Display MoreSorry, this just fundamentally is untrue. On the positive side, appropriation can be appreciation, AND, on the negative side, appropriation can be exploitation.
The word itself--appropriation--is innocent and simply signifies taking something that is distant from you and bringing it into your orbit, or more simply to take as one's own. As a theoretical issue, it's ancient and been re-hatched over and over again, and it is not a novel concept. A neutral example, an author appropriates elements of language and concepts and literary forms that (s)he did not invent. As a form of resistance, appropriating from a place outside of your own or outside of yourself has at times been acts of subversion, allowing the appropriator to get out from under the issue of power, one that could, say include, being presented certain "truths" by those who get to decide what the truth it and dictate it to others. By appropriating ideas from the outside, you can be prompted to think and act differently and reconstruct the mentality of the population around you.
Appropriation, as an innocent term, is a natural part of being human. Taking something from outside of yourself, opening yourself up to it, and making it your own.
HOWEVER, there are of course problematic, harmful forms of appropriation. What kinds of appropriation are exploitative versus kinds that are inspirational? We are living a world in which almost every part of it has the effects of colonialism baked into the very fabric. If you are of a disadvantaged community, one that lacks land, business, political, socioeconomic power, but rich in cultural property if you will--tradition, craft, dialect, what have you, and your culture is not only stolen but misused, this is exploitative.
Yes but if it were appropriating, they would use that black art form in a disrespectful manner.
Quoting my previous reply. This is not true. Appropriation is a neutral term, though true it carries a negative connotation these days, and, INDEED, there are exploitative, harmful forms of appropriation that we are rightfully calling out.
LSFM adopting a black art form to their benefit is appropriation (i.e., taking something distant from you, bringing it into your orbit, making it your own). People may disagree on whether or not that form of appropriation is disrespectful or harmful. But neutrally, it is by definition an example of appropriation.
