I was amused to see an article on this on today’s BBC News website.  It seems an American woman from Richmond, Virginia, stands accused of “cultural appropriation” for posting a video of herself doing that Irish Riverdancing.  Now don’t get me wrong, I fully support taking down posts of idiots dancing on the spot to the tune of an Irish whistle; not for reasons of cultural appropriation, but because they look like silly twats.

For those of you left behind by the pace of political correctness, a little backspacing. 

Cultural appropriation is the borrowing, nay theft, of aspects of one group’s culture by another.  For instance, white folks wearing dreadlocks or (as Jonathan Pie cited) East Anglia University confiscating sombreros donated to students by a Mexican restaurant as part of its marketing or the branding of sports teams such as the Washington Redskins or Exeter Chiefs.  (By way of digression, I am also amused at the dropping of the term “red Indians” in favour of “native Americans”, which deliciously overlooks the fact that America was named after the 15/16^th century  colonial explorer, Amerigo Vespucci.  In other words, there were no “Americans” before Vespucci.).

The irony about the Riverdance appropriation is that the criticism is against a black woman doing it.  If I were more cynical I might suspect some neo-Nazi sympathiser having an uncharacteristic giggle at the awkwardness of this for the PC mob.

And don’t lump me with neo-Nazis but I rather enjoy the joke myself.  I like the silliness of where cultural appropriation takes us.  Should we, for instance, smash the records of Dusty Springfield and Janis Joplin for their theft of the blues and soul music? Shun Indian and Chinese food? Ban the sale of vodka? Block the import of all foreign cars? Confine Yorkshire puddings to the three ridings?

Conversely, should football, cricket, tennis and rugby be outlawed across the world apart from where they were born in this sceptred isle?  (The advantage to this is obvious.  England could then assume its rightful mantle as winners of the football and rugby world cups, the Ashes and Wimbledon).

The truth is we all take what we like from other cultures (apart from the French who pass laws preventing English from poisoning their language) and we should do.  Likewise we should take pride in what other cultures take from ours.

Anyroadup, that’s what I think.  Enough for now.  Time for a nice cup of tea and a Garibaldi biscuit.