I have seen a few people say “Adele’s hair isn’t appropriation, it is appreciation.” Now I’ve long been over cultural appropriation conversations, but one thing I really hate about it is the false “Appreciation vs Appropriation” binary, and I wanna talk about why:

I do not know who decided cultural appropriation is contingent on the heart, intent and deep love and appreciation (or lack thereof) on behalf of the appropriator or appreciator, but as I write it out it sounds like it was a white person, bc that’s goofy as hell

First off I do not care if white and non-Black people appreciate my culture. I do not require their appreciation, their appreciation is not a gift, in fact it has been rather violent more times than not.

“Appreciation” in an anti-Black capitalist settler world is always going to be dehumanizing, exploitative and necrophilic, allowing us no say in what in our culture is cherry picked to be “appreciated” at our expense whenever others decide

I only care whether I have access to my culture and whether I can practice it fully and appreciate it myself in peace, while sharing with other Black people. That’s it.

And no, culture “is not meant to be shared.” Some skull measuring anthropologists probably came up with that one. Culture CAN be shared, but the POINT of culture is not for others to experience. That’s explicitly a white colonial orientation

But back to the point: People delineate rather arbitrarily between “appreciation vs appropriation” bc they’re invested in the white supremacist notion that intent over all else is what matters most

That’s bullshit in many levels but it erases the fact that much cultural appropriation/exploitation is not done to mock, and the crux of CA is not appreciation vs mockery, it is about entitlement, power and histories of oppression and consent.

We cannot erase outcomes, our consent and feelings on the matter, history and power dynamics to say what matters most is how our the appropriator MEANT it when they were doing their exploiting. That’s kind of ridiculous

Whether you love and appreciate me is irrelevant if, regardless, you exert power over something I would get demonized for or was even banned from at a point in history. That last part is all that matters, absolutely nothing else

“But I enthusiastically love and support you while holding immense power over your cultural expressions” am I supposed to be overjoyed or something? That’s a hostage situation! Please

I do not think it is *that* serious over the Bantu knots alone, but that this correlates to a deeper culture of white entitlement and our conditioning to apologize and allow for it while dogging and hating our own (re: ensuing diaspora wars)

TL: DR Cultural appropriation, like race and anti-Blackness, is always about authority and power in a settler colonial capitalist world, and nothing else. Couldn’t give a fuck less about appreciation given that

To clarify on this point: I think the point of *some* culture can be to be shared, but with who, when and how matters. Was it meant to be shared with certain nations on certain conditions? And very key-How has whiteness and colonialism shifted how things are shared? https://twitter.com/brujacontumbao/status/1300982043623354368

Whites will go to a global south nation who’s main income is contingent on keeping Western tourists happy and spending money and think the culture that was shared with them was done so among equals with the full ability to say no....a joke

There needs to be a deeper interrogation of these things but whites literally only care for the right to do whatever, not whether they should or shouldn’t