Reply to Craig Martin: "The Other Is Not"

Mediating Specialness and Specificity

Abstract

This reply to Craig Martin’s “When Is It OK to Borrow?” returns to the discussion of power dynamics involved in narrative acts that describe particular histories of race and experience. Those dynamics are likewise at work in classifying whether various depictions and narratives are nuanced introspections or, following up on Martin’s response, cultural appropriations. The question of what kind of priority is given to various identifications - and who gets engage in such ranking - should be considered in relation to Martin’s helpful challenge to think in terms of the “material consequences of such scholarly claims about syncretism.” In taking up this question, I argue that the problem is not with appropriation so much as it with the authenticity claims contained therein.