Post #750497 by EnchantedTikiGoth on Mon, Sep 7, 2015 9:57 PM

To be honest, I'm surprised there haven't been more topics about confronting accusations of cultural appropriation on here. It's kinda' the vogue thing right now (especially after stuff like the Boston Museum of Fine Arts kimono fiasco). I'm also really sorry that you've had to deal with the darkest side of it, which is self-righteous moral crusaders who can't let a simple disagreement and/or misunderstanding rest, but feel the need to crusade against someone in real life... contacting friends and relations, places of employment and things like that. I'm a more classical liberal and the habit of modern moralists to incite Internet lynch mobs to exact vengeance for imagined slights scares the crap out of me.

Your response was good... The only problem was that there's typically no use trying to reason with people like that. They're out "win," not to discuss fairly and come to an understanding. My response might have been a more concise "then don't come... who are you anyways?"

What I figure is that there is a definite distinction between Tiki - a retro-American pop-culture experience - and actual Polynesian culture, and that it is entirely possible to be aware of that distinction while sustaining an interest in one, the other, or both. It is also possible to like Tiki while being cognizant of the actual social and economic challenges facing Polynesian-Americans. They aren't mutually exclusive and, honestly, Tiki isn't exactly a potent enough cultural force be actively oppressing anybody. The only time I feel a little bad about it is the gods in the Enchanted Tiki Room lanai, and even then I'm aware that, like, over 95% of Samoans are one type of Christian or another and most Hawaiians are either Christians, Buddhists or nothing in particular. I guess I typically prefer the imagery if it doesn't necessarily overlap with people's actual beliefs. I suppose it might be worth asking native Polynesians what they think of it, but in the mean time, I suspect we're all aware that Tiki and actual Polynesian culture are two wildly different things.