In this episode of Sacred Tension, I’m joined by Yascha Mounk to discuss his new book The Identity Trap: A Story of Ideas and Power in Our Time. We discuss why the progressive fixation on identity categories undermines the goals of progressive movements, my own experience as a gay man, the dangers of binary political thinking, and much more.
Regarding cultural appropriation — one thing that the author missed while citing the example of White musicians being influenced by and even using the songs of Black musicians —- one thing he missed is the bit about how the Black musicians were not credited. The Black culture that these White musicians were being influenced by was not being given the recognition and respect that it deserved. And I am not sure whether or not they were even given proper royalties that they deserved.
Had the same White musicians re-recorded the songs by the same Black musicians, and had their music influenced by the same Black culture — but only the due credit, recognition, respect, and royalties been given —— that credit, recognition, respect, and royalty could have been used to bring real improvement to the situation of Black communities.
And that’s a big part of what makes appropriation appropriation.
Another form of cultural appropriation is when a dominant culture borrows things as it desires from a less-dominant culture —- while at the same time forcing a level of assimilation on the less-dominant culture that is unwanted and unnecessary. Such as when parents of minority families are told not to use their traditional tongue with their children —- as, for example, my parents were told not to use Hebrew with me and my sister - all the while mainstream socieity borrows whatever it feels like from Jewish culture.
Now - do there exists false-alarms of cultural appropriation? Of course!! Do we need to call-out and push-back against such false-alarms and the truly stifiling effect that they have? I definitely think so. But to go from that to denying that cultural appropriation is a thing — that’s a bit of a leap.
Regarding cultural appropriation — one thing that the author missed while citing the example of White musicians being influenced by and even using the songs of Black musicians —- one thing he missed is the bit about how the Black musicians were not credited. The Black culture that these White musicians were being influenced by was not being given the recognition and respect that it deserved. And I am not sure whether or not they were even given proper royalties that they deserved.
Had the same White musicians re-recorded the songs by the same Black musicians, and had their music influenced by the same Black culture — but only the due credit, recognition, respect, and royalties been given —— that credit, recognition, respect, and royalty could have been used to bring real improvement to the situation of Black communities.
And that’s a big part of what makes appropriation appropriation.
Another form of cultural appropriation is when a dominant culture borrows things as it desires from a less-dominant culture —- while at the same time forcing a level of assimilation on the less-dominant culture that is unwanted and unnecessary. Such as when parents of minority families are told not to use their traditional tongue with their children —- as, for example, my parents were told not to use Hebrew with me and my sister - all the while mainstream socieity borrows whatever it feels like from Jewish culture.
Now - do there exists false-alarms of cultural appropriation? Of course!! Do we need to call-out and push-back against such false-alarms and the truly stifiling effect that they have? I definitely think so. But to go from that to denying that cultural appropriation is a thing — that’s a bit of a leap.
Thanks so much for sharing!