The Absurd Hysteria of Cultural Appropriation

Please think about something for a moment. For the past 25 or so years, social justice advocates and academic elites have loudly denounced 'cultural appropriation.' It has been yet another one of their methods for guilt-tripping people into bowing down and worshipping at their altar of political correctness. But one thing they overlook. Without "cultural appropriation," we'd all still be living in caves, cooking over an open fire whatever we could kill and eating it with our hands.

That's not hyperbole. Nearly every advancement in human civilization has come from one culture learning from, adapting, or "appropriating" innovations from another. Yet somehow, in this modern age of supposed enlightenment, sharing cultural practices has become a sin requiring public apology.

What drove me to write about this? Film director Danny Boyle was recently quoted in a Red State article saying he wouldn't make his Oscar-winning film "Slumdog Millionaire" today – because it would be “cultural appropriation.”

Really? Cultural appropriation is bad? Let's consider what the world would look like if cultures had never "appropriated" from each other:

The History of Human Progress

1. Food would be bland. Most meals would be incredibly bland without seasonings like basic salt and pepper. But do some digging into history. Salt preservation techniques originated in ancient Egypt, and black pepper came from India. When the Ottoman Empire took over the Middle East-Europe spice routes and began charging confiscatory taxes, a guy named Christopher Columbus was commissioned by the Spanish crown to search for a different way to get spices from the Indies.

He bumped into the Caribbean by mistake, and instead of finding peppercorns, he found chilies.

Wait. Weren’t chili peppers already used in India, Asia, and Africa?

Ta-da! A PERFECT example of “cultural appropriation.” Chili peppers were cultivated in east-central Mexico thousands of years ago, and independently across different locations across Central and South America. This Columbus guy makes a couple of visits to the New World and realizes there’s some cool stuff there he could bring back to Europe. Among the things he brought back to Spain were chilies.

A few years later, Portuguese explorers came to Brazil and acquired more chilies. They brought those to Goa, India, and from there, the use of chilies spread to Asia and Africa. These places were already using other spices for heat in their food, but they rapidly adopted the use of chilies. In fact, they even started using chilies in many dishes instead of their previous spices.

According to Boyle’s logic on cultural appropriation, perhaps everyone outside of Central and South America should apologize and stop using chilies.

Also:

• Should we all stop putting tomatoes on our hamburgers and dipping our french fries in ketchup, all because tomatoes originated in South America?

• Should Americans stop eating those precious french fries? After all, they were appropriated from Belgium and France.

• Ethiopia is the birthplace of coffee. Do we dare put Starbucks, Dunkin’, Dutch Bros, and Caribou Coffee out of business because their products were culturally appropriated?

• Mention pasta and everyone thinks of Italy, but noodles were invented in China 4000 years ago. Should Italians apologize to the Chinese and stop serving all pasta?

I could go on and on, but you get the idea.

By the way – the pizza isn’t purely an Italian invention, either. The Greeks, Egyptians, and other Mediterranean cultures were putting olive oil, herbs, and cheese on flatbreads thousands of years ago. But if we listen to Boyle, all American pizzerias will need to shut down.

2. We'd have no modern medicine. Today, aspirin is used around the world to alleviate pain. If we’re going to give up culturally appropriating things, all aspirin use should stop. The only people who get aspirin from now on should be Native Americans, who used willow bark, the main source of salicin (aspirin's active ingredient), for pain relief.

Digitalis for heart conditions comes from the foxglove plant, first used medicinally in Britain.

And sorry, my African friends. Quinine, used for malaria treatment, originated with South American indigenous peoples. You in Africa suffer more from Malaria than any other region of the world, but using Boyles’ logic, you’re just have to deal with a lot more painful, tragic deaths.

Penicillin was discovered in Scotland. Do we need Scottish ancestry to take antibiotics?

Codeine was first created by cultivated poppies in ancient Mesopotamia. Should poppy-based pain management products be restricted to Middle Easterners?

I’m serious. Use of these medicines worldwide constitutes cultural appropriation.

3. Architecture would be primitive. The arch was perfected by Romans but adopted worldwide. The Romans also invented elevators. Steel-frame construction for high rises was pioneered in Chicago, yet skyscrapers exist in every major city in the world, with the tallest being in Dubai. And what about Frank Lloyd Wright’s masterpiece designs? Should they be destroyed because he incorporated Japanese design principles?

Look around your own home—even the roof over your head is cultural appropriation. Clay tiles came from ancient China, glass windows originated in Roman Syria, and concrete was also from the Romans (who made it from volcanic ash).

Wooden frame construction comes from Northern Europe, and central heating comes from Korea's ancient ondol system.

Your bathroom? Indoor plumbing was perfected by the Indus Valley civilization 4,000 years ago. That cozy fireplace? Chimneys were invented in medieval Europe. Even your front door lock likely uses pin tumbler technology first developed in ancient Egypt.

4. Technology would be nonexistent. Paper originated in China, the printing press from Germany, and the steam engine from Britain. The internet emerged from American universities but was built on mathematical concepts from India and the Middle East.

We could all resort to using only pencils, but no, Boyle would not like that either. The pencil as we know it today was invented in 1795 by Nicholas-Jacques Conte, a scientist serving in the army of Napoleon Bonaparte. Je m'excuse pour le dérangement (I apologize for the inconvenience).

The Modern Hypocrisy

The cultural appropriation police apply their standards selectively, revealing the movement's underlying absurdity:

Hollywood's Double Standard: Hollywood loves to promote minorities, as they should. The Comanche tribe gushed about Johnny Depp starring as the American Indian “Tonto” in The Lone Ranger movie, but critics threw a fit when Emma Stone was cast as a half-Asian character in the movie Aloha. Both the Aloha director Cameron Crowe and Stone herself issued public apologies.

The result? Studios are now leery of stories featuring various cultures because they don’t want to risk backlash. As Boyle stated, "you wouldn't even contemplate doing something like [Slumdog Millionaire] today. It wouldn't even get financed"

Musical Madness: Elvis was accused of appropriating Black music, yet Black artists regularly incorporate elements from rock, country, and classical traditions. Should we segregate music by ethnicity? After all, the Beatles drew heavily from Indian music. Should "Norwegian Wood" be banned in all countries except India?

Fashion Foolishness: Blue jeans were invented by a German immigrant (Levi Strauss) using fabric from France. Should only German-Americans be allowed to wear Levi's?

Sneakers evolved from rubber-soled shoes developed by a British company. Do we need British ancestry to wear Air Jordans? The business suit evolved from English riding coats mixed with French tailoring - should everyone who wears a suit prove their ancestry with a DNA test before entering the Men’s Warehouse?

The hoodie was invented for warehouse workers in the 1930s but popularized by hip-hop culture. Dear Drake, Jay-Z, and Lil Wayne – sorry. You’ll all have to get warehouse jobs to wear hoodies from now on.

Yoga pants were invented in Canada, flip-flops trace back to ancient Egyptian sandals, and the necktie evolved from the Croatian military. I’m sure a lot of men wouldn’t mind giving up their neckties, but I can think of a lot of American women who would throw a fit at giving up their yoga pants.

The Real Victims

The tragic irony is that cultural appropriation hysteria most harms the very groups it claims to protect. For example, when movie studios become terrified of casting decisions or subject matter, they simply avoid stories about marginalized communities altogether. The fear of being criticized for “cultural appropriation” makes people afraid of exploring other traditions.

Remember, Danny Boyle says he wouldn't make his Oscar-winning film "Slumdog Millionaire" today because it would be cultural appropriation.

Think about that. He wouldn’t make a film that employed hundreds of Indian actors and crew members, was filmed entirely on location in India, and brought worldwide attention to social issues in India.

Apparently, giving marginalized groups exposure and employment is problematic if you're the 'wrong' ethnicity.

Boyle's comments perfectly illustrate the intellectual bankruptcy of cultural appropriation hysteria. He made a conscious decision to hire Indian actors and crew, yet still grovels for forgiveness seventeen years later.

But don’t worry. Boyle is keeping his Oscar and the millions he earned from the film. Nothing says "sincere apology" quite like virtue signaling while clutching your lavish profits.

The Path Forward

Human civilization has advanced precisely because cultures learned from each other. The very concept of distinct, immutable cultural boundaries is itself historically false. Cultures have always been fluid, overlapping, and mutually influential.

The real question isn't whether cultural appropriation exists—it's whether we want a world in which we want segregation, or one in which the best ideas, foods, art, and practices can flow freely across artificial boundaries.

Chinese food in America tastes different from food in China, and that's perfectly fine. Pizza became an American staple despite its foreign origins. Jazz emerged from African American communities but now belongs to the world. This isn't theft—it's how human progress works.

Instead of apologizing for cultural exchange, we should celebrate it. The alternative isn't cultural purity—it's cultural poverty. And frankly, I'd rather we live in a world in which everyone can enjoy tacos while listening to jazz in their cozy homes rather than moving back into caves and slicing up freshly killed mammoth to roast over a fire.

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This is Daniel Bobinski, and I’m Keeping Things Real.
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Daniel Bobinski, Th.D., is an international bestselling author (Creating Passion-Driven Teams), a certified behavioral analyst, and for 36 years he’s been a corporate trainer and executive coach. He also serves as Executive Trainer for the Shofar Global Network, which advocates for business leaders to let God guide their businesses, thus directing people’s attention to the Author and Finisher of our faith.