Prompt 07: CC4r case studies

Prompt 07 was prepared by C. Thi Nguyen, a philosophy professor at University of Utah. We contacted him right after reading “Cultural Appropriation and the Intimacy of Groups”, a text that Andrea Francke (who proposed Prompt 07) suggested us to read. In this text, which he wrote together with Matthew Strohl, C. Thi Nguyen explains the dead ends that both "universal entitlement" and "universal restrictiveness" represent when it comes to dealing with cultural appropriation.

In thinking about cultural appropriation, what I came to think was that it was bad that one of the key problems was thinking in blanket terms: that cultural appropriation was always problematic or always OK. Instead what Matt Strohl and I came to think was that some practices had particularly powerful meanings to particular groups. They were intimate practices, practices of group solidarity, that expressed something important about belonging to a group identity. Furthermore, it mattered what a particular group licenses about a particular practice. Some groups are eager to have particular practices disseminated, other groups might want particular practices held private, sacred, or special. And it matters the social power of the group, since we have reason to particularly help to protect the cultural identity of threatened groups. (More here.)

You don’t have to think this way, and I don’t expect you to agree with us necessarily. But if you want to try, I invite you to try to approach some difficult cases thinking about respecting the wishes of the relevant group. Because in real-world cases, this turns out to be very difficult: because of the complex cascades of overlapping groups and overlapping practices. I find some of these less puzzling, and some of these more puzzling.

I apologize for the American focus of the examples, but I have tried to draw and adapt from real life examples that I know well – because the details are important.

A museum in California, as part of Asian American Heritage Month, puts on display a set of kimonos and invites museum attendees to try them on. Asian-American activists protest the event as a form of cultural appropriation, and point to the runway event, above. Most of the activists were born in America, and come from a variety of Asian ethnicities. There is, however, a counterprotest, by Japanese-born immigrants, who point out that kimonos are, in Japanese culture, a gift object, intentionally created to be worn by outsiders. What should the museum do?

The practice of wearing au dai – Vietnamese formal long dress – has sometimes been taken on by white Americans. Recently a French designer had a runway show in Los Angeles, in which American, mostly white and black models, walked the runway wearing au dai. This sparked a storm of protest from Asian American activists, as a particularly aggregious form of cultural appropriation – especially since it was coming from a French designer. Now, Tom is getting married to Nancy in Los Angeles. Tom is a white American, Nancy is a Vietnamese-American. Nancy participated in those protests. But Nancy’s Vietnamese family strongly wishes that Tom would wear an au dai at their wedding. What should they do, and why? And should it matter if any photos will be posted on Instagram?

Suppose you are a British white person, who is in love with different African textile patterns. You are aware that there have been several criticisms, by black British people, complaining that the cultural appropriation of African textile patterns is a painful kind of appropriation, especially insulting given the history of British colonization. However, you locate an online shop that sells a particularly beautiful textile. The shop’s online FAQ states that the pattern is distinctive to the shop owner’s particular village, and that the shop owner encourages everybody, no matter their racial or cultural heritage, to buy and wear this beautiful fabric. Should you purchase it, and if you do, in what contexts might you wear it?

Debates are raging inside various American Latino communities about the permissibility of non Latino people displaying Day of the Dead decorations on their lawns and homes around the appropriate holiday. Roughly, a majority of Latino academics and cultural writers have argued that it is a problematic form of cultural appropriation, that partakes superficially in a deep cultural tradition. (The objection isn’t to, say, a non-Latino person thoughtfully participating in a Day of the Dead parade, after learning about the history. The objection is to non-Latino people randomly buying cheap Day of the Dead lawn ornaments and sticking them in their lawns with the vague thought that they look kinda cool.) And roughly, a majority of non-academic Latinos think this is fussy and dumb, and many have expressed an affection for seeing signs of their culture spread. Suppose you are not Latino, and your five year old sees a Day of the Dead skull at the grocery store and thinks it’s beautiful and wants to put it on your lawn. Should you? (PS there is a similar divide over whether the correct term is “Latinx” or “Latino”, so the language of this prompt is up for similar worries.)

Many mixed-martial artists, of every racial and cultural background – especially women fighters -- have started adopting the hairstyle of cornrows: tight, low braids. These are traditionally a Black hairstyle. Many Black Americans have expressed that these seem to strike them as insulting cultural appropriation. Black hairstyles have been one of the classical loci of cultural appropriation concerns. The general worry is that Black people who wear such hairstyles are subject to various forms of discrimination and bias – and often accused of being “unprofessional”. But white people who wear such styles appear “edgy” and “cool”. On the other hand, the mixed martial artists simply say that the hairstyle is maximally functional in the MMA ring, and many white MMA fighters who wear such cornrows say that they are wearing them in solidarity with their close friends, who are Black MMA fighters. How do we balance these concerns?