# Where do you draw the line as to what is or is not cultural appropriation? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 28, 2022, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-you-draw-the-line-as-to-what-is-or-is-not-cultural-appropriation/972360 "2022-09-28T05:24:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![kitap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b9e5f3/32.png) [@kitap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kitap)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2022, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-you-draw-the-line-as-to-what-is-or-is-not-cultural-appropriation/972360/81 "2022-09-29T20:29:35Z")
How about [these people?](https://www.reddit.com/r/IndianCountry/) I have noticed, as a general rule, it’s whites who think “eh, cultural appropriation- no big deal”. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2022, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-you-draw-the-line-as-to-what-is-or-is-not-cultural-appropriation/972360/82 "2022-09-29T20:38:12Z")
> [@kitap](#): > > How about [these people?](https://www.reddit.com/r/IndianCountry/) What about them? What point are you making? Native Americans exist. The various tribes will have different cultural artifacts and for sure they will have stolen them freely from each other over the course of history. Is that the point you are making? ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2022, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-you-draw-the-line-as-to-what-is-or-is-not-cultural-appropriation/972360/83 "2022-09-29T20:45:18Z")
> [@bump](#): > > Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and Domino’s at least are calling their products pizza. This is more what I’m talking about. [“Grilled Artisan Flatbreads”?](https://www.heinens.com/recipes/artisan-grilled-flatbreads/) Those are pizzas by nearly any reasonable definition. The fact that they’re grilled instead of baked alone puts them outside the “pizza” category for me. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2022, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-you-draw-the-line-as-to-what-is-or-is-not-cultural-appropriation/972360/84 "2022-09-29T20:46:57Z")
> [@Isamu](#): > > What would be very wrong is to take a symbol from some other culture and associate it with your culture to rob the original culture of its meaning. Like the Nazis did with the swastika. The original meaning of the symbol has not been lost though has it? It still means exactly the same to the originators does it not? ---
**Author:** ![kitap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b9e5f3/32.png) [@kitap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kitap)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2022, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-you-draw-the-line-as-to-what-is-or-is-not-cultural-appropriation/972360/85 "2022-09-29T20:47:08Z")
No, my point is there are quite a few Native Americans who are not at all happy about cultural appropriation. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2022, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-you-draw-the-line-as-to-what-is-or-is-not-cultural-appropriation/972360/86 "2022-09-29T20:51:35Z")
The internet exists. Finding people who are not happy about _any_ given thing is simplicity itself. That is not reason enough to condemn wholesale the copying of cultural behaviours, foods, arts, artifacts etc. I think it is a net benefit for society and should continue, the more the better. Those that don’t like it are welcome to their opinion as well and are free to not do it. ---
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2022, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-you-draw-the-line-as-to-what-is-or-is-not-cultural-appropriation/972360/87 "2022-09-29T21:35:03Z")
When I was in college in the early 70s there was a “Chinese restaurant” not far from the campus. It was in what was obviously a former gas station (you could see where the filling stations had been in the parking lot). The food was pretty much the standard American Chinese fare - chop suey, chow mein, etc. The reason I put “Chinese restaurant” in quotes was because the entire staff was Black. I never saw a single Asian person working there. But we didn’t care, because the food was good. Among ourselves we used to refer to it as “the Chinese Soul Food place”. Of course, the term “cultural appropriation” didn’t exist back then. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2022, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-you-draw-the-line-as-to-what-is-or-is-not-cultural-appropriation/972360/88 "2022-09-29T21:40:41Z")
> [@LurkMeister](#): > > Of course, the term “cultural appropriation” didn’t exist back then. First use of the term dates from 1945. ---
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2022, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-you-draw-the-line-as-to-what-is-or-is-not-cultural-appropriation/972360/89 "2022-09-29T21:44:25Z")
Really, I’d never heard it until the past four or five years. Learn something every day. ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2022, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-you-draw-the-line-as-to-what-is-or-is-not-cultural-appropriation/972360/90 "2022-09-29T22:35:12Z")
> [@LurkMeister](#): > > The reason I put “Chinese restaurant” in quotes was because the entire staff was Black. I never saw a single Asian person working there. But we didn’t care, because the food was good. Among ourselves we used to refer to it as “the Chinese Soul Food place”. At a Chinese restaurant my family frequented in the 1980s-90s, at least some of the waiters were actually Vietnamese. But hey, they looked Asian, and most of the customers probably had no idea they weren’t Chinese. I’ve heard that at many Indian restaurants, while the waitstaff and hostess are usually Indian, the cooks are quite often Hispanic. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2022, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-you-draw-the-line-as-to-what-is-or-is-not-cultural-appropriation/972360/91 "2022-09-29T22:39:42Z")
There’s a restaurant near me with a French name, that advertises itself as a Vietnamese restaurant, whose menu is bog-standard Chinese-American restaurant fare. They’ve been there for years and years, in a very high rent area, and there’s almost never any customers there, so I’m pretty sure they’re a money laundering front. Decent food, though. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2022, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-you-draw-the-line-as-to-what-is-or-is-not-cultural-appropriation/972360/92 "2022-09-29T22:48:31Z")
> [@WildaBeast](#): > > I’ve heard that at many Indian restaurants, while the waitstaff and hostess are usually Indian, the cooks are quite often Hispanic. In the UK, the “Indian” restaurant trade exploded in the second half of the 20th century based on mostly Bangladeshi immigrants and their interpretation of Indian food. So that’s a huge chunk of cultural appropriation right there. And yes, plenty of Indian people complain about it. Lovely, tasty, cultural appropriation. ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2022, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-you-draw-the-line-as-to-what-is-or-is-not-cultural-appropriation/972360/93 "2022-09-30T00:13:44Z")
Does it? I’ll turn the question back on you. (not to be rude, as I am largely with you on this whole issue). Would you put it out in public? On a T-shirt? ---
**Author:** ![Kropotkin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kropotkin/32/18045_2.png) [@Kropotkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kropotkin)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2022, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-you-draw-the-line-as-to-what-is-or-is-not-cultural-appropriation/972360/94 "2022-09-30T00:23:34Z")
I like the distinctions you make here ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2022, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-you-draw-the-line-as-to-what-is-or-is-not-cultural-appropriation/972360/95 "2022-09-30T00:33:08Z")
> [@Isamu](#): > > Does it? I’ll turn the question back on you. (not to be rude, as I am largely with you on this whole issue). > > Would you put it out in public? On a T-shirt? Me? I’m not the originator. I only know it really from the Nazi connotations but the originators of the symbol still do use it. It has not lost its original meaning for them, which was my point. ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2022, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-you-draw-the-line-as-to-what-is-or-is-not-cultural-appropriation/972360/96 "2022-09-30T01:10:12Z")
There’s a long held joke in SoCal that “All the best Asian restaurants are staffed by Mexican cooks in the back, and all the best Mexican restaurants are staffed by Asian cooks in the back.” ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.winston_oboogie/32/2945_2.png) [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Winston_OBoogie)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2022, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-you-draw-the-line-as-to-what-is-or-is-not-cultural-appropriation/972360/97 "2022-09-30T14:16:31Z")
> [@LurkMeister](#): > > Really, I’d never heard it until the past four or five years. > > Learn something every day. 20-30 years ago, “Cultural Appropriation” talked about gross things like the Cleveland Indians’ mascot “Chief Wahoo”, or Disney’s Pocahontas movie and the halloween costumes from it. You might have some people looking back at "historical’ things like some of the racist Bugs Bunny cartoons of the 40s and 50s and their stereotypes, or some of the 70s TV commercials. These are things that bother me, and are still what I think of when I hear “cultural appropriation”. It confuses me when a girl wears a japanese dress to prom and people scream “cultural appropriation”. I personally don’t see a problem with that action. My oldest has a black sash in Kung Fu. He has swords and other items of Chinese culture. He spent years learning of the culture - this is appreciation, not appropriation. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2022, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-you-draw-the-line-as-to-what-is-or-is-not-cultural-appropriation/972360/98 "2022-10-01T03:08:36Z")
> [@sciurophobic](#): > > Like on the _Great British Bake Off/Baking Show_ when the bakers made challah but it was called “plaited loaf”? Or when the technical challenge was rainbow bagels? And that’s pronounced “platted” not “playted” as I always thought before I’d heard the word said aloud. It reminds me of going to the Farmer’s Market (3rd and Fairfax) with a friend when we were in high school. Her mom asked her to pick up a challah, and so we stopped at the bakery. The coiunter girl didn’t know what she was referring to, but another older lady pointed it out and said “That’s what _they_ call it” with exactly that emphasis. It was so weird especially as that area had historically and still was at the time heavily Jewish. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2022, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-you-draw-the-line-as-to-what-is-or-is-not-cultural-appropriation/972360/99 "2022-10-01T07:59:45Z")
> [@LurkMeister](#): > > The reason I put “Chinese restaurant” in quotes was because the entire staff was Black. I never saw a single Asian person working there. But we didn’t care, because the food was good. Among ourselves we used to refer to it as “the Chinese Soul Food place”. Hell, I live in a city that literally has more Japanese restaurants than actual Japanese people. What can I say - we like sushi. Should we be forbidden from eating it due to an accident of demographics? ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b77776/32.png) [@Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_was_in_Saudi)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2022, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-you-draw-the-line-as-to-what-is-or-is-not-cultural-appropriation/972360/100 "2022-10-01T10:27:36Z")
I am not enough of a busybody to presume to tell people how they can or cannot dress. I do not accept the concept of cultural appropriation. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-you-draw-the-line-as-to-what-is-or-is-not-cultural-appropriation/972360.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-you-draw-the-line-as-to-what-is-or-is-not-cultural-appropriation/972360.md?page=6)