In her clear and pointed textual contribution “Cultural Appropriation and Colonial Violence” for Missy Magazine, scholar Noa Ha lays out why “cultural appropriation” cannot be debated without talking about colonial continuities.
In doing so, she makes reference to numerous discussions that have been “conducted” mainly in the social networks on the topic of “cultural appropriation” after the demands of predominantly People of Color for a renunciation of the common practice had become louder and louder.
“If I’m honest, I’m following the debate about ‘cultural appropriation’ that Hengameh Yaghoobifarah’s text about the Fusion Festival entailed with a wry smile. Partly because the contributions are unintentionally funny, partly because I can only bear them with a satirically distanced view. For many of the reactions to the smugly polemical post on the Missy website are of an almost grotesque seriousness – moralizing, opinionated and cynical. The main aim here is to defend interpretive sovereignty from a white position. But what is it about? And what does ‘cultural appropriation’ actually mean?”
The full text can be read here.