Sensitivity Writers. AKA: avoiding cultural appropriate in writing

[Sacrosanct]

Now it gets silly.
You are doing a disservice to all people actually suffering by claiming people are harmed because they arbitrarily decide some things are part of their culture which they somehow own and someone else who does not fulfill some arbitrary criteria and using it in a way this person thinks is inappropriate.
No one owns a culture.

But when you feel so strongly about it, there is only one solution. Don't use non-european cultures in your games.

The only thing silly, is that despite the overwhelming evidence, and the clear definitions and articles explaining in detail why cultural appropriation is a bad, you and others are trying to act like it's all a made up thing. Real, actual damage includes but is not limited to:

It perpetuates white colonialism
it distracts from how much communities borrow and steal from marginalized people
it prevents learning about true cultural exchange
it confuses people about which traditions come from what cultures
it propagates pejorative racist stereotypes

If you want to know why in greater detail, I suggest reading the articles I listed above. Needless to say, all of the above can and has resulted in actual harm, from loss of identity, discrimination, profiteering, and racial violence.

 

[Bedrockgames]

To make myself as clear as possible: I am an artist. I write fiction; I create physical arts in sculpture, acrylics, pastels, inks, and pencils; I compose and sing and play music in three different instruments. So I understand the issues intimately.

I do to. I am a writer. I used to be a very active musician (played several instruments as well). But there are different points of view on this among artists. I don't think the debate over the validity of this concept of cultural approbation is at all settled. And I think there are very, very good reasons to push back against it (which I have mentioned in previous posts).

 

[Bedrockgames]

The only thing silly, is that despite the overwhelming evidence, and the clear definitions and articles explaining in detail why cultural appropriation is a bad, you and others are trying to act like it's all a made up thing. Real, actual damage includes but is not limited to:

It perpetuates white colonialism
it distracts from how much communities borrow and steal from marginalized people
it prevents learning about true cultural exchange
it confuses people about which traditions come from what cultures
it propagates pejorative racist stereotypes

If you want to know why in greater detail, I suggest reading the articles I listed above. Needless to say, all of the above can and has resulted in actual harm, from loss of identity, discrimination, profiteering, and racial violence.

The article asserts it does those things. It doesn't prove it does those things

 

[Bedrockgames]

If you want to know why in greater detail, I suggest reading the articles I listed above. Needless to say, all of the above can and has resulted in actual harm, from loss of identity, discrimination, profiteering, and racial violence.

There is a very simple solution here. If you are worried about discrimination, then fight discrimination. If you are worried about racial violence, then work to fight racial violence. But I think when you start trying to attribute it to something as vague as cultural appropriation, and believe that if you just fix the problem of cultural approbation, you'll somehow fix these other problems in society, you've stepped into utopian territory.

 

[Mercurius]

... you and others are trying to act like it's all a made up thing.

I'm not sure anyone is saying that. I'm certainly not.

It isn't either/or, Sacrosanct: either it is 100% as you describe it to be, objectively true, or it is "all a made up thing." I'm guessing that everyone participating in this discussion realizes that there is a real phenomena that the term refers to. But it seems that there is a range of different views on how well it describes the territory, and if there might not be other ways to look at the same phenomena that have utility.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I do to. I am a writer. I used to be a very active musician (played several instruments as well). But there are different points of view on this among artists. I don't think the debate over the validity of this concept of cultural approbation is at all settled. And I think there are very, very good reasons to push back against it (which I have mentioned in previous posts).

I’m gonna interject here as an observer.

DA isn’t suggesting anything that merits this particular sort of response. He isn’t claiming that him being an artist makes him more expert, or anything of the sort. He is identifying to you that he is also an artist, and as such is not speaking in theory or as an outsider telling artists what to do, but rather from the perspective of a fellow artist.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

There is a very simple solution here. If you are worried about discrimination, then fight discrimination. If you are worried about racial violence, then work to fight racial violence. But I think when you start trying to attribute it to something as vague as cultural appropriation, and believe that if you just fix the problem of cultural approbation, you'll somehow fix these other problems in society, you've stepped into utopian territory.

Here you are making rather wild leaps from what Sacrosanct said to some other thing that they didn’t say.

Who claimed that “fixing” cultural appropriation (whatever that would even mean) would fix other cultural/social issues?

 

[Derren]

The only thing silly, is that despite the overwhelming evidence, and the clear definitions and articles explaining in detail why cultural appropriation is a bad, you and others are trying to act like it's all a made up thing. Real, actual damage includes but is not limited to:

It perpetuates white colonialism
it distracts from how much communities borrow and steal from marginalized people
it prevents learning about true cultural exchange
it confuses people about which traditions come from what cultures
it propagates pejorative racist stereotypes

If you want to know why in greater detail, I suggest reading the articles I listed above. Needless to say, all of the above can and has resulted in actual harm, from loss of identity, discrimination, profiteering, and racial violence.

That is simply false.
1. "White colonialism" is a combat term without meaning.
2. All cultures borrow and "steal" from surrounding cultures, even marginalized ones from big cultures. That is a natural process which has been going on for centuries. Globalization just increased the range cultures can borrow from others. Cultures are not static and never have been, that is another reason why you can't say "X belongs to culture Y and no one else can use it without my approval"
3. It can also encourage cultural exchange by increasing interest in a culture. Errecting barriers and attacking people with things like "you are white and thus not allowed to do X" does not encourage exchange at all.
4. So does errecting barriers and claiming cultural ownership over something. A few posts above Spirit Animals was used as example of something being owned by native americans (which ones?). But what about slavic cultures where spirit animals also were a big thing? Who is confusing whom now?
5. No it doesn't in itself. If anything, claiming that only certain people are allowed to use something based on their skin color or heritage is racist.

 

[Bedrockgames]

Here you are making rather wild leaps from what Sacrosanct said to some other thing that they didn’t say.

Who claimed that “fixing” cultural appropriation (whatever that would even mean) would fix other cultural/social issues?

then why list those issues unless addressing cultural appropriation will somehow improve on them?His position seems to be that cultural appropriation contributes to these problems (and they are the reasons he points to fir why we should take CA so seriously. So I am just saying, well if those are the concerns it would be more productive to focus on them directly

 

[Calithorne]

The Education Chair of my writing group set up a "diversity workshop" to teach us straight white males how to write with "compassion" when we include diverse characters.

I took a stand on our Facebook page, telling the group I was not going to seek approval from a censorship committee to write what I want to write.

Ultimately, I resigned the group and joined another group led by a writer who believes as I do that writers can't worry about people who go out of their way to be offended by a work of art.