Put a Cross on It: Christianity, Capitalism, and Appropriation

I'm taking a quick break from my series about sugar scams to revisit an old hobby-horse: appropriation and cultural theft. This nightmare of the left won't stop cropping up. People can't keep their hands or their inspirations to themselves, so here we go again. 

Ceci n'est pas un croix.
Why the yin-yang? Keep reading.

For example, it's no secret that Ariana Grande has joined the ranks of pop starlets getting flak for doing something in a weird/inappropriate way. In her "Seven Rings" music video, the actress and Disney Channel alumnus used the visual language of Nicki Minaj or Cardi B to add a little flair and flash to her style. 

Here's the thing - a white girl (Ariana is Italian; despite previous prejudices, Italians have been bundled into the artificial construct that always has been and currently still is "whiteness") talking about buying her hair, having everything, and draping herself in diamonds and consumables has a different meaning than, say, a black woman, Latinx woman, or another person from a similar background making those same statements. And dressing oneself up in the subtle visual language and signifiers of another group for the sake of borrowing their "cool" and prestige is, at best, impolite. 

But this kind of weird impersonation and cultural thievery - not exchange; that would imply some sort of trade and equality, or a voluntary element to the transaction - is common in whiteness. Now, I'm sure it won't escape readers that I, obviously, am white. But I don't intend this and my other musings to represent some kind of internalised self-hatred - instead, I want to ask, why are we like this? And how can we be better? 

Put a yin-yang on it 

(Or rather, please don't.) Anyone who was alive in the 1990s might recall the prevalence of "hippie" imagery spattering the cultural landscape. "Girl power" and other commodified phrases were printed on lunchboxes, jewelry, or bejeweled onto denim clothes. Among the various decorative symbols that attained prominence - the peace sign, smileys, suns, hearts, and a plethora of flowers and daisies - were yin-yang symbols. 

Now, a good friend, Joych Chng (Jolantruhttps://twitter.com/jolantru on Twitter) posted a frustrated note about white people using the yin-yang willy-nilly. Having studied religions of the world in a cursory way, I knew the yin-yang wasn't merely decorative, but had symbolic meaning in Taoism - but I was surprised at the thought of its decorative use being offensive or bothersome. 

A quick Wikipedia research trip affirmed what I already knew about its symbolic meaning, but also deepened my knowledge. Clearly, the symbol has nuances, and it's not just a pretty shape with interlocking curves. It represents several philosophical constructs, and isn't meant to be tossed about. The issue isn't all interlocking designs - after all, there are tons of Celtic ornamental squiggles that look similar, but don't have the association - but rather, that the yin-yang has an actual meaning. 

Throwing it into designs at a whim because it's symmetrical and attractive is a bit like plastering random quotes from "Thus Spake Zarathustra" or "Man's Search for Meaning" onto lunchboxes because they sound pretty, completely disregarding any context. (I'm not a Nietzsche fan, but I did like Frankl's work. That aside, you get the point.) 

What's god got to do with it? 

But then I asked myself - why am I surprised by this? Why would I assume that a sacred symbol needs to be confined to its proper use, rather than proliferating or being thrown around? 

Obviously, I'm culturally Christian, even though I'm a non-believer. I have grown up in a society with Easter, Christmas, and Biblical iconography in abundance. But part of modern Christianity interlocks with capitalism in an unsettling fashion. In addition to proclaiming and recruiting new followers to the religion and philosophies, Christianity makes use of branding in very strong ways. 

It doesn't take any work whatsoever to find something cross-patterned at a local store. Even completely secular items, like jewelry, clothing, wall decorations, and similar things will often feature either directly or indirectly Christian iconography. Anything angel-related or with a cross on it is technically making use of Christian iconography. A sacred symbol is rendered not merely prosaic, but ubiquitous - and purchasing and displaying goods that feature such iconography is accepted as demonstrative of belief. 

Let's sit with that for a minute. Someone who shows off their faith with accessories is performatively more Christian. Capitalism makes strong use of branding as it is - and the cross is just another brand. It's a way to showcase loyalty and affiliation - and more importantly, to demonstrate correctness and adherence to one's beliefs. But even though it's professed to be sacred, it's also completely acceptable to use in totally decontextualised situations. 

What's sacred?

In non-Christian cultures, the sacred actually has a space of its own, sometimes apart from worldly cares. However, remembering that other people don't just slap symbols of their beliefs onto everything in reach can sometimes feel vaguely offensive to Westerners who crash into this conflict of beliefs. 

As the poet Bryan Thao Worra once put it, not everything is meant to be known or shared. We were talking about Lovecraft at the time (Worra's work on transformative interpretations of weird horror is stellar; check it out) but it feels applicable to many other cultural topics. 

 "Well, some things no one on any corner of the earth is meant to know, other than that it's there to not be known, contradictory as that sounds." 

So if any of my fellow folks are going, "Oh no, what do I do with this beautiful thing that I now understand is Bad?" I would say - try to spend some time understanding it. Approach things from other cultures with reverence and politeness. Maybe you already bought the problematic item, sure - but you don't have to buy more, and you can try to research or learn about something. Recontextualise, don't rob. Find out what the thing means. We live in the era of information, with ubiquitous smartphones and internet access, and it is foolish not to make use of those resources. Even a skim-read of an article or two can enrich your life and make you a better person. 

 In the meantime, if someone says you should keep your hands off, maybe listen to them. It's hard not to be offended by refusal when one's grown up with a sense of entitlement - and even had that entitlement rewarded! - but we must be better than our greedy and acquisitive impulses. If we are not, nothing will change, and frankly, that would just suck. 

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Michelle Browne is a sci fi/fantasy writer and editor. She lives in Lethbridge, AB with her partner-in-crime and Max the cat. Her days revolve around freelance editing, knitting, jewelry, and learning too much. She is currently working on other people's manuscripts, the next books in her series, and drinking as much tea as humanly possible.

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How to Not Accidentally A Racism: A Meditation on Cultural Appropriation

NOTE: With recent information at my disposal, I have edited this post a bit to reflect new knowledge and limits on my existing information. 

Hello, hello!
At long last, I have returned from my writing and social-networking coma! Now that it's Fall, you can bet on more regular updates--at least once a week, on Sundays. I hope to bring extra content during the week too. Lately things have been picking up in pace since I joined a writer's guild, and that's eaten some time...anyway *throat clearing noises*...let's move along, shall we?
I had heard of Avatar: The Last Airbender in times of yore, but between one thing and another, didn't really get into it. It looked lame, frankly, and from the fragmentary episode snatches I did see, nothing caught my attention. Elemental magic-users, a semi-anime style, teenagers saving the world; it sounded fairly conventional. Imagine my shock, then, when I finally had the opportunity to watch the series in full with a friend. A mere seven years after its début in 2005, I have discovered that it is truly fantastic.
I know what you're all thinking, and it's okay, I already made you a picture.

Source. The "Slowpoke #27" was done by me, but otherwise, the meme is common property of the internet.

So, yes. I'm an idiot and I missed out on something fantastic until now. Avatar is a unique series for a few reasons--created by Americans, animated by Koreans, set in a fictional mediaeval Asian world that draws on (at my count) Chinese, Japanese, Inuit, Tibetan, Korean, Indian, and Southern U.S. traditions for its inspiration. The cast is not white-washed (for the most part, although there are no black people anywhere). As if the non-Western mediaeval setting wasn't enough of a pleasant change, truly excellent writing and character development of the surprisingly realistic child protagonists really sold me.
However, I also spend a great deal of time on Regretsy, a site devoted to finding silly, fraudulent, badly made, overpriced, and otherwise wonderfully awful things on the 'handmade' art market, Etsy. One of the things that also falls under Regretsy's marvellous scope of interest is the unintentionally racist creations of hipsters who appropriate others' cultures for style reasons. For instance, more than a few assholes have made 'native inspired' feather headbands designed to imitate the ritually significant headdresses worn by Plains tribes.

What's wrong with that? Lesson time, kids.

This is an example of cultural appropriation. Obviously, using the ritually significant symbols and trappings of another culture without awareness of their significance is bad. Appropriation overlaps with cultural diffusion and multiculturalism. Being a Canadian and more importantly, being naturally curious, I've certainly been able to take advantage of ideas from other cultures as I learned about them. I've taken classes on bellydancing and enjoy eating Indian food, have several Chinese-style cloisonne boxes in my collection of curios, and in a hundred other small ways, have things and ideas that have come from non-Western or non-Canadian sources in my life.

So...what about Avatar, again?

Back to the Avatar series, then, and to writing in general. The Avatar story borrows from a variety of religious sources, as well as using the aesthetics and ideas of multiple cultures--most of which are ignored or oppressed here in the Western mainstream. Avatar is hardly the only series to borrow Eastern ideas; Game of Thrones and Wheel of Time (bleh) both use Oriental cultures to contrast their primarily Western settings. Lovecraft, one of my favourite writers, had a nasty and irritating way of making almost all of his antagonists, well, non-European and especially non-Anglo Saxon. Even a hardcore fan can't ignore that disgusting side of his writing. More to the point, the Elder Gods sound suspiciously similar to Aztec and African gods both in motif and in aesthetic.

Source. Hey look, a weird and twisted ancient god. Big coincidence.

The borrowing and misunderstanding of exotic styles from distant locations has occurred between East and West, North and South, for hundreds of years. Now, however, we're aware enough and have access to information about other cultures. In essence, we have no excuses for racism. There is ignorance, but really, a few respectful questions and an apology will go along way. It is not that hard to fix things. So--is it okay to borrow significant ideas from others and to modify them?

Some people--especially those who are oppressed or screwed over by the mainstream cultures--say they want the culturally dominant to keep their damn hands off of other cultures' ideas. Certainly, in WoT, there were quite a few examples of the Chinese culture being portrayed in a pretty caricatured, racist fashion. Even Game of Thrones does this, though in its defense, the Westerners are portrayed as savages as well. Still, these and other fantasy works tend to use Oriental or non-British cultures as easy enemies, or conversely, romanticise 'noble savages' and non-Westerners in a way that really just becomes a perverse ego-wank of self-loathing.

Unfortunately there is little else on the market. You should think about this for a while. Then you should be horrified. Traditional fantasy is pretty much a dichotomy: go European or get out. LGBTQ issues are also generally ignored, although this is beginning to change. Still, the stories are filtered through a very narrow set of lenses, and modernized lenses at that.

Avatar, though, has taught me that things can be done differently.There's a fine line between accidental racism and borrowing a cool idea to enhance your fantasy/sci fi world. It's not hard to make a stupid mistake, but it's much easier to fix it and apologize so you can move on with life. As writers of the fantastic, we have a duty to build on existing literature, not rewrite the same stories over and over.

What's different, you say? Who can I read? Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman. Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson. Coyote Kings of the Space Age Bachelor Pad by Minister Faust. Wolf at the Door by Joyce Chng. Start searching for 'Asian fantasy' and don't just assume that anime alone will give you the required diet of cultural diversity. Not only will it be good for your soul, it will be damned fun and humbling.

How do you write fantasy with elements you're not used to without screwing it up? I hear you say. That can be tricky--your idea of a tribute to a culture's identity might actually just be a mess or something very offensive, simply because of a lack of context.

It's okay, though. Take a deep breath. Ask people from the source culture if they find your work or ideas offensive. Ask if what you're doing is disrespectful, and if it is, modify it and ask for input. Do your research. Field test it with people. Most importantly, write people, not caricatures.

That's it. Problem solved.

Source. Phuque yeah.
Or is it? I want to hear you weigh in! Tell me about your cultural appropriation experiences in the comments.

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Thanks for returning, ladies, gents, and people in-between. For more delightfully witty commentary, you can find me at Twitter and on Tumblr. This is your SciFiMagpie, over and out!