Vicariously Offended

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Mocking cultures is fine. Mocking anything is fine.

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Yeah. I see and experience this a lot from collectivists. It's like they try to cover it under a thinly veiled hypocritical facade of "niceness" but still stinks like shit under it

I don't have to go too far, just me mentioning that I am from Venezuela and that I know for a fact that the leftists destroyed my country, is enough for them to let go of that facade and go into a tirade of vindicative slurs.

Of course, I understand them. From thousand of kilometers away and armed with all of 15 minutes of a collectivist ideology pamphlet, they clearly know more about the struggles and history of the country I've lived all my life.

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Cultural appropriation is a broad enough term to functionally be meaningless, but I've found it helpful to think through 4 distinct interests at play, that I think are legitimate:

Proper attribution/credit. We don't like plagiarism or unattributed copying in most art. Remixes, homages, reinterpretations, and even satire/parody are acceptable but we expect proper treatment of the original author and the original work. Some accusations of cultural appropriation take on this flavor, where there's a perceived unfairness in how the originator of an idea is ignored and some copier is given credit. For a real world example of this, think of the times the fans of a particular musical artist get annoyed when a cover of one of that artist's song becomes bigger than the original.

Proper labeling/consumer disclosure/trademark. Some people don't like taking an established name and applying it outside of that original context. European nations can be pretty aggressive at preserving the names of certain wines (champagne versus sparkling wine) or cheeses (parmigiano reggiano versus parmesan) or other products. American producers are less aggressive about those types of geographic protected labels but have a much more aggressive system of trademarks generally: Coca Cola, Nike, Starbucks. In a sense, there's literal ownership of a name and the owner should be entitled to decide what does or doesn't get the label.

Cheapening of something special or disrespect for something sacred. For certain types of ceremonial clothing, wearing that clothing outside of the context of that ceremony seems disrespectful. Military types sometimes get offended by stolen valor when people wear ranks/ribbons/uniforms they haven't personally earned, and want to gatekeep who gets to wear those things. In Wedding Crashers there's a scene where Will Ferrell puts on a fake purple heart to try to get laid, and it's widely understood by the audience to be a scummy move. Or, one could imagine the backlash if someone were to host some kind of drinking contest styled after some Christian communion rituals, complete with a host wearing stuff that looks like clergy attire.

Mockery of a group. Blackface, fake accents, and things of that nature are often in bad taste when used to mock people. It's hard to pull this off without a lot of people catching strays, so it's best to just avoid these practices. With costumes in general, there are things to look out for, especially if you're going out and getting smashed.

NostraDavid

This video always made me giggle a bit: Students vs. Mexicans: Cultural Appropriation | Man on the Street

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Obviously, but the intent is important.

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What "idiots complaining about cultural appropriation"? It's not exactly a common thing, despite what caricatures of them might make you think. No one is getting upset that anyone eats food from another culture.

The only actual examples I can think of that I've actually heard discussed are "please don't dress as my race as a costume, it's basically blackface" and "my religion was systematically driven to the brink of extinction, I'd appreciate it if you didn't use it as a fun activity to express your creativity".

These things always seem chock full of getting defensive about something that doesn't really happen, or acting like the smallest pushback to the dominant culture doing whatever they want is incredibly terrible.
Appropriation isn't an issue when it's just cultures sharing. It's an issue when people reduce the culture to the things in question, forget that there's actually people involved who deserve respect, or outright claim ownership of the thing in question.

Don't go to a Halloween party dressed as a Puerto Rican. Don't grab a random assortment of native American religious practices, mix them with crystals and use it to showcase your creativity.

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Absolutely, or it's like an internet liberal thing not a real person thing.

I was at a puzzle meet and had brought a harry Potter puzzle and had a moment of "oh shit, JK Rowling is not the best choice for this group" but no one actually cared for something that tangentially transphobic.

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Lol no jaja

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How do you not have the money for cocaine man, it literally grows on trees

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How do Puerto Ricans dress up?

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Lots of fabrication in this story

I mean, that was the point. Previous poster imagined a world. I imagined another one.

As for the Asian kid - one grain of rice at a time. Boiling water in a lot of tiny containers. It ended up being surprisingly efficient, save for a mild case of carpal tunnel syndrome.

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Remember the Frito Bandito? (Voiced by Mel Blanc)

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PragerU is a right wing propaganda machine (I'm not exaggerating that is literally their business model). That itself doesn't invalidate this video in particular but should explain the motives behind it.

Schadrach

I think the more important factor is taking ownership over something that originated elsewhere.

This describes virtually every tool, food, piece of clothing, etc you have ever used that was invented before the 20th century. Most of them originating somewhere else and being copied, rebranded, and modified over and over for decades or centuries until they reached their current forms. The only real difference is how recently it happened and if you can wedge it into a power hierarchy in such a way as to be able to blame someone who's an acceptable target for that blame.

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Lol, what a bunch of snowflakes.

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This is probably the best most level-headed and respectful take I've seen regarding cultural appropriation. Thank you!

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I think there's a mix. I get the impression that cultural appropriation as a thing to be offended about is well past its peak and dying out a bit, but back when it was popular I knew people in real life angry about these things. Not bad people either... well meaning people who spend a bit too much time online and don't think things through themselves.

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oh yeah, as an academic term it's probably useful

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Yes, that was the point.

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I've never seen anyone that wasn't lily white complain about cultural appropriation.