What insults my soul,” Zadie Smith has written, “is the idea… that we can and should write only about people who are fundamentally ‘like’ us: racially, sexually, genetically, nationally, politically, personally.”
This is in response to the furore about Jeanine Cummins’ novel and the absurd notion of cultural appropriation. The Wokerati who claim that we can only write about what we have experienced ourselves and cannot write from perspectives other than our own. To normal, sensible people this is ridiculous, yet the poison is engulfing the world of publishing. It needs to stop. So I agree with Kenan Malik here.
But let us not create gated cultures in which only those of the right identity have permission to use their imaginations. For, as novelist Kamila Shamsie tweeted (in response to another controversy over cultural appropriation): “?‘You – other – are unimaginable’ is a far more problematic attitude than ‘You are imaginable’.” She might have added, “even if imagined badly”.
Precisely.
What a culturally appropriating bastard that Shakespeare bloke was.
Cultural appropriation, is it? I’ll leave this here …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULIHjFy-eUo&t=2s
Seems it is a one way street and only certain demographics can do this, eh?
I’m all for this. Lets see the guardian columnists only write about things they have experienced first hand.
Would be a very slim volume.
That would mean “Comment is free” would become blank page after blank page.
Hmmm. Why is it, when these folks get all twitchy about “cultural appropriation” they never seem to bat an eyelid when pretty much every advertisement on the TV (and most TV programmes) features at least one mixed-race couple and/or an ethnic minority family living what is very much a traditional, middle-class “white” lifestyle – you know, sparkly clean house in the suburbs, 2.4 children, posh shiny saloon car or SUV, western clothes, equality-insinuated western-style relationships etc etc. Shouldn’t they be up in arms about the fact that that insinuates that people from non-western cultures actually prefer them to their own? Sort of cultural-appropriation-by-force of ethnic minorities themselves. Doesn’t this kind of advertising say, in effect, that maybe their precious cultures, which they’ve convinced themselves that the world and his wife wants to “appropriate” aren’t actually that appealing, not even to the people originally from them?
I read a lot of science fiction. I assumed that all the stories written from the point of view of aliens from the other side of the galaxy were written by aliens from the other side of the galaxy. I didn’t realise those poor aliens had been culturally appropriated.
Stop being so extra-terrestrialist. >};o)
Presumably Bernard Cornwell fought in the Napoleonic wars. They must be still happening, I know that because they are the reason that I have to pay income tax.
I’m currently writing about the fifteenth century. I’ve never rustled cattle nor sold my services as a mercenary. Better stop writing…
I can see an easy way to solve this. They can’t appropriate our language for their works. So it will be written in jamaican or whatever and nobody will even know what it says. Execute all those that can speak two languages as they clearly appropriated one and who know that in this current climate murderers and pedophiles are simply misunderstood while right thinking deserves the death sentence.
All benefit claims must be in English only.