I don't get the concept of cultural appropriation

[Trup1aya]

I don't think Cultural appropriation is inherently bad. In fact I think its a natural consequence of the interaction between cultures. It becomes problematic when it comes accompanied a lack of respect for the originating culture, when the exchange is one-sided and exploitive, or when a culture gets reduced to stereotypes in the process.

When you look things like Elvis becoming the "king of rock" by stealing black songs and dance moves, it's a one-sided, exploitive exchange.

or Kim Kardashian being credited with making Corn Rows popular, you see examples of minority contributions being minimized and denigrated up until the point the majority decides to claim it as their own.

When you see people wearing native American headdress as a prop, or throwing chopsticks in their hair as if they are headsticks, it shows a lack of respect for the cultural meanings behind those customs.

 

[Stop It]

Hm. I guess my question would be - are people more open to white faces or chefs from those cultures presenting it and popularizing it on t.v.? (Tales from my ass but) it does often feel like there's a divide. People seem to be willing to have someone from that culture prepare the food...but the establishment won't use the same person to push the culture into the mainstream.

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See this is where there must be a divide between how UK and US culture works in this regard.

Even when I was young, shows like Yan Can Cook were popular because it was seen as authentic. Authentic because it was someone from China cooking their food better than anyone from over here could.

Watch Saturday Kitchen and you'll get chefs from all cultures cooking their foods and people value the authenticity. Rather than appropriation, it's sharing culture willingly.

Maybe that's simply the difference. If people only want to experience different cultures with a familiar face, that's not exactly a good thing. We should share culture across societies but it must be done in reverence and respect for the people behind the culture.

 

[Deleted member 50374]

In university I had a teacher ask, if society is a melting pot, who's hand is stirring the pot?

If you can figure that out you will have a far greater understanding of how surface level tokenism and cultural appropriation serve to reinforce a white dominant power structure in western countries. The mono culture melting pot idea is archaic and needs to be replaced with mulitculturalism and a true respect for diversity.

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Fucking time someone did something about that pizza with ananas. Kill it with fire.

 

[Glasfrut]

But I'd say that this sort of scenario is far less frequent than decries of "cultural appropriation" just because of something pretty innocent.

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Yeah, it's one of those things where I take it as - there will be a lot of noise as everyone scrambles to understand it better and learn to react less emotionally. From my perspective, as a minority, I see it as the figuring out process. Ideally it would not hurt people genuinely enjoying something, but that has to also come with people, in general, not ignoring minorities when they say "guys, this feels...off".

Even when I was young, shows like Yan Can Cook were popular because it was seen as authentic. Authentic because it was someone from China cooking their food better than anyone from over here could.

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I think there's definitely a difference in reaction to the ethnicity/race of the person executing. With Yan, it doesn't feel like someone with "power" (historically) taking from other cultures. He can partake without the usual negative baggage.

Watch Saturday Kitchen and you'll get chefs from all cultures cooking their foods and people value the authenticity. Rather than appropriation, it's sharing culture willingly.

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I do think communicating intent is important. With how the show is set up and presented, people get the feeling of "sharing".

But, I do think it's possible to do these kind of shows without veering into "appropriation" territory. It just takes either being more inclusive or showing people what you are trying to do. I would probably even go as far as saying - make your money (just don't pull a Kylie/Kendall Jenner and make it look like a certain thing wasn't a thing until you pushed it)

 

[dlauv]

When you look things like Elvis becoming the "king of rock" by stealing black songs and dance moves, it's a one-sided, exploitive exchange.

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This is ignorant. It's the music industry over the years that's responsible for erasure.

Presley himself was humble about his relationship with black music and musicians:

A lot of people seem to think I started this business. But rock 'n' roll was here a long time before I came along. Nobody can sing that kind of music like coloured people. Let's face it: I can't sing like Fats Domino can. I know that.​

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​

 

[Paganmoon]

It's ambiguous and up to the individual doing the call-out. There are many obviously inappropriate things you can do, like what this guy did, but there are things that can be seemingly innocuous and get heat. Like having dreadlocks if you're not black. Or wearing a kimono if you're not Japanese.

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Oh I absolutely get that there are problematic aspects of "borrowing" from other cultures, I was more musing about the concept of "cultural appropriation", and Multiculturalism. As you say, there are things that are seemingly innocuous and get heat, and I think people forget that Multiculturalism is overall a good thing.

I guess what I was trying to get into the argument was, if all types of appropriation are seen as bad (or get called out), you're also in turn saying that multiculturalism is bad, and that in turn can play into the hands of right wing nutters.

Now, all this is based on my first line "distinction between cultural appropriation, and multiculturalism" and the last line "Or is cultural appropriation only ever used in the context outside of multiculturalism?"

In an academic sense, cultural appropriation is a wholly neutral term to describe one culture or person from a culture using something from another

It's not necessarily good or bad, but it can be used badly and has in the past with imperialism and colonialism and the like depending on the context

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Guess this would answer/explain my thought process on it all.

 

[A Robot]

jerk rice, which is rice flavored with jerk seasoning, a Jamaican staple.

Only, it's not.

Jerk is not a flavoring. It is a cooking method

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From wikipedia: "The word jerk refers to the spice rub, wet marinade, and to the particular cooking technique. "

 

[Vinnie20]

You can't culturally appropriate a dominant culture. For example, generic American, or ancient Chinese cultural, or Rome. You can do whatever to the clothing and nobody would mind. It's dressing something from minority like a native Indian dress that you have to pay attention to their feelings.

My lines draw at if you are friend of said minority and borrow the clothing, in other words, personally okay'd by a person, then I am okay with it.

 

[Glasfrut]

This is ignorant.

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Come on, man. Feels like a strong way to respond (the this is ignorant part). But I think when most people bring up Elvis it's as a proxy for the music industry.

On an individual level, his feelings may have been (and you have shown were) otherwise. But the industry that pushed him, and the consumers didn't see those influences and consider them palatable. Not until they were dressed up in blue suede shoes (sorry, felt the urge to put it there. I'll walk out now).

 

[Rassilon]

Like a lot of things it comes down to context and intent innit.

 

[Amnesty]

I remember when Mario Odyssey came out people started a petition or something because Mario wore a sombrero. Twitter blew up and people kept tweeting that it was insulting to Mexican people, even though pretty much all Mexican people loved it and thought it was great that their culture was being recognized in a videogame. Same with OP's example I guess. It comes down to a person loving the look of something, and wanting to wear it themselves. I don't understand why that's a bad thing if they don't mean any harm with it. At the end of the day it's just a thing. An inanimate object. It's something manmade that someone else likes.

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It isn't just an inanimate object though. A cultural object is more than what it is. It comes from the hands that make it, the emotions that shaped it, the thoughts that formed it and all the other physical efforts and processes that went into it's creation. In talking about an object of culture, we're talking about something that people think of as having been created out of their culture, all of the material processes that made the thing ultimately come from the cultural history of the people who made it. The people who make something are in turn made from the history of the culture they belong to, on varying scales local and global. When you're that reductive of a cultural object to the point of describing it as a neutral like object, you're saying that it doesn't matter what it is, that it is blank. That's not possible though, because people everywhere project values and meaning onto objects which in turn affects their cognitive and emotional processes. You even get at this when you say 'something manmade that someone else likes'. If someone were to say 'who cares about how you like it, it's just a thing', wouldn't we consider that a problem? Especially if it was someone from a culturally dominant group saying that to people from an culturally oppressed group, about an object that originated in their culture. By taking the object for yourself, as something you like, you are essentially saying 'I don't care about it's importance to you, I care (more) about how I value it in my possession'.

 

[YuYu]

From what I've noticed, it's mostly self hating white people that want to get outraged over anything aka snowflakes.

 

[Glasfrut]

From wikipedia: "The word jerk refers to the spice rub, wet marinade, and to the particular cooking technique. "

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But the full part says: "The term jerk spice (also commonly known as Jamaican jerk spice) refers to a spice rub. The word jerk refers to the spice rub, wet marinade, and to the particular cooking technique."

I think the jerk there is in relation to jerk spice.

On the same Wikipedia article they say: "Jerk is a style of cooking native to Jamaica, in which meat is dry-rubbed or wet marinated with a hot spice mixture called Jamaican jerk spice."

 

[dlauv]

Feels like a strong way to respond (the this is ignorant part).

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I didn't mean for it to be a particularly strong statement, but a concrete one that might prompt him to click the link. I do agree tho and appended some context.

 

[Glasfrut]

I didn't mean for it to be a particularly strong statement, but a concrete one that might prompt him to click the link. I do agree tho and appended some context.

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Oh, sorry, I see that now. Yeah, the context makes it much softer.

 

[AztecComplex]

I'm with you, mostly. I feel people can be a bit too sensitive nowadays.

I guess somethings can be too on-the-nose and there's a fine line between respecting the culture and not. Def. depends from person to person.

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This reminds me of the whole MARIO wearing a poncho and sombrero in Odyssey fiasco where Mexicans (myself included) overwhelmingly welcomed Mario dressed with traditional Mexican clothes but then people who mostly were not from Mexico complained about cultural appropriation.

There are instances where that's clearly the case and it's warranted but ppl can get carried away many times.

 

[Riversands]

This example is confusing as heck to me. This seems more like someone just pronouncing a foreign word incorrectly. Which happens all the time and is inevitable given the differences of how you speak in different languages?

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You are not wrong. But there are certain people that i know who dont want to pronounce the word ryuu as it is even though he has been told several times. In that case, i think it can be considered appropriation

 

[A Robot]

But the full part says: "The term jerk spice (also commonly known as Jamaican jerk spice) refers to a spice rub. The word jerk refers to the spice rub, wet marinade, and to the particular cooking technique."

I think the jerk there is in relation to jerk spice.

On the same Wikipedia article they say: "Jerk is a style of cooking native to Jamaica, in which meat is dry-rubbed or wet marinated with a hot spice mixture called Jamaican jerk spice."

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But what? The original case is pretty similar to calling BBQ chips BBQ chips. We all know that the chips have not seen a barbecue grill and are just flavoured with BBQ spice mix.

 

[EkStatiC]

I am awith you OP word for word.

The only problem i have is when someone try to "mimic" a different culture out of the original context, alter it and in a way that fits him and try to persuade everyone that this is the original thing or critisize the original culture with filtered eyes.

 

[Ichi]

i am with you. if it is used inappropriately and with ignorance, sure, but wearing a kimono to a prom isn't cultural appropriation. if it's used with malicious intent or with plain ignorance then yes. a girl enjoying a certain style and just wearing that to a joyous occasion isn't cultural appropriation.

No wonder people are getting so sick and tired of outrage these days, because something is outrageous to someone.

 

[Glasfrut]

But what? The original case is pretty similar to calling BBQ chips BBQ chips. We all know that the chips have not seen a barbecue grill and are just flavoured with BBQ spice mix.

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Help me understand your side. What comes to my mind is the following: the BBQ in BBQ chips refers to a generalised flavour. As the poster mentioned, the "jerk" also refers to the style of cooking (And to add to it: flavourings that are unique to Jamaica:

The style of cooking uses a unique marinade of herbs and spices that is native to Jamaica). There seems to be further implication with saying something is "jerk" flavoured.

 

[A Robot]

As the poster mentioned, the "jerk" also refers to the style of cooking (And to add to it: flavourings that are unique to Jamaica:

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BBQ also refers to a style of cooking.

 

[Glasfrut]

BBQ also refers to a style of cooking.

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Okay. Help me out here then - can you see how "jerk" might carry more meaning to certain people?

 

[A Robot]

Okay. Help me out here then - can you see how "jerk" might carry more meaning to certain people?

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The original post that I was replying said "Jerk is not a flavoring. It is a cooking method ".

 

[Stop It]

Okay. Help me out here then - can you see how "jerk" might carry more meaning to certain people?

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Ok counterpoint:

http://www.leviroots.com/product-details/_/original-reggae-reggae-sauce/10/1/

Referred to as a jerk sauce, by a creator of Jamaican heritage.

Is he wrong to call his product jerk?

I think you're getting your nose bent out of shape for something that people from the culture the cuisine comes from actually use the term jerk for.

 

[ahoyhoy]

I give all cultures permission to use and abuse any and all "culture" I have genetic claim to.

 

[Glasfrut]

The original post that I was replying said "Jerk is not a flavoring. It is a cooking method ".

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Ah, okay. I think I see where you're coming from.

Ok counterpoint

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I might say that maybe he names it that way for the general consumer.

But...

I think you're getting your nose bent out of shape for something that people from the culture the cuisine comes from actually use the term jerk for.

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You're probably right.

 

[Stop It]

Ah, okay. I think I see where you're coming from.



I might say that maybe he names it that way for the general consumer.

But...

You're probably right.

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Well yes, but his enthusiasm for his branding and bringing Jamaican taste to the mainstream is genuine.

He's not worried that the word jerk is used for more than the cooking process, nor is my local Jamaican takeaway which has ambitions to sell their own amazingly unique jerk sauce too.

Again, there's appropriation, and adaptation by those who are from the culture to suit the target market. This is an example of the latter.

 

[SugarNoodles]

Wow the first page of this thread is a fucking dumpster fire.

 

[Glasfrut]

Again, there's appropriation, and adaptation by those who are from the culture to suit the target market. This is an example of the latter.

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Yeah, not dismissing that at all. There is a lot of nuance to this discussion so I do appreciate this example as well. (I am also well out of the space I had started in when originally replying to the OP, but I guess it shows how wide the topic can go)

 

[Jintor]

i haven't really sat down and interrogated it before but I think it's more likely the result of those of us on the edges of the realm - first gen immigrants or children of them, members of diasporas etc etc. I've found that people who live in the originating cultures often find other culture's adoptions of their clothes, food, festivals etc as charming or outreach etc while us who live in the fringes and experienced the blowback of being 'othered' now see our foreigness taken, taken advantage of, and often exploited.

 

[Stop It]

Yeah, not dismissing that at all. There is a lot of nuance to this discussion so I do appreciate this example as well. (I am also well out of the space I had started in when originally replying to the OP, but I guess it shows how wide the topic can go)

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Of course.

The key here is that culture is to be shared by those who created it, not stolen by those with no understanding of the underlying importance of it.

 

[Jintor]

Of course.

The key here is that culture is to be shared by those who created it, not stolen by those with no understanding of the underlying importance of it.

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i do find that a bit funny though... because thinking about my own experience with Chinese customs, i often have no ideas about the meaning behind a lot of the stuff we do, just that we do do it. That's what I get for being an ABC i guess

 

[G.O.O.]

None of the stances on cultural appropriation satisfy me. On one hand, it prevents minorities from getting recognition and social advancement. On the other, I have to say I'm really uncomfortable with the idea of a permanent intellectual property based on one's cultural background. Not even touching how some (not even thinking about minorities here) can and will twist the concept for their own benefit.

For the record I'm half white, half asian - but I look white.

 

[Dreams-Visions]

In university I had a teacher ask, if society is a melting pot, who's hand is stirring the pot?

If you can figure that out you will have a far greater understanding of how surface level tokenism and cultural appropriation serve to reinforce a white dominant power structure in western countries. The mono culture melting pot idea is archaic and needs to be replaced with mulitculturalism and a true respect for diversity.

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well stated.

 

[alexiswrite]

In university I had a teacher ask, if society is a melting pot, who's hand is stirring the pot?

If you can figure that out you will have a far greater understanding of how surface level tokenism and cultural appropriation serve to reinforce a white dominant power structure in western countries. The mono culture melting pot idea is archaic and needs to be replaced with mulitculturalism and a true respect for diversity.

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So fucking true

 

[John Doe]

To me, the real harm of cultural appropriation comes when a minority is chastised for doing something, yet when a white person does it, its okay.

Dreadlocks were deemed unacceptable as a hairstyle. White people start wearing dreads and all of a sudden its acceptable.

Its the same with music

 

[ibyea]

Oh god, the worst parts about threads like these is that most people don't even know what cultural appropriation actually is. In academic discourse, cultural appropriation is not a neutral term at all, and it does not certainly mean borrowing or exchange of culture, and it can only be done by a dominant culture to a minority culture or colony. Like seriously people, at least read the wikipedia article before discussing this.

 

[sibarraz]

I sometimes feel like people take cultural appropiation too seriously here, I could understand people being mad at some country taking the culture of a group that has been systematically opressed, but sometimes I have seen examples of people being mad because some kid wanted to dress like people do in other cultures or doing things that they enjoy

 

[Bakercat]

I always felt that if you give credit of the outfit or whatever to the culture it's from and don't steal it as your own idea then you're good.

 

[Deleted member 41520]

It's when you abstract/steal the culture and don't give credit for it.

E.g.

I understand this and I don't think I'm missing the point. I'm also not talking about making a profit here (which is always a bad thing when you're unrightfully taking something from someone else). I'm talking about if I for example like wearing a blue bucket hat, and a religion comes along and claims the blue bucket hat as their own, as a sacred part of their religion, why would that make me wearing a blue bucket hat insulting? I wouldn't be wearing it to make fun of them or to disrespect their religion or culture. I would be wearing it because I love how the thing looks. Of course I understand that something might have a certain religious or cultural value, or historical weight to it. I'm just trying to understand where the line is between something being okay and something being an insult.

I remember when Mario Odyssey came out people started a petition or something because Mario wore a sombrero. Twitter blew up and people kept tweeting that it was insulting to Mexican people, even though pretty much all Mexican people loved it and thought it was great that their culture was being recognized in a videogame. Same with OP's example I guess. It comes down to a person loving the look of something, and wanting to wear it themselves. I don't understand why that's a bad thing if they don't mean any harm with it. At the end of the day it's just a thing. An inanimate object. It's something manmade that someone else likes.

edit: For example, I'm the whitest person you will ever meet. I don't believe in a God even though I've went to Christian schools pretty much my entire life and went to church more times than I can count. This year one of my Hindi friends invited me to come to his house to put up some candles for Divali. I even helped him write a song about it for the Hindi community the year before that even though I'm not part of the Hindi religion myself. I thought the candle thing was very intriguing and I love what they get out of it. I also loved how their house looked with candles everywhere. But if I were to put up a ton of candles in my house around the time of Divali, inspired by their religious holiday that I very much enjoyed, and people of their religion who don't know me would come visit me, they would find it unacceptable because it's their thing and part of their religion. Even though I wouldn't be doing it with any bad intentions whatsoever and I might be getting something totally different out of it.

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The problem stems from a history we're all pretty far removed from. It's basically imperialist context. By itself, cultural appropriation isn't necessarily good or bad, in fact it's an inherent aspect of having a vastly multicultural world.

The reason the term is often used in the pejorative is because of the horrible history behind many instances of cultural appropriation. As I said, context.

E.g. in Britain we all drink tea all the time. Where did tea like this come from? India. Nobody drank tea until the 1800s when we basically invaded India, killed and enslaved huge swathes of their populations and began harnessing their crops and resources. The super wealthy brought back this new delicacy called "tea". Over 200 years that tea trickled down and became a standard beverage across the country.

But today, who harvests these tea leaves? Indians on farms living in practical slavery (like making 10 cents a day with no healthcare or benefits and under horrible conditions). The tea is then shipped over here and sold at 20x the price for us wealthy westerners. To boot, what we call tea is a gross, sickly exaggeration of what tea was originally meant to be.

If you go back far enough, anything is "cultural appropriation". For better AND worse. But in some cases, and the reason many get up in arms about it, cultural appropriation is the low-key erasure (often with undertones of control or destruction) of another culture. That's why it can be problematic.

E.g. harnessing elements of African American culture in itself is no problem, but it can be if you erase the connection to the original culture, at which point you could say you're "stealing" it for your own benefit.

 

[Murkas]

Would yoga be a good example?

Originated in ancient India but you probably wouldn't realise that with all those yoga businesses owned by old white women that shove a Buddha in the corner somewhere.

First thought that came ti mind.

To me, the real harm of cultural appropriation comes when a minority is chastised for doing something, yet when a white person does it, its okay.

Dreadlocks were deemed unacceptable as a hairstyle. White people start wearing dreads and all of a sudden its acceptable.

Its the same with music

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Yeah this.

 

[Deleted member 43077]

i never understood getting offended over it tbh.

seems dumb to me if you get angry at Barbra for trying out some traditional indian clothing

 

[Deleted member 50969]

Like everything in the world, once personal opinion is added into the mix, things can get really messy.

I personally can't see myself banning a person from using pieces of my culture to better/enhance themselves.

 

[Deleted member 8561]

Cultural appropriation is a phenomenon where one culture partakes in the art and traditions of another culture. The results of this can be good, negligible, or bad, which depends on factors such as (but not limited to) the sociopolitical relationships between the two cultures, the survivability of the original custom, the differences in financial feasibility when multiple cultures partake in the same activity, and so on.

Here's a hilarious example from an even more hilarious thread: Jamie Oliver's jerk rice. Here we have a white British man slapping his name on a cheap microwavable product called jerk rice, which is rice flavored with jerk seasoning, a Jamaican staple.

Only, it's not.

Jerk is not a flavoring. It is a cooking method of meat intended to make the protein tender to the point that it can be pulled apart with the hands, or "jerked" from the bone. Rice isn't a meat. You can't jerk it. It's like trying to fry water.

Here, the original custom and its meaning has been lost entirely in order for a white man (who generally enjoys the benefits of being higher than Jamaicans in a racial context) to profit from a culture not his own. Furthermore, Jamaican internet-goers who found the story who tried to explain why the product was nonsensical were completely ignored in lieu of many white people calling them outraged, politically correct, or accusing them of being racists when "it should have been about sharing food." People were seriously caping for some shitty rice because black folks told a white guy he was doing It wrong. That was cultural appropriation in the most negative sense.

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This is a good explanation for people in this thread who complain about "triggered" people.

I think another example was the topic of hair styles, or basically anything from other cultures or races that was once deemed "wrong". In the past, and even to this day, people try and regulate things like hair styling, which practically always comes in the form of regulating PoC and their natural hair, or cultural designs.

And then, bam, all of a sudden the white culture goes "actually this looks pretty on me, I want to use this now", and the bans are lifted, white folks get what they want while ignoring how they regulated and controlled forms of self expression for years. At a surface glance you can say "it's progress", but think of it from the point of view of people who had to put up with this shit only to see their suppressed culture only become "accepted" because the ruling class decided they wanted in. Or even worse, they just basically completely co-opt the culture and pretend that they deserve credit when it comes back into "fashion"

Here is a video segment that really puts it in context.

 

[A Robot]

In university I had a teacher ask, if society is a melting pot, who's hand is stirring the pot?

If you can figure that out you will have a far greater understanding of how surface level tokenism and cultural appropriation serve to reinforce a white dominant power structure in western countries.

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I'm guessing this works of you come to the conclusion that the driving force of the melting pot some kind of exploitation of minorities?

The mono culture melting pot idea is archaic and needs to be replaced with mulitculturalism and a true respect for diversity.

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This doesn't seem like a solid argument. Why is the idea of melting pot driven by false respect?

 

[krazen]

While you've got certain outrage culture that goes unfortunately viral* imho it doesn't discredit what's happening. As someone who's old enough to remember before the internet got woke, Ive had some trippy experiences with racism.

Like there is nothing like getting discriminated and not let into a club under the excuse of being too "hip-hop" ...while they are playing hip-hop in the club themselves, lol.

Its harder to see, but im sure it happens, in more monolithic cultures than the west like the Arab world. But its nuts seeing one dimensional ideas of culture being seen as bad or lower class suddenly get a brand new "Isnt this cool and new" twist when its done by mainstream America.

My favorite is the current slang pipeline where sayings seen as gutteral and uncouth (generally black and particularly black queer slang) suddenly break into the mainstream (like me and a friend were discussing yesterday how the term 'drip' had such a great year in popular hip-hop we expect it to be in detergent commercials in six months, lol)

*and imho, lots of it has less to do than with a mythical rampant out of control left then people putting up fake issues/boogie men on some "both sides are bad" shit

 

[HotHamBoy]

I wonder what it looks like to appropriate white American culture.

 

[Deleted member 8561]

I wonder what it looks like to appropriate white American culture.

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White people in America never had their culture suppressed or eradicate.

 

[HotHamBoy]

Cultural appropriation is a phenomenon where one culture partakes in the art and traditions of another culture. The results of this can be good, negligible, or bad, which depends on factors such as (but not limited to) the sociopolitical relationships between the two cultures, the survivability of the original custom, the differences in financial feasibility when multiple cultures partake in the same activity, and so on.

Here's a hilarious example from an even more hilarious thread: Jamie Oliver's jerk rice. Here we have a white British man slapping his name on a cheap microwavable product called jerk rice, which is rice flavored with jerk seasoning, a Jamaican staple.

Only, it's not.

Jerk is not a flavoring. It is a cooking method of meat intended to make the protein tender to the point that it can be pulled apart with the hands, or "jerked" from the bone. Rice isn't a meat. You can't jerk it. It's like trying to fry water.

Here, the original custom and its meaning has been lost entirely in order for a white man (who generally enjoys the benefits of being higher than Jamaicans in a racial context) to profit from a culture not his own. Furthermore, Jamaican internet-goers who found the story who tried to explain why the product was nonsensical were completely ignored in lieu of many white people calling them outraged, politically correct, or accusing them of being racists when "it should have been about sharing food." People were seriously caping for some shitty rice because black folks told a white guy he was doing It wrong. That was cultural appropriation in the most negative sense.

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What about BBQ flavored chips or something? BBQ is a cooking method, not a flavor, but BBQ sauce does have an expected flavor and just like BBQ sauce or rub there is a Jerk seasoning and expected flavor

White people in America never had their culture suppressed or eradicate.

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I don't see what that has to do with identifying what White American culture looks like and how that could be appropriated as, say, a Halloween costume.

Like, how would a Chinese person dress as an American?