Cultural Appropriation, Race & the Diversity-Industrial Complex

For anyone who has lost track amid all the twists and turns, just about a week ago the scandal that began with an editorial calling for a cultural appropriation prize was not so much as a twitch in anyone’s eye. In seven days, we have seen fundraising for the imaginary prize by some of the country’s top journalists; shocked and hurt reactions to that terrible idea; apologies from many of the journalists; resignations (Hal Niedzviecki’s and Jonathan Kay’s, from Write and The Walrus); the reassignment of Steve Ladurantaye from CBC’s The National; and calls for more resignations or firings, directed at the National Post and Maclean’s.

It seems clear that something profoundly painful happened here. We are left with not merely the dregs of a media fracas—editor-less magazines, particularly virulent rounds of gunfire on Twitter—but with deeply wounded Indigenous writers and leaders; people on all sides who feel betrayed and...