Baldwin's Theory On Cultural Appropriation

Appropriation in itself is an attempt towards assimilation in which the superior culture picks and chooses aspects of the minority tradition, absorbs them into majority society in a new, inauthentic manner, and all the while completely disregarding the traditions they do not favor. While Fanon, says that the possibility for integration is what is needed in order to achieve equality in society, Baldwin’s theory on black acceptance into white society means that the success of integration is unlikely. With assimilation comes the risk of the minority culture losing itself completely to the dominant culture. The issue of integration is that neither white nor black society seeks to participate in a cultural exchange resulting in an equal intermingling

It is important to note that cultural appropriation is far from being cultural appreciation. While whites may idolize and take interest in the “exotic” cultures from which they borrow, they still view themselves as racially superior. If white culture truly respected the traditions which they were borrowing, there would not be a misuse of culturally significant artifacts ranging from Native American headdresses, Indian bindis, and a variety of disrespected aspects of black culture such as language and dress. White society adopting Ebonics is painfully reminiscent of the white French colonist speaking to his black citizens in Pigdin. In both cases the white man is speaking a dialect that is not their own, either to mock or “associate” with black society. “To speak pidgin to a Negro makes him angry, because he himself is a pidgin-nigger-talker. But, I will be told, there is no wish, no intention to anger him. I grant this; but it is just this absence of wish, this lack of interest, this indifference, this automatic manner of classifying him, imprisoning him, primitivizing him, decivilizing him, that makes him angry” (Fanon). To see nothing wrong with appropriation is to see nothing wrong with the generalization and demoralization of minority

“The discovery of gold and silver in America, the extirpation, enslavement and entombment in mines of the indigenous population of that continent…. are all things which characterize the darm of the era of capitalist production” (Marx, 915). In the same way, appropriation can be seen as a capitalist exploitation of the cultural resources of one group in order to achieve social gain, or to express social dominance in a multicultural society. Modern society succeeds by overpowering the weak and taking from them what they hold of value. In addition to historically exploiting and destroying their land; according to Marx, people themselves become commodities if they don’t own the means of progression, such as minorities. As much as it is true that the capitalist drive for power and wealth exploits and damages the working class, it is also true, according to Fanon, that all forms of exploitation resemble one another. In this case, could it not be said that the exploitation of resources for wealth is no different than the exploitation of one culture’s practices for social gain? In modern society, it seems almost as though the culture of the oppressed is merely another resource to be extracted from the minority, for the majority 's benefit. In addition, cultural appropriation is also profitable to the dominant society, who can pick and choose “exotic” and