Nellisir
Hero
Here is a question for the writers and readers here, particularly anyone with a background from somewhere besides America or Europe.
How do you feel about someone writing or creating a story in your country or among your people, culture, etc, if they are not a part of your ethnicity? To whit, can it be legitimately argued something like “Bridge of Birds,” a fantasy about ancient China, is racist, guilty of cultural appropriation or perpetuating some variation of the “noble savage” idea?
To a lesser degree this happens all the time among “western” nations and that arguably makes them all acceptable target. For example, Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series is not likely to be accused of racism and other problems when the characters are running around England, France, Germany and possibly even Russia. But what about when they are in China, Africa and South America?
Scalped was a comic book series about Ogala Lakota, but the series is written by a white guy from Alabama. Is that automatically a problem?
Going back to OP's question, I feel like I take issue with the notion of cultural appropriation itself. I just read a quote that seems appropriate "offense is taken, not given". What cultures are sacrosanct? Why? How finely can this be parsed? Is a country? A state? A county? A town? A neighborhood? You _can_ take offense, but people really need to also recognize that their right to their (negative) opinion does not overwhelm someone else's right to expression.
It gets very weird for me when people insist on doing, or not doing, something, to avoid offending a group even though that group isn't offended. I wear a kilt to contra dances. It's a plain black "modern" denim "utility" kilt. A friend admired it. I suggested she get one. She said she couldn't; it wouldn't be right; she wasn't Scottish. I pointed out that there are registered tartans for almost every country in the world, and it's an article of clothing, not a flag. She insists that it would be offensive for her to wear one (I recall thinking that that would only be true if she was English, but I might not have said it). I dropped it at that point.