In her piece I need an Intervention, SaintVI reinterprets the phrase “cutting” to mean “cookie cutting,” a harmless act of baking. This is cultural appropriation, but it is a very benign, everyday sort of cultural appropriation.
Is this like, or not like, the sort of cultural appropriation that comes of naming a football team “The Redskins”? Is this like, or not like, the sort of cultural appropriation that comes with Orientalism a la Edward Said? Do cutters deserve to be protected by having their terms become sacrosanct?
It’s kind of difficult to tell where we draw the line.
