YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT MR. PUTT.
Our nightly conversation:
Me: [Insert some atrocity happening in the US]
Mr. Putt: *shakes head* The US is a funny place. That sort of thing would NOT fly in England.
Me: *Googles* *comes up with half a dozen similar atrocities that happened in England*
Maybe it's a matter of terminology.
"Cultural appropriation" exists in every colonizing nation, but it may not be called that.
Yeah, I have to admit England is a funny place in general. We seem to have "localised blindspot" as a national trait over here. Is this stuff just not talked about over here? Not really, outside of literary circles, in all honesty no it's not. And we wonder why the Scots hate us, and the Welsh, and the Irish...
Just going with the megalith of Harry Potter as more modern Brit-lit, and seeing it with an American eye... it's there. How many non-white characters are there in prominent roles? (Hermione *could* have been, given her description in book 1, but she wasn't coded that way.)
You've got Lee, Dean and Cho. And "Cho Chang" has its own issues as a character name, according to native speakers from what I've read on this board and elsewhere. Padma and Pavarti are the closest we get to fleshed-out characters with a different background. The Wizarding World is built to seem international, but it doesn't follow through on that claim.
Look at the hornet's nest that got kicked when lavender Brown became a main character in the movies - and suddenly went from a black girl to a white girl.
When the stories moved to the US for the new material on Pottermore, the same "surface scan" logic applied, completely botching the idea of Native American cultures that were boiled into a page-and-a-half magic concept that actually insults the history of people with that background.
But which of them? They don't always have a monolithic opinion. Apparently, approval from just one member of a culture is not sufficient, because:
One person never speaks for an entire culture. Experience informs each person's opinions and beliefs. Some aspects of a cultural background will have specific meaning to some people which they won't have for others. The point is to be respectful.
Is objection by one member of a culture grounds to tank a project? Or is it based on a majority?
No one is ever going to get universal approval for anything, no matter what the source material or objections. This is a disingenuous argument.
That seems impractical. Is there to be a vote on every representation of a culture? And even if it were practical, it seems unfair.
One could argue that the misuse or stereotypical use of a culture for the gain of a person outside that culture (or who is unlikely to suffer from their portrayal of it) is unfair.
A book doesn't have to appeal to everybody. One argument against censorship is, "If you don't like it, don't read it."
Appropriation doesn't just hurt those who read a piece. It hurts those portrayed wrongly. If stereotypes are all that make it through the publication process, they're the only/main literary record of cultures which they misrepresent. If all portrayals of people from a certain country are dangerous criminals, then people who read that over and over internalize the idea of that group as dangerous criminals. if all portrayals of people from a certain background are as unintelligent, then readers internalize that, too.
It's not just a matter of not reading "a book" that portrays your culture in a bad light; it's the combined weight of every "classic," every "hit" that perpetuates the same mistaken information. Seeing people gush about things that you know aren't accurate - or might even be insulting.
If there had been a vote on whether The Da Vinci Code should be published, there's a good chance it wouldn't have been, although I think most people think it's just badly written, not harmful. At worst it blends fact with fiction leading to a confusion of the two.
I'm not sure who you think would do the "voting." It's not about voting; it's about vetting. Do your due diligence. Treat all of your characters as important. Think of the children (I write MG/YA) who will see their own lives and cultures reflected in the characters/worlds you build and consider how those children will react to your portrayal.