Jain Quotes

The concept of cultural appropriation is nothing less than an intellectual fence: Keep out.

What I want to tell people is that you can mix the culture a little bit and it's not always appropriation.

I write for the people I grew up with. I took extreme pains for my book to not be a native informant. Not: 'This is Dominican food. This is a Spanish word.' I trust my readers, even non-Spanish ones.

Some things are really sacred and important to other cultures, so you have to be aware, politically, about those things before you just adopt them.

It's good to be proud of your heritage and your culture, but pride can be perverted.

I jumped off a bridge in Italy, is that culturally insensitive? Is saying 'mamma mia' culturally insensitive?

I will just say, appropriation is an intellectual idea until it happens to you. It's a philosophy, and it's got its own intellectual framework. Then there's what happens when it's your photograph. Then it's personal, and that's all I'll say.

Africa doesn't leap on you immediately; it seeps slowly, and it's incredibly important to be respectful and humble there.

I'm not afraid to look like a big, hairy, smelly, foreign devil in Tokyo, though I do my best not to, I really do.

You can usually tell when people aren't being authentic, but that goes for every artist, not just white artists.

Sometimes my ethnicity is relevant, other times not. I definitely get the best of both worlds.

I think if I was Trinidadian, I would latch more on to the myths and romanticise the place more. I don't think it's my place to do that - they're not really mine. I'm an outsider.

There's something about my Mexican-American heritage... I'm proud of it.

We are yet to have a conscience at all about the exploitation of human cultures.

Don't get me wrong - I'm a big fan of things American - but when American people do British stuff, it's so universally dreadful.

We have no right to thrust our advanced views on our less advanced countrymen.

Africans in the diaspora were constantly being reminded of Africa by their European masters who tried to impress upon them that Africa was primitive. Repudiating this thinly veiled justification of slavery required diaspora intellectuals to focus on Africa and demonstrate that it had made major contributions to world civilization. Consciousness of Africa was also sustained by the continuous flow of people, ideas, values, visions, practices, and expressive culture from Africa to the Americas and vice-versa.

If you want to talk about cultural appropriation, we have to go back to the Greeks.

My mom is African-American, Native-American, Irish, and Creole, and my father is of Jewish, Russian, and Polish descent. It's made me who I am. Because of my diverse background, I think I can relate to many different people, different stories, and different communities.

Immigrants have to adopt our values, not the other way around.

Other people's traditions look charming and decorative and exotic. They're nice places to visit on holiday, but you wouldn't want to live with one.

There's a kind of integrity to being an observer of a culture. I think Canadians have that privilege innately. We are, like, the observers of the American culture.

Like most reasonable people, it saddens me when I see Americans celebrating a heritage they don't understand.

Wherever you go, respect the local culture or you will suffer.

There's the fine line between presenting your culture and learning about other cultures so it becomes global.