The toxic notion of cultural appropriation breathes new life into old racist attitudes

The toxic notion of cultural appropriation breathes new life into old racist attitudes

One might have reasonably assumed that someone like Warren would find the premises of such an exercise in blood purity repugnant. In any case, the Cherokee Nation quickly released a statement addressing some of the obvious problems with Warren’s vulgar display, pointing out first: “A DNA test is useless to determine tribal citizenship.”

The statement goes on to add that “Senator Warren is undermining tribal interests with her continued claims of tribal heritage.” Well, that didn’t go as planned. As a matter of course, observers began to ask whether Warren’s was an act of cultural appropriation.

But the idea of cultural appropriation is itself based on the same mistaken premises that led Warren to her bizarre and embarrassing blood quantum test. The idea that culture is something susceptible to appropriation assumes that culture can be (and is, as a matter of fact) owned by a particular group, defined by membership in a racial or ethnic group. Such membership is, in turn, ostensibly defined by objective blood or DNA factors, a standard that pretty obviously encourages — better yet, constitutes — the merest racism.