultural Appropriation. For those with no time to read about it on Wikipedia, Cultural Appropriation is the selective adoption of elements of a culture one does not belong to, and is characterized by in some way idealizing what we like about cultures and only hearing/seeing what we want to about them. Often commentators will talk about how appropriators have romanticized parts of the culture and done what they liked or simply ignored the rest. Most folks indigenous to the appropriated culture will see the picking and choosing and observe that the appropriator’s knowledge about the complexities of cultural, political, economic and other factors go unnoticed.

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