Yoga, Chopsticks, and the Myth of Cultural Appropriation

Yoga, Chopsticks, and the Myth of Cultural Appropriation

Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit et artes intulit agresti Latio.

(Conquered Greece conquered her ferocious victor and brought her arts into the unpolished Latium.) Horace, Book II, epistle 1, 156-57

When Horace penned the above lines, he referred to Rome’s military capture of Greece, which was followed by Greece’s cultural takeover of Rome. The Romans adopted Greek customs, learned the Greek language, studied and imitated the Greek authors, and spent considerable time acquiring Greek education in Athens. Similarly, the nobility of imperial Russia was fluent in French and emulated French culture and mores.

An intellectual of the leftist persuasion might say these were examples of “cultural appropriation.” Except that this is a meaningless term. Emulating a culture for its achievements can only be a compliment to that culture—a recognition of its contributions and significance.

As usual, leftist ideologues are rather inconsistent in the logical and theoretical aspects of their propaganda and accusations. On the one hand, they strongly encourage the adoption of a non-Western worldview in our education and interpretation of historical or contemporary events. This worldview is advanced not only in the classroom and mainstream media but even through encouraging personal habits, such as Yoga classes or eating with chopsticks in Asian restaurants, for example.  

Many Westerners who claim to be Yoga devotees do not regard this practice as the profound and complex religious tradition that it represents. They treat it merely as a fitness fad that symbolizes their cosmopolitan broad-mindedness. Of course, there is nothing wrong if Westerners choose to explore the meaning and practice of Yoga out of genuine interest and desire to learn. There is something wrong, however, when they disrespect their traditional faith and flaunt their Yoga attendance as a badge of moral superiority and spiritual sophistication.  A number of global corporations are now conducting organized meditation sessions for their employees, thus promoting certain cultural practices over individual employees’ traditional beliefs or personal habits.

Similarly, mastering the art of using chopsticks at Asian restaurants is considered by snobbish elites a matter of open-mindedness and refinement. Again, there is nothing wrong if Westerners learn how to properly use chopsticks out of sincere interest, but insisting on it for the sake of “multiculturalism” is ridiculous. I appreciate and delight in many varieties of Asian cuisine but happen to find the fork a wonderful invention that I grew up using. My preference for silverware over chopsticks is a matter of practical convenience, not moral judgment.

On the one hand, leftist elites glorify “multiculturalism” and non-Western cultural traditions and boast their proficiency in foreign rituals and mores. On the other hand, if American children reenact a traditional Thanksgiving pageant, play “Cowboys and Indians,” or don an ethnic hat for Halloween, they are branded as guilty of colonialism, imperialism, and cultural appropriation.

Until recently, we were considered the melting pot of variegated customs, culinary tastes, or musical traditions. People strived to be American while still remembering and respecting their legacy. For the past couple of decades, however, the concept of “multiculturalism,” whose actual goal is to destroy Western civilization, has replaced the ideal of a single American national identity.

Hoover Institution Research Fellow Bruce Thornton explains:

[T]he identity politics at the heart of multiculturalism directly contradict the core assumption of our liberal democracy: the principle of individual and inalienable rights that each of us possess no matter what group or sect we belong to. Multiculturalism confines the individual in the box of his race or culture—the latter often simplistically defined in clichés and stereotypes—and then demands rights and considerations for that group, a special treatment usually based on the assumption that the group has been victimized in the past and so deserves some form of reparations. The immigrant “other” (excluding, of course, immigrants from Europe) is now a privileged victim entitled to public acknowledgment of his victim status and the superiority of his native culture….

And so the common identity shaped by the Constitution, the English language, and the history, mores, and heroes of America gives way to multifarious, increasingly fragmented micro-identities. But without loyalty to the common core values and ideals upon which national identity is founded, without a commitment to the non-negotiable foundational beliefs that transcend special interests, without the sense of a shared destiny and goals, a nation starts to weaken as its people see no goods beyond their own groups’ interests and successes. 

Multicultural identity politics worsen the problems of illegal immigration. Many immigrants, legal or otherwise, are now encouraged to celebrate the cultures they have fled and to prefer them to the one that gave them greater freedom and opportunity. Our schools and popular culture reinforce this separatism, encouraging Americans to relate to those outside their identity group not as fellow citizens, but as either rivals for power and influence or oppressors (from whom one is owed reparations in the form of government transfers or preferential policies). The essence of being an American has been reduced to a flabby “tolerance,” which in fact masks a profound intolerance and anti-Americanism because the groups that multiculturalism celebrates are defined in terms of their victimization by a sinful America.

America represents the principle of e pluribus unum. As long as we unite over its core values of equal innate rights, liberty, and universally humane traditions, it does not matter what our skin color or legacy culture happens to be. Just as “cultural appropriation,” “multiculturalism” is another attempt at terminological deception and anti-Americanism and should be exposed and rejected as such.

[Featured Image: YouTube]

Nora D. Clinton is a Research Scholar at the Legal Insurrection Foundation. She was born and raised in Sofia, Bulgaria. She holds a PhD in Classics and has published extensively on ancient documents on stone. In 2020, she authored the popular memoir Quarantine Reflections Across Two Worlds. Nora is a co-founder of two partner charities dedicated to academic cooperation and American values. She lives in Northern Virginia with her husband and son.

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