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Is cultural appropriation always done with malicious intent?
(sh.itjust.works)
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this post was submitted on 22 Sep 2026
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No.
It's almost always completely innocuous and innocent. That's why calling it out is a thing.
I imagine many people have lost the plot, but the point of calling out cultural appropriation is not to stop appreciating other cultures and their designs, clothing, ethnicity, everything else. It's to stop from whitewashing it, to prevent it from being absorbed by Western society and its individuality stripped from it and sold to the highest bidder.
As long as the thing that is a cultural thing is appreciated as a cultural thing, it's fine.
I agree with all of this, except I don't think it's a bad thing for elements of one culture to be absorbed by or to inspire another culture. That's just how culture works and it's kind of impossible to avoid.
Cultural appropriation is cultural diffusion + being an asshole about it.
I'll say that while I agree with you, the manner of how you call it out is important. If you are too intense about it you're more likely to get an eyeroll and people to double down on their belief that it's nothing. A gentle nudge can do more than a fallout usually.
if you tell someone that they're doing something harmful and they keep doing it because they didn't like your tone, they are still the problem. cultural appropriation is an issue because it is done on a systemic level - trying to convince indivuals who need to be coddled to listen is a waste of time.
I didn't mention at all repeat attempts. The first attempt should assume best intentions.