I hear all this uproar all the time about people who use cultural appropriation, yet sometimes I just don’t see what the problem is. I get that it has been done for malicious intent before and I’m not defending that or suggesting I agree with doing it for such purposes, but is, for example, a chef cooking a certain dish that originates from a land that is not his own, or other examples, really worth the same uproar?
The issue with cultural appropriation previously was that those from the culture were denied opportunities to make money off their own culture. There are still some economic restrictions, but the political and cultural restrictions are mostly gone.
There were some cultural appropriation complaints when the chopped cheese got big for a hot minute, but it was widely sold in bodegas already so it didn’t have a single creator and a lot of people wanting to try it went to Harlem and the South Bronx to get it. More places started selling it, but it wasn’t like the original bodega owners were barred from being a part of the dish’s expansion. It was just really easy to make.