I find the subject of cultural appropriation very interesting. There are so many "conversations" about it lately, but I feel they rarely go anywhere. Especially among the ones I've witnessed or had in VCU seem to unravel into both parties giving up or agreeing without any real discussion. I remember when peoples halloween costumes started being called into question, I was legitimately shocked. I had never really thought about it, but dressing up like a movie Indian or any race really is pretty insensitive. In school growing up, it was pretty much a requirement to dress up like other races to learn about their culture. Sometimes you'd even get a higher grade if you dressed up. Until everyone started talking about cultural appropriation, it never occurred to me to re-examine this. Although, I feel if someone does something with reverence it's not really a crime or a detriment. People are different and imitation is inevitable. In the context of artists and art, it feels more lenient. Art is a constant exchange of ideas, culture, and methods. Without appropriating people's influences art would be stagnant and uninteresting. After reading a few articles, the phrase for acceptable appropriation is a cultural exchange. So, it comes down to a personal judgement call again. I feel cultural appropriation is just one of those things that "you know when you see it." However, everyone has such a different way of seeing things, it's important to have conversations about them. I've met people who believe using an accent that isn't yours is undeniably cultural appropriation. Although, I can agree to that in specific mocking situations, what kind of world would it be if you can't try to step into someone's language and world a little through imitation. Actors do it constantly. So do these rules not apply to art? Hollywood goes under fire for white-washing films, especially remakes of foreign films and anime. I believe in some circumstances this is just a money thing, or what big star you have a contract with. But many times it is completely unnecessary. In the cases of video game and anime movies, I've never heard anyone happy they made a character white. No one is really ever is relieved a character has been made white. It's kind of weird. Like when they change the race of a comic book character, it's not what you imagine. If it's a re-imagining of that character I could see it being an easy visual contrast that would force the viewer to relearn about the character. But otherwise, people don't like nonsensical characters, so why do they do it? The only way is to keep talking about it I guess. You can't just dismiss a problem because it doesn't seem like a problem to you. Because it's still someone else's problem. I read these two articles who seem to give both sides of the argument pretty well. Although, I'd like to find something more in depth about cultural appropriation in art specifically.
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