Cultural Appropriation Quotes

“The alternative to appropriation is a world in which artists only reference their own cultures."

"That's an oversimplification of the issue."

"The alternative to appropriation is a world where white European people make art about white European people with only white European references in it. Swap African or Asian or Latin or whatever culture you want for European. A world where everyone is blind and deaf to any culture or experience that is not their own. I hate that world don't you? I'm terrified of that world and I don't want to live in a that world, and as a mixed race person, I literally don't exist in it. My dad, who I barely knew, was Jewish. My mom was an American-born Korean. I was raised by Korean immigrant grandparents in Korea Town Los Angeles and as any mixed race person will tell you-- to be half of two things is to be whole of nothing.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

“Music is like spoken language, inextricable from its culture. If you don't learn a language early in life, its words will forever come out wrinkled and accented by another world, no matter how well you memorize or love the vocabulary, grammar, and cadences of a new language. This is why foreign "belly dancers" have always bothered me. The use of our music as a prop to wiggle and shimmy and jump around offends me. Eastern music is the soundtrack of me..”
― Susan Abulhawa, Against the Loveless World

“In her book So You Want to Talk about Race, author Ijeoma Oluo broadly defines cultural appropriation as "the adoption or exploitation of another culture by a more dominant culture".”
― Layla F. Saad, Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor

“I'd like to accept this on behalf of all the stories told and untold, the writers heard and unheard, from the remarkable continent I'm part of. Please keep listening to us, there's a lot more to come.”
― Damon Galgut

“Imitation is the highest form of flattery' all too often means 'Appropriation is the easiest form of thievery'.”
― Jamie Arpin-Ricci

“As a practitioner of Witchcraft, my drive is to learn as much magic as I can from whatever sources resonate with me. In those instances in which a practice, symbol, or deity speaks to me and demands my devotion, I make a commitment to honor the cultures from which they originated by pledging to study their histories, to listen to the voices of those who identify as part of those cultures, and, where possible, to support the living people who belong to that cultural group.”
― Storm Faerywolf, Betwixt & Between: Exploring the Faery Tradition of Witchcraft

“In college I was an editorial cartoonist for my school paper, The Daily Aztec...I did straight, news-oriented editorial cartoons. Occasionally, my Chicano background snuck in to the toons simply because I might do a César Chavez toon about how the School Student Board was too stupidly racist to allow him to speak on campus or other anti-frat toons on how they were so racist in doing fund-raisers for Tijuana kid charities--dressed in sombreros and begging with tin cups

(from an interview in the book Attitude, 2002)”
― Lalo Alcaraz

“Monocultural glorification is a moronic habit, Human is born when all tribalism is abandoned.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Bulldozer on Duty

“Do you know what surprised me most when I came to this country? The way witches are glorified. People here dress up as us for Halloween. They fill their TV shows and social media profiles with our aesthetics. It's like they've forgotten that, for most of human history, witches were something to mutilate, not emulate. Women who were seen as outcasts—too queer, too brown, too unwell...Any one of us on the margins was a target. To me, a pointy hat and a broomstick are not a cute costume; they are a reminder that, for centuries, people were brutalized under the mere assumption they might be what we actually are.”
― Roseanne A. Brown, Serwa Boateng's Guide to Witchcraft and Mayhem

“Virtually every fact used in business, political life and every day human relations is derived from other 'facts' or assumptions that have been shaped, deliberately or not, by the preexisting power structure. Every fact thus has a power history and what may be called a power future.”
― Alvin Toffler, Powershift: Knowledge, Wealth, and Power at the Edge of the 21st Century

“Gandhi today is up for grabs. He has become abstract. ahistorical, postmodern, no longer a man in and of his time but a free-floating concept, a part of the available stock of cultural symbols, an image that can be borrowed, used, distorted, reinvented, to fit many different purposes, and to the devil with historicity or truth. Richard Attenborough's Gandhi stuck me, when it was first released, as an example of this type of unhistorical Western saint-making. Here was Gandhi-as-guru, purveying the fashionable product, the Wisdom of the East, and Gandhi-as-Christ, dying and frequently going on hunger strike) so that others may live.”
― Salman Rushdie, Step Across This Line: Collected Nonfiction 1992-2002

“Decisive works of art participate directly in the fabric of history surrounding their maker....As viewers we readily experience the power of ground on which we cannot stand — yet that very experience can be so compelling that we may feel almost honor-bound to make art that recaptures that power. Or more dangerously, feel tempted to use the same techniques, the same subjects, the same symbols as appear in the work that aroused our passion — to borrow, in effect, a charge from another time and place...they may begin to fill their canvasses and monitors with charged particles “appropriated” from other places and times.

A premise common to all such efforts is that power can be borrowed across space and time. It cannot. There’s a difference between meaning that is embodied and meaning that is referenced.”
― David Bayles, Art and Fear

“South Earth Summon (Naskaristana 2800)

I am the Son of South Earth,
my spice-tolerance is superhuman,
but lies-tolerance is nonexistent -
my resilience knows no mortal limit,
but I have zero tolerance for intolerance.

I speak more languages than most northerners,
I've devoured more scriptures than most northerners,
I have assimilated more cultures and disciplines,
which is why I say, there is no north, no south,
when it comes to virtues and vices of human nature.

So I'm not saying South is better than the North,
but reparations are foundational to civilization;
enlightenment was born in the South of Earth -
math, medicine, poetry, philosophy, theology,
almost everything was invented in the South,
then the Northerners barged in,
and pretended they invented astrophysics.

I come from the other half of the world that
has been systematically reduced to footnotes
of northernized history normalized as world history,

now I am a bigger giant than
all your white giants combined,
now I speak, and you listen.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Nazmahal: Palace of Grace

“Enlightenment was born in the South of Earth - math, medicine, poetry, philosophy, theology, almost everything was invented in the South, then the Northerners barged in, and pretended they invented astrophysics.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Nazmahal: Palace of Grace

“I am the warfare, and the rewriting of civilization started decades ago, when I made slave out of the most tyrant language on earth.”
― Abhijit Naskar, With Love From A Blue Rock

“Autopsy of The West (Naskaristana 2754-2757)

Food just tastes better when you eat with hands, sitting on the floor, together with family - which goes against the artificial, life-wrecking lifestyle invented by the west -

in western narrative, isolation is liberation, the elderly is inconvenient, apathy is aesthetic - invasion is ambition, exploitation is exploration, indifference is etiquette, appropriation is innovation -

this is the autopsy of the west, not biopsy, because we do biopsy of the living, not the dead. We cannot establish proper, healthy human integration, without first decolonizing the world, which is why it is imperative, that the world outgrows the west, no matter the country -

in short, whether you're born in a first world civilization of the global south or a third world country of the north, like England or America, you must outgrow the west, if you want to be civilized, if you want to be human.

The American must stop being american, you must outgrow everything that the pilgrims held near and dear, because the pilgrims were among apekind's most grotesque offenders, second only to their own forefathers, the british empire and other euro imperials.

You cannot end dehumanization while abiding by the narrative established by the dehumanizers, you cannot end a pandemic while playing by the rules of the virus - you cannot heal a war-inflicted planet while studying from the rulebook of colonialism, that planted the germs of most of those wars in the first place - colonial history is not heritage, it's a crimescene.

Civilization is care over conquest, civilization is integration over isolation, civilization is belonging - to burn the bridges with dehumanizers is the first requirement of civilization.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Nazmahal: Palace of Grace

“In western narrative, isolation is liberation, the elderly is inconvenient, apathy is aesthetic - invasion is ambition, exploitation is exploration, indifference is etiquette, appropriation is innovation.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Nazmahal: Palace of Grace

“In western narrative, invasion is ambition, exploitation is exploration, indifference is etiquette, appropriation is innovation.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Nazmahal: Palace of Grace

“The vatican, british empire, and uncle sam, these three are the apex predator of planet earth.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Hazrat-e Humanity: The Uncultured Polyglot

“History of the world written by colonizers is no different from map of the world made by flat earthers - just like flat earthers flatten the globe to fit their delusion, colonizers flatten civilizations into savages, philosophies into myths, cosmologies into coincidences, lived holiness into paganism, erasure into expansion, trafficking into trade, native resistance into terrorism, and colonial terrorism into civilizing.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Hazrat-e Humanity: The Uncultured Polyglot

“Vatican, british empire, and uncle sam, the unholy trinity of planet earth.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Hazrat-e Humanity: The Uncultured Polyglot

“Mother Africa is the cradle of humanity, Global South is the cradle of civilization.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Hazrat-e Humanity: The Uncultured Polyglot

“Everything that white people have ever written consists of only 1 percent of the human condition, yet you confuse it as the entire human condition.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Hazrat-e Humanity: The Uncultured Polyglot

“Only Backward Minority of Earth
(Naskaristana 2543)

Eurocentrism is the biggest fraud in education,
eurocentrism is the antithesis of education.

The only minority that has historically caused
irreparable damage to the world are the white people,
yet you confuse every little mediocre literature
from such backward population as default knowledge -
and by act of conscience if a braveheart white defies
the status quo, you declare them as woke infected.

First sign of an educated mind -
you don't start a conversation
on philosophy mentioning greeks,
you don't start a conversation
on poetry mentioning the english.

White people discovered nothing but other people's land,
other people's science, other people's philosophy -
Europe is the real footnote in the history of knowledge,
till you understand what this means in your bones,
your philosophy is just as fictional as your theology.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Hazrat-e Humanity: The Uncultured Polyglot

“Eurocentrism is the biggest fraud in education, eurocentrism is the antithesis of education.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Hazrat-e Humanity: The Uncultured Polyglot

“The only minority that has historically caused irreparable damage to the world are the white people.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Hazrat-e Humanity: The Uncultured Polyglot

“Decolonization Anthem -
Song of The Global South
(Sonnet 2616-2619)

Humanity is mightier than empires of apes,
life is braver than borders of the dead.
No one's undocumented on a planet built on loot,
champions of freedom are champions of truth.

We are children of the Global South,
not a lost cause or subjects of pity,
not tax breaks in a donor's ledger,
nor footnotes in whitewashed history.

Our lands are rich with brains,
our soil is rich with minerals,
our veins pulse with creation,
hearts bright with civilization.

They looted our gold,
then sold us "aid" -
they burnt our libraries,
then sold us "education."

Colonizers were the real cannibals of history,
out to civilize humans with far advanced society -
suffering of the South was not bad luck or destiny,
just the grand design of Manifest Atrocity.

Rise, O Peoples of Earth -
Rise till the looters fall.
Roar like Sonnets of Naskar -
Fire the fascists, free the world!

In every culture we carry the cosmos,
in every tongue we carry our home.
Our names are not doormats of empire,
our dust is larger than Greece and Rome.

Own your color, your accent,
own your stories, your theologies,
be proud of your sweat, your stubborn dignity -
for the North wrote itself as civilized,
but we, the Global South, authored humanity.

They told us, history is white,
holiness is western, progress is european -
but the hands that built the world,
with science, medicine, poetry,
philosophy, astronomy and mathematics,
were black, brown and indigenous.

Stand and burn the colonial syllabus,
disown the doctrines built on erasure -
rise and write like blood on fire -
write your anthem, write your future.

Rise, O Children of Earth,
no matter the color or culture,
you have more heart than ape empires,
more soul than parasites and vultures!

Burn the cartels, fire the fascists -
I lived my duty, now you be the Naskar.
Let the cosmos stand witness,
to the spark of human nature.”
― Abhijit Naskar, With Love From A Blue Rock

“Eurocentrism - The First Global Catastrophe (Sonnet 2626)

Climate change is nothing,
the first humanly caused
global catastrophe was eurocentrism -

before colonials, science was rooted in society, and
philosophy was rooted in community, not snobbery,
medicine was centered on people, not profit,
religion was lived experience, not salesmanship -

farmland was family, not property,
innovation empowered life, not luxury -

psychology prioritized understanding
and healing, not analysis and isolation,
poetry was the everyday way of life,
not aristocratic escapism.

Sure, there was superstition back then as well,
but no superstition of the pre-colonial world
comes close in atrocity to the fancy superstitions
of the imperials marketed as progress.

Eurocentrism is the biggest impediment to education -
stand and burn the colonial syllabus, that's enlightenment!”
― Abhijit Naskar, With Love From A Blue Rock

“Before colonials, science was rooted in society, and
philosophy was rooted in community, not snobbery,
medicine was centered on people, not profit,
religion was lived experience, not salesmanship. Sure, there was superstition back then as well, but no superstition of the pre-colonial world comes close in atrocity to the fancy superstitions of the imperials marketed as progress. Eurocentrism is the biggest impediment to education - stand and burn the colonial syllabus, that's enlightenment!”
― Abhijit Naskar, With Love From A Blue Rock

“Unified Global South (Sonnet 2687-2688)

White bias doesn't affect only white people,
it affects colored people as well.

For example, US citizens can practically
travel to the entire world without visa,
despite being the most undeserving,
while rightful Africans cannot travel
even within the continent without visa.

This is why I say, white is not a color,
white is a mindset of exploitation.

If you want to rescue your plundered dignity,
first you gotta decolonize your own mindset.
Philosophy alone doesn't advance a society,
you gotta build the infrastructure for it.

For example, make the entire Global South
Visa Free for all its citizens, and I guarantee,
within a hundred years the Global South
will be the Powergrid of the Human Race,
like it once was, until the predators of Europe
contaminated the world with their unwelcome touch.

Foster the psychology, policy will follow.
Foster the intent, intelligence will follow.

The ultimate mission is a unified humanity,
but practical integration of the human race
beyond color and culture is not possible
until we decontaminate the planet of every last
trace of colonial vice legislated as virtue.”
― Abhijit Naskar, With Love From A Blue Rock