Quotes & Sayings About Cultural Appropriation

A racist notion found in neoshamanic circles is placing high value on indigenous wisdom but not on indigenous people. — S. Kelley Harrell

Kali. That's the name I used with clients. Kali is the four-armed Hindu goddess of death. She has been appropriated by hipster flakes as a symbol of feminine power. Maybe that's fair too. But make no mistake. Kali is a destructress. In one of her hands she holds a severed head.
I know, I know, so fucking dramatic. I'll admit to a little cultural appropriation for choosing a name like that. — Alex Dolan

Cts of appropriation are part of the process by which we make ourselves. Appropriating - taking something for one's own use - need not be synonymous with exploitation. This is especially true of cultural appropriation. The "use" one makes of what is appropriated is the crucial factor. — Bell Hooks

They now endure incessant cultural appropriation by a majority society in the United States that celebrates an idealized American Indian but ignores reservation life - the economic blight and marginalization of what are, in effect, national internment zones, exacerbated by federal inattention and mismanagement. In Indian country there are also thriving cultural traditions and creative genius, but these often receive little more recognition than the problems. - — T. J. Stiles

Indiana was such a devout disciple of Shakti that she had once considered taking her name until her father, Blake Jackson, managed to convince her that a Hindu goddess's name was not appropriate for a tall, voluptuous blond American with the looks of an inflatable doll. — Isabel Allende

Cultural appropriation is especially egregious when it involves the co-optation of spiritual ceremonies and the inappropriate use of lands deemed sacred by Native peoples. — Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

When I started school in 1958 there were no books written by Aboriginals in the school system and everything about Native life was written by white people through their eyes.

Now, Aboriginal writers can tell their stories. They have always been our narratives to tell, not others. — Rick Revelle

No, no, my friend. You are kind, and you mean well, but you can never understand these things as I do. You've never been oppressed. — S. Alice Callahan

The personal appropriation of cliches is a condition for the spread of cultural tourism. — Serge Daney