Cultural appropriation debate

Re: Walrus editor quits amid uproar, May 15; Writers’ union shamefully ducks legitimate debate, Jonathan Kay, May 13 Jonathan Kay’s heartfelt defence of free speech was one of those rare gems that made my day. I just hope that he resigned from Walrus for personal reasons and was not another casualty of political correctness. It seems a self-evident truth that writers and artists must use their imagination and empathy to create fiction, visual arts or music. That someone in a free society tries to limit their right to do so, for whatever supposedly justifiable reasons, is extremely disturbing. Alec Bialski, Calgary The problem with Jonathan Kay’s free speech approach to cultural appropriation is that speech is only free to those doing the oppressing. Fifty years ago it was illegal in Canada for indigenous people to openly practice their own culture. Thousands of children were kidnapped from their homes by the federal government to protect them from indigenous culture. Native Canadians continue to be marginalized and face overwhelming racism in education, employment, health care and criminal justice.

And now some white kids are upset because they got called out for wearing head dresses and war paint at music festivals and Caucasian writers and artists are facing a back- lash for appropriating Native Canadian stories and art, even in some high-profile cases stealing native identities.

To marginalize an entire ethnic group for three centuries and then profit off their culture is not a policy item for debate. It is indefensible under any circumstances. That you only appreciate its importance when oppressed individuals formulate their arguments in concrete terms about the way it affects Native Canadians that you can understand ( such as not being able to get pain medicine) does not make you rational. It makes you a special kind of dense. Colin Blair Meyer- Macaulay, Ottawa I was sad to read about the resignation of Hal Niedzviecki as editor of the Writers’ Union of Canada’s magazine.

I am a South Indian Tamil- speaking Brahmin, for whom English is a second language. One of the finest books written about my kind is Robert Kanigel’s The Man who knew Infinity, about the life of Srinivasa Ramanujan.

When I read it, I was amazed at how well the author had captured the mind and the soul of my people. Should I have lambasted him for shutting our voices by appropriating our stories?

No, I did not. I celebrated his gift. P. K. Rangachari, Hamilton, Ont.