Full disclosure: I am a white, American male.
It is never my intent to offend anyone of a different culture, race, or nationality. I work for global, multinational corporation. A good 75% of the people I work with daily are not United States citizens, whose first language is not English. On a given day, I'll hear conversations in Spanish, Hindi, Arabic, Portuguese, and Russian, and that's just on a single floor of our office building.
Now, does my limited exposure to people of differing nationalities somehow give me insight into fully appreciating their culture? Of course not. Do I inevitably have internal biases based on my cultural upbringing? Yes. Is it ever a good idea to engage in disparaging stereotypes and broad generalizations about a group or culture? Not generally.
But the whole idea of "cultural appropriation," as has been generally put forth in public discourse, is in my mind exceptionally unhelpful. As a term it is highly nebulous. No one's exactly sure what it even means, other than, "You should be respectful of other people, regardless of nationality, race and culture."
Well, DUH!
But in public discourse the entire concept is a moving goal post. Does it mean never referencing or incorporating any aspect of an alternative culture, ever? Does it mean not using bits and pieces of a culture out of context? Can you not even represent a different culture in fiction, even if it has historically ceased to exist, because people who are alive now may have some resemblance to the past culture? No one knows, and as a result, anyone can claim "cultural appropriation" at any time, and all of us are simply supposed to accept it at face value and move heaven and earth to make sure they're no longer offended. In this kind of environment, it's impossible to have any kind of successful discourse at all.
Here's the thing --- cultures exist because we live in a real world, where groups of humans have banded together throughout all of history to promote common values, survival, art, and community. What possible value is there in denying ANYONE the ability to research, experience, explore, and evaluate aspects of a culture, whether our own or someone else's? If you don't belong to a culture natively, these explorations
are the only possible way to come to an appreciation of a foreign culture in the first place, whether that be through immersion, research, or exploratory fiction. How else are we to come to any understanding at all?
Consider the case of
Monte Cook Games, who went well, well, well outside of the way to have a respectful conversation around an issue of possible cultural appropriation in The Strange. Yet even after trying to hold productive discourse about their product and its subject matter, to hear differing voices, and to consider changing the content of The Strange if needed, it still wasn't enough for some detractors. At that point, the problem was no longer with Monte Cook Games.
In my view it's intellectually dishonest to claim that no one should ever be able to experience a non-native culture through second-hand activity, because "appropriation." These things can absolutely be done with an eye to respect and understanding. Furthermore, cultures are a real part of our shared human history. Using a component, a character, a motif, a symbol, something based on an outside culture in an RPG should in NO WAY be seen as a bad thing, if the intent is to do honest exploration and approach the subject matter with dignity. If you're trying to accurately represent a certain time and place in your RPG, it's entirely within our right as GM's to represent certain cultures, because at one point in the real world, there were actual people who banded together to form exactly that kind of society.
Now in the case of the OP, if the subject of "appropriation" was broached by an individual within my group because they weren't comfortable, I'd want to talk with them about it directly, because as GM, my goal is for everyone to have fun, and to have fun in an environment where they feel valued, safe, and appreciated. If those things aren't happening, then that's a cause for concern. I'd discuss with them why they were uncomfortable, whether they felt my goals for including the culture in gameplay were sound and generally done with an eye to respect. And if at a certain point the player continued express their discomfort, I would then be faced with either changing the campaign or politely suggesting to the player that the group may not suit them.
Now, on that note --- My co-workers from India have been heating up their curry in the breakroom, and damn if it doesn't smell good. Maybe I'll ask one of them if I can "culturally appropriate" some of it for lunch.
