Cultural Appropriation and Social Recognition

Cultural appropriation is a contentious topic, and disagreement persists about whether and why it is morally wrong. A common view takes the wrong of cultural appropriation to consist in causing offense to members of the appropriated culture.1 Common as this view may be, criticisms of cultural appropriation often focus on different and arguably more serious concerns than offense. Take for example Loretta Todd, a Métis Cree scholar, filmmaker, and activist in Canada, who argues that cultural appropriation is the “inversion” of “cultural autonomy”; more specifically