Susan Scafidi was quoted in a Los Angeles Times article about cultural appropriation as it relates to the retail market.
Susan Scafidi, a law professor at Fordham University in New York and author of Who Owns Culture?, a book about cultural appropriation and American law, said people commonly borrow religious symbols from other cultures because they are the clearest expression of those cultures.
“People reach for things that are accessible … and don’t stop to think necessarily what those pieces of culture might mean,” Scafidi said. Instead, they infuse the symbol with their own, “usually inchoate,” meaning, she said.
“It doesn’t typically come from a place of racism or hatred. It’s more thoughtlessness,” Scafidi added.
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In the United States, the multibillion-dollar yoga industry has for years produced yoga mats, towels and exercise pants that place “om” symbols and images of Ganesha close to or directly underneath the feet and legs. But Scafidi said these images are probably more an asset than a liability to companies at this point because they have been accepted by the mainstream rather than seen as offensive to another culture.