After seeing several tiki-related posts here on BoingBoing, I decided I should voice this:
Am I the only one here who considers the whole mid-century tiki retro-kitsch thing to be unabashed cultural appropriation?
Doesn’t it promote the idea that it’s OK to play around with, and profit from, (potentially sacred) elements of another people’s culture, without much understanding of, or connection to, that culture—especially if those people were subjected to colonial rule by the nation-state whose citizenship you hold?
I find it weird that this tiki thing seems to be popular in locations that are generally anti-Trump, because it seems to me obviously anti-progressive.
For isn’t it also an expression of some white people’s nostalgia for a time (e.g. the 50’s) when they were allowed to do racially insensitive things without fear of getting called out on it (not to mention the even worse things they could get away with then), i.e. when America was “great”?
I guess I just like my mixed-drink trends to be more forward-thinking.
