I would argue that the crime "cultural appropriation" wants to denounce, is cultural belittlement. I'd generally object to making some cultural analogy, regardless of the culture involved, solely for the purposes of mocking, belittling, or denigrating some group.
I'm the next thing to a Social Justice Warrior; more precisely, I am a Social Justice Cleric. For what it's worth, in the SJ circles I know, that sort of distinction is welcomed and valued. SJWs want to stop the behaviors which are insulting and harmful, with as little loss as possible to the behaviors which are harmless, let alone the behaviors which are respectful, affirming, and/or help people understand each other and their backgrounds.
That said, sure, sometimes we SJWs (and clerics and bards) err on the conservative side. I could dress up as Geordi Laforge with a Starfleet uniform and a cyber visor, but if I painted my skin to match Levar Burton's skin, and if I were in a nation with a long history of whites belittling blacks, as a justification for first slavery then segregation... well, then I'd have to consider whether observers would infer a bigoted, belittling intent. If that seemed likely, then I'd rather choose some other character, than give anyone one more experience of "yup, white people feel free to mock us, with impunity", because that person may have suffered worse that mere casual mockery, and I don't wanna rub salt in a wound. *Even if that were a misunderstanding.* Those are my assumptions and priorities. YMMV.
Is that over-reaction? Maybe. My costume isn't gonna cost anyone their job, their freedom, their family, their life. It depends on whether "rubbing salt in a wound" is an analogy referring to actual wounds. Some say that there's no racism in the USA any more, or at least not at the level of lynching or segregation. Others say that yeah, racism is still widespread, just in different forms. I'm not gonna make a case with examples and citations, not here. If we disagree on whether racism is over, then we're also gonna disagree on whether cultural belittling is part of a larger problem, and thus on how far one should go to avoid it. I'm white; if nonwhite people are wary that I might be racist, just because I'm white - well, I hope they'll see otherwise, if they get to know me, but I cannot fault them for being wary, not if they're "once bitten twice shy". Similarly, I cannot fault people for being wary about whether I'm belittling them, if I'm wearing a yarmulka or a dashiki or a kimono or a plaid kilt.
Let's say that instead of Laforge, I'm in a TRPG using the setting of the "Firefly" TV show. Characters in that setting often use Mandarin Chinese for cursing or slang, such as "bizui" for "shut up" or "mei guanxi" in the sense of "no big deal". If I, speaking in character, never used such phrases - well, maybe I have an in-character reason. (I can't recall Book ever using Mandarin words and he clearly had a Mystery Background.) Or maybe as a player I can't remember the phrases or don't think I can pronounce them adequately. But if I squawk out some made-up vaguely-Cantonese-ish wing-wong gabble, and I'm in effect sneering at Chinese language, as if anything other than English is baby talk - then yeah, that's disrespectful.
I once played in an adventure with pre-written characters, and chose the Japanese lady (guessing correctly, from the thumbnail description, that she was also a kunoichi). When the Big Reveal happened, my immediate response was "Namu Amida Butsu!". It was reflexively in character; I *then* thought in English "oh sh__!". Was that exactly the right thing to say? I dunno. I've watched some Japanese samurai drama with English subtitles, but I might be more accurate to the fictional *genre* than to the actual culture. I didn't see anyone at the table *more* qualified to play a Japanese-background character, so I did my best. Again, we SJWs aren't out to stop anyone from ever having, or simulating, a cross-cultural experience. We just want people to treat each other's backgrounds with respect, or at least without arrogance.
If I run a D&D game in which orcs are a thinly veiled metaphor for stereotypical nonwhite cannibal savages, and half-orcs are clearly analogous to "halfbreeds", then that's more or less racist. It's not far from the source material, either; everyone in Lord of the Rings who is swarthy or slant-eyed is also a Bad Guy; whenever a Good Guy's eye color is mentioned in LOTR, it's blue or grey. (Exceptions?) I ran a story in which a player wrote a character who was a half-orc fighter, raised in human culture, who believed that orcs were savages and that human culture was better. The player was of mixed race, and was intentionally playing an attitude which he had rejected in his own life: that one of his parent's races was better than the other, that he was ashamed of half his ancestry, that he might be a contributing member of society but he'd never rise to the highest ranks. Yeah, that could have been in questionable taste. I think he pulled it off reasonably well. If someone had demanded an explanation, though, I would have expected him to give one.
Another poster raised the question of playing across gender. I rather like 5E's passage on gender and sexuality as part of a character's background. I've played a few female characters. Perhaps a woman might say "well, that's what you, a man, THINK women are like, but you're getting it wrong." If they could suggest specifics for playing my character better, then I'd listen; though with a grain of salt, since women are not all of one mind on that topic either. But I haven't played a stereotypical hot-babe-in-chainmail-bikini, or a damsel in distress whose only combat move is to bash someone from behind with a big blunt object.
One of the common SJW arguments about cultural appropriate goes as follows. If you understand how a veteran would get angry seeing a civilian wearing a military uniform with a Purple Heart, as a Halloween costume, not having earned that Purple Heart the hard way; then you should be able to understand, by direct analogy, how a Cheyenne person would get angry at someone wearing an eagle-feather bonnet, without having earned it the hard way. (If you think they're both wrong and that they're both making a big deal over nothing, then at least you're consistent, but you'd also better be careful about wearing that costume into bars patronized by Marines.)
I've played many characters with military background, modern and fantasy and other settings. I don't know military culture from direct personal experience; I've never served. I'm probably getting some things wrong, misinformed by movies and whatnot. (At least I know not to "lock and load"; with a bolt-action rifle, load and THEN lock the chamber.) So, reversing the SJW argument, I'm appropriating military culture, any time I play a commando or a Starfleet crewmember or a Roman centurion. I don't belittle the military in the process. If a veteran pulled me aside, to say I was getting something wrong, then I would listen, just as in the previous paragraph about playing across gender.
You cannot argue with them, they have been programmed to respond to stimuli in a pre-determined manner. They are doing the jobs of their masters who wish to destroy all authentic culture and civil society.
Well, there you have it: a categorical claim that I, and people like me (social justice adventurers), are not worthy of civil dialogue, that we are only The Enemy, that we lack human volition and autonomy. You know, that kind of reminds me of... well... of certain other categorical dismissals. If this is the opposition to Social Justice Activism, then I'm even more defiant now. Who, exactly, are our masters? Are they the same masters whom Charles Lindbergh and Father Coughlin opposed?
Please don't dress up as a Social Justice Warrior (or Warlock) for Halloween. You clearly don't respect our culture.
