Column | Be defeated with your own weapons

The accusation of cultural appropriation or cultural appropriation – also an improper appropriation of the English language – can always be made: by progressive social justice warriors, but also by conservatives and nationalists. It’s like a shot of hail, something always gets hit.

Five years ago it was hip for a Human of Color to criticize the blond, white woman who had put on dreadlocks. That lady had accepted that nicely, that was not part of her culture. Subsequently, such a Human of Color could just indulge in a little war fries.

I had to laugh at the story about the Leiden Museum of Antiquities: there is now an exhibition with a title that deserves a populism prize. ‘Egypt in hip-hop, jazz, soul & funk’ about ‘the significance of ancient Egypt and Nubia in the work of artists from the diaspora’. Think of singers like Beyoncé, Rihanna and actor Eddie Murphy, who were inspired by an ancient and especially black Egypt.

They couldn’t make it more fun. The title sounds like a rallying cry against the omnipotence of Europe and the Western world, because how often are the merits of black and colored neglected or attributed to a white source.

At about the same time, the Netflix docudrama went Queen Cleopatra premiered, in which the role of queen is reserved for the actress Adele James. James is a black woman and thus also became a black Cleopatra. Furious reactions from Egypt, mailboxes full of hate and racism. The Leiden exhibition certainly also aimed to color ancient Egypt in a black-African way. Biggest objection of those hotheads: these powerful American artists are appropriating a culture that is not their own.

There you are as a museum with your inclusive intentions: if you don’t want to be Eurocentric, the Egyptians of all places will get angry because they suspect the museum of ‘blackwashing’. You can call those Egyptian comments reactionary and conservative, maybe even Afro-phobic, but they neatly follow the principle of cultural appropriation.

It’s called being defeated with your own weapons.

In the Netherlands it has become fairly common for (light) colored people to call themselves black, but anyone who has ever been to Egypt, or Turkey or Morocco, knows that this fashion has not caught on radically everywhere.

The idea of ​​cultural appropriation, whether you interpret it progressively or conservatively, is an unfortunate idea. Philosopher Susan Neiman writes: “Prohibitions for cultural appropriation presuppose a cultural purity that few objects enjoy.”

May I add: and also few people, arts and civilizations. The world is a mix, purity exists for Aryans, racists and forward, in music.

Stephen Sanders writes a column here every Monday.