The very idea that you can copyright certain subjects of discussion or artistic expression is deeply neoliberal. The belief that you can “appropriate” experience stems from seeing everything as property and wanting to appoint owners who’ll limit access to it.
It’s curious how many concepts that are considered to be super-duper progressive – choice, cultural appropriation, intersectionality, identity – are profoundly neoliberal. The progressive dogma that the desiring individual can never be questioned or scrutinized, what is it but the glorification of consumerism?
Clarissa's Blog 
The only situation in which I think “cultural appropriation” is unethical is when there is an inadequate supply of of some resource needed for a particular practice and outsiders use it all and make it unavailable to the original users. The example that comes to mind is quinoa, which was long a staple food in some South American societies. Users elsewhere have driven up the price beyond what the original producers and users can afford, threatening their survival.
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There’s quite a bit of evidence that the standard hand wringing story about quinoa is a media driven myth: http://www.slate.com/articles/life/food/2013/01/quinoa_bad_for_bolivian_and_peruvian_farmers_ignore_the_media_hand_wringing.html
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Ah! I suspected it was all hype. Thanks for the link!
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Cultural appropriation is something I changed my mind about completely this year. Mostly on the back of that brilliant Freddie DeBoer article. I agree with David Bellamy’s example, though.
Indians are great cultural appropriators, imo. We’ve appropriated world cuisine (masala pizza! Indo-chinese restaurants!), and even world religions to suit our sensibilities.
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Masala pizza?? I totally need to try.
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Yes. Yes, you do.
The Best Indian Pizza with chicken masala saouce
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Fresh spinach, cilantro, garlic, ginger, eggplant & tandoori chicken with our special masala sauce
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