There Is No Unproblematic Cultural "Appreciation"
simplistic answers only further consumption of cultural symbols
Forum: Strap-on.org
Date: 08/04/2004
IamARobot wrote:
I'm going to give it a try and if anyone takes offense, please let me know. First off, I'm white. And here's my problem. I feel I have a very real interest in India. [...] As a white girl I'm not sure how to express real interest without it being taken as appropriation or something along those lines. I mean, I don't wear saris or bindis. I don't do henna or anything like that. I just really want to learn about the culture and the people, etc.
That you are so worried about "being taken as appropriation" (rather than, for example, being exploitative and oppressive) indicates that you do not "get it." The issue here is not whether or not someone "takes offense," but whether or not you are critically evaluating your participation in the continuation of colonialist discourse and resisting it from within (since there is no way to detach yourself from it and criticize it from outside).
There is no such thing as an unproblematic way to express appreciation and interest toward the colonized culture as a member of a colonizing nation. Not wearing cultural symbols is not the point; it is that you cannot escape from the historic, political and economic contexts by the mere virtue of individual good ethics and behavior.
It is not wrong for a white person to express an interest in foreign cultures. But any such appreciation, no matter how sincere and respectful, takes place within the colonialist context in which there is a vast historic imbalances between the subject and the object of the appreciation.
In conclusion, I believe that you should pursue your interest in Indian cultures even as you interrogate and resist how you participate in the postcolnial global political and economic systems. I believe that you should agonize and lose sleep over it. Reject simplistic theories that claim that there is a clear line between disrespectful cultural appropriation and sincere appreciation because they are simply meant to take white people off the hook and sell you more of the appropriated cultural symbols.