Poutine Dynamics (2016)
I mentioned this in another thread. I&#x27;m a bit concerned about the possible effect of declaring &quot;cultural appropriation&quot; on poutine and other things.<p>In my city, and possibly Ontario, and maybe all of Canada, Shawarma Poutine has become a big hit. It&#x27;s poutine with Shawarma chicken shaved onto it. It&#x27;s glorious. All the shops I&#x27;ve been to are run and owned by either Iranians or other middle Eastern immigrants.<p>So to me it&#x27;s a beautiful success story of immigration in Canada. These individuals are refining a brand new dish by combining middle Eastern and Quebecois food.<p>If we call it cultural appropriation and wag our finger at it, we possibly lose out on new things like shawarma poutine. What&#x27;s the fear? That others will embrace and adopt your culture?<p>I feel less strongly about this part. I&#x27;m probably wrong. But I wonder if it has to do with the feeling I felt strongly as a kid. I played Bungie games like Marathon and Pathways before Halo came out. And then Halo arrived and a whole new breed of gamers appeared and made it their thing. They spoke like experts at the lunchroom table. But they didn&#x27;t grok Bungie and didn&#x27;t know the origins like I did. And it made me so inexplicably frustrated at them. They were stealing my thing.<p>Edit: a lot of good responses that have opened my eyes to additional perspectives. If you&#x27;ve gone this far, be sure to read the responses, too!