Good question, right?
Wikipedia defines cultural appropriation as:
"The adoption or use of the elements of one culture by members of another culture. Cultural appropriation, often framed as cultural misappropriation, is sometimes portrayed as harmful and is claimed to be a violation of the collective intellectual property rights of the originating culture."
Okay. There. That's outta the way. Please do NOT try to take peoples customs and try to charge ignorant-ass consumers to use them. It's dangerous to steal things, especially things you do not fully understand. Do not build a lodge and hold a sweat. If you are not a pipe (chanupa) carrier, then you are not legit. If you ain't got a black belt in kung fu, then do not teach it. Do not try to cut up a Japanese Pufferfish and serve it if you are not certified to do so. This is not cultural appropriation. THIS IS STUPIDITY! AND there is NO CURE for stupid! Forrest said it best, "Stupid is. Stupid does." Yes, sir!
Now, do we or do we not live in a globalized world? I mean, everyone listens to rock and roll and wears blue jeans. Everybody loves hip-hop. Worldwide! I grew up sandwiched between a Project 8 housing community and the trailer park. My idols growing up were Muhammed Ali, Bob Marley and Tupac Shakur. Besta Balee'dat! All African-American. Tupac was raised by the head of the Black Panthers! Bob was biracial in Trenchtown in the 60s and 70s! SO, can racism be deemed cultural appropriation by indigenous people of bad white-man ideas? that living in a melting pot of an immigrant country that has been simmering for 500 years? After 500 years in the melting pot everything mixes up together.
Does the first nation ride horses? Did the white-man bring them? Seems like a good idea. Did the Egyptians and Incans worshipped the Sun, the Source, the light of love? Seems like a great idea. Who gets to claim ownership of humanity's best ideas and 'elements'? Did the indigenous take it from the Egyptians or did the Egyptians take it from them? Who was first? "Where does it begin and where does it end? Total destruction is the solution!" Bob sang that 40 years ago! But that babylon system is still here and it has appropriated our humanity! time to build up Zion!
And, on that tip, who gets to claim ownership of humanity's worst ideas? Like concrete jungles and slavery?
"NO chains around my wrist, but Eye'm not free." Chains around our hands were replaced with chains around our mind, and fields were replaced with concrete jungles. Most of us are still slaves to the Babylon System. Many of us sell our time and energy to the devil for jobs we despise that pursue unjust causes for slave-trading paper. Fiat Money? Why was fiat globally appropriated? It must be abolished. Whose dumb idea was it that Time could be separated from space? Whose inane idea was it that the land of our blessed Pachamama could be divided by artificial borders? Combustion engines running on fossil fuels? Whose ideas were these and why have they been appropriated by the global family of humanity to the detriment of our very existence on this planet????? These were all horrible ideas that need to go the way of the dinosaurs, yet they are all still here and mostly flourishing. I mean, I know caucasians enslaved the minds of humanity with most of these ideas and the collective consciousness of humanity has accepted these lies as reality! Why do we continue to condone and appropriate ridiculous elements of this dominator culture?
What about the American family unit dissolving? Whose idea was that and why is it being appropriated by a nation in distress? Women work, men work. Children get raised by the streets or the nanny or the another-brick-in-the-wall educational system. People do not know how to keep their body's healthy. They don't know how to cook. Organic food? Grow your own? Big banks, Big agriculture, big government and big military have appropriated our planet and it is high time we take it back!
Big banks, Big agriculture, big government and big military have inflicted us with this pernicious dominator culture that has now appropriated our hearts, our minds, our people, and our planet. It is high time we take it back! WE are all looking for a better way of being and moving on this planet. This is simple shit! So, where we at? I refuse to continue the wayward ways of my ancestors. I am native to the American continent. We are all connected to this same land, but we come from different cultures that have all combined in the melting pot of the globalized world of the 21st century.
To me Cultural Appropriation (CA) sounds a lot like Federal Reserve, which is not federal and has no reserves (a LIE), Internal Revenue Service (IRS) or Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). These are all absurd collections of words that carry no meaning. Who created the idea of cultural appropriation?Probably these same alphabet agencies run by cracker-ass crackers for the very same cracker-ass crackers! I am a cracker-ass cracker and I use the term lovingly, if you're a bit slow on the uptake.
Time to be accountable. Perhaps we take responsibility for the human condition now and make the changes we must to help us all thrive in abundance as our birthright. ONE. LOVE. REMEMBER! Or go put your make-up on, cover your true identity and go sell your time and energy to those who never gave a fuck about you, and condone the fuckery. REAL TALK!
This is the Hegelian Dialectic happening in front of our very eyes and we fail to see it. The least amongst us rule us by creating a problem, reacting and imposing the solution on their aganda. Divide and conquer. We are one! I am you. You are me, and we are us! Do not let them fool you. Remember.