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Last week, Cardi B was loudly criticized for a magazine cover where she was photoshopped to have multiple arms, a shoot inspired by the Hindu goddess Durga. People raged about cultural appropriation, upset that she was casually using Hinduism for a promotional pic.
There’s nothing new about this. Selena Gomez and Heidi Klum have been criticized for dressing up in Hindu-inspired clothes and white people have been frowned at for everything from doing yoga to drinking turmeric lattes. Even Hindu women like Deepika Padukone have been criticized for “twisting” traditional Indian stories and “modernizing” them for the benefit of earning a few bucks.
I’m a Democrat and left-of-left, happy that we are finally protecting and standing up for maligned minority culture everywhere. But this is crazy.
Cultures are meant to be used, adapted, and changed. White women don’t own Soul Cycle any more than I own yoga. One of my favorite songs is Hallelujah and I cook better enchilada sauce than my part-Mexican husband. My favorite Bollywood dances are heavily inspired by Michael Jackson and one of our traditional “prayer” meals in my family is potato, a new world vegetable. Globalization is a good thing.
