One of the more endearing traits of cultural appropriation warriors is their belief that only they have read and thought about the issue. 1/ — Kenan Malik (@kenanmalik) June 16, 2017
And that their critics are only critics because they are ignorant. 2/ — Kenan Malik (@kenanmalik) June 16, 2017
As it happens, I’ve spent more than 20 years thinking and writing about contemporary debates about culture, 3/ — Kenan Malik (@kenanmalik) June 16, 2017
…and about the relationship between such cultural ideas and ideas of race. Indeed I’ve written two books about the issue. 4/ — Kenan Malik (@kenanmalik) June 16, 2017
So let me ask cultural appropriation warriors a few basic questions: 1 Define a culture (‘Western culture’, ‘black culture’, etc) — Kenan Malik (@kenanmalik) June 16, 2017
2 Define the boundaries of a culture (where does ‘black culture’ end and ‘white culture’ begin in America?) — Kenan Malik (@kenanmalik) June 16, 2017
3 Define membership of a culture 4 Define what it means for a culture to ‘own’ a cultural form — Kenan Malik (@kenanmalik) June 16, 2017
5 Define how a cultural form belongs to a culture and only to that culture — Kenan Malik (@kenanmalik) June 16, 2017
6 Define who provides permission for a cultural form to be used by ‘another culture’ — Kenan Malik (@kenanmalik) June 16, 2017
7 Define who defines what is a ‘respectful’ use of a cultural form, and why they should possess that authority. — Kenan Malik (@kenanmalik) June 16, 2017
Over to you. — Kenan Malik (@kenanmalik) June 16, 2017
Cf. my earlier post in which I quote from his NYTimes op-ed.
H/t Jerry Coyne.