Power Dynamics and Spiritual Theft: Colonialism's Legacy

BY NICOLE LAU

Cultural appropriation isn't just about individual actions or hurt feelings. It's about power. It's about who gets to take and who gets taken from. It's about centuries of colonialism creating systems where dominant cultures can extract from marginalized cultures with impunity. It's about spiritual theft as a continuation of colonial theft—taking land, resources, labor, and now, sacred practices.

This article examines the power dynamics that make appropriation possible and harmful. It traces the colonial legacy that created these imbalances, shows how spiritual appropriation continues colonial patterns, and explains why "everyone does it" is a lie that ignores power. Because understanding power dynamics is essential to understanding why a white person wearing a bindi is different from a Hindu person wearing jeans—and why that difference matters.

Understanding Power Dynamics

What Power Means in This Context

Power is:

• Institutional and systemic, not just individual
• The ability to define what's normal, valuable, or acceptable
• Access to resources, opportunities, and safety
• Freedom from discrimination and violence
• The privilege to take without consequence

Power dynamics in cultural appropriation:

• Dominant culture has power to take from marginalized cultures
• Marginalized cultures cannot stop the taking
• Dominant culture faces no consequences for appropriation
• Marginalized cultures face consequences for practicing their own culture
• This imbalance is structural, not accidental

The Direction of Power

Appropriation flows from powerful to marginalized:

• White people appropriating from Black, Indigenous, Brown people
• Colonizer cultures appropriating from colonized cultures
• Wealthy appropriating from poor
• Dominant religions appropriating from marginalized spiritualities

Why direction matters:

• Power determines who benefits and who's harmed
• Power determines who can protect their culture and who can't
• Power determines whose version becomes "legitimate"
• Power makes appropriation exploitative, not just exchange

The Colonial Legacy

How We Got Here

The colonial pattern:

1. Colonize: Take land, resources, labor
2. Suppress culture: Ban Indigenous/colonized practices
3. Punish practitioners: Arrest, imprison, kill people for their own culture
4. Force assimilation: Destroy languages, religions, traditions
5. Extract what's valuable: Take resources, knowledge, practices
6. Profit: Benefit from what was stolen
7. Claim innocence: "That was the past" / "I didn't do it"

This pattern repeats across colonized peoples worldwide.

Historical Examples

Indigenous peoples in Americas:

• Land stolen, people killed or displaced
• Spiritual practices criminalized (until 1978 in US)
• Children forcibly removed to boarding schools
• Languages and ceremonies nearly destroyed
• Now: Non-Natives freely appropriate what was nearly destroyed

African diaspora:

• People enslaved, cultures suppressed
• African religions banned or demonized
• Forced conversion to Christianity
• Cultural practices survived in secret
• Now: African diaspora practices appropriated and commodified

South Asia under British colonization:

• Colonized for centuries, resources extracted
• Hindu practices denigrated as "primitive"
• Yoga suppressed, then taken and whitewashed
• Cultural knowledge stolen and claimed by colonizers
• Now: Yoga industry worth billions, dominated by white people

Spiritual Theft as Colonial Continuation

The Pattern Continues

Then: Physical colonialism

• Stealing land
• Extracting resources
• Exploiting labor
• Destroying cultures

Now: Cultural/spiritual colonialism

• Stealing practices
• Extracting knowledge
• Exploiting spirituality
• Erasing origins

Same pattern, new form:

• Take what's valuable from colonized peoples
• Profit while they remain oppressed
• Claim it's "universal" or "for everyone" now
• Ignore ongoing harm and inequality

How Appropriation Continues Colonialism

1. Extraction without reciprocity

• Colonial pattern: Take resources, give nothing back
• Appropriation pattern: Take practices, give nothing back
• Same extractive relationship

2. Profit while originators suffer

• Colonial pattern: Colonizers get rich, colonized stay poor
• Appropriation pattern: Appropriators profit, originators struggle
• Same economic exploitation

3. Claiming what was stolen

• Colonial pattern: Stolen land becomes "ours"
• Appropriation pattern: Stolen practices become "universal"
• Same erasure of theft

4. Punishing resistance

• Colonial pattern: Punish those who resist colonization
• Appropriation pattern: Call people "divisive" for objecting to appropriation
• Same silencing of dissent

Why "Everyone Does It" Is a Lie

False Equivalence

The claim:

• "All cultures borrow from each other"
• "Cultural exchange has always happened"
• "A Hindu person wearing jeans is the same as me wearing a bindi"

Why it's false:

• Ignores power dynamics
• Conflates exchange with extraction
• Pretends we live in equal world (we don't)
• Erases colonial history and ongoing oppression

The Difference

Cultural exchange (equal power):

• Mutual sharing between equals
• Both cultures benefit
• Reciprocity and respect
• No one is oppressed for their culture

Cultural appropriation (unequal power):

• Dominant culture takes from marginalized
• Dominant culture benefits, marginalized harmed
• Extraction, not exchange
• Marginalized punished for same practices

Example: Jeans vs. Bindi

• Hindu person wearing jeans: Adopting from dominant culture (no power imbalance exploited), not punished for it, Western culture not oppressed
• White person wearing bindi: Taking from marginalized culture (power imbalance exploited), Hindu people ARE punished for bindis, appropriator praised while originators discriminated against

Power dynamics make these fundamentally different.

The Double Standard

Praised vs. Punished

The pattern:

• Marginalized people punished for their own cultural practices
• Dominant culture praised for same practices
• This is power in action

Real examples:

Practice	On Marginalized Person	On Dominant Person
Bindis	"Exotic," "unprofessional"	"Bohemian," "trendy"
Black hairstyles	"Unprofessional," "ghetto"	"Edgy," "cool"
Indigenous practices	"Primitive," "savage"	"Spiritual," "enlightened"
Yoga	"Foreign," "weird"	"Wellness," "fitness"
Hoop earrings	"Ghetto," "trashy"	"Fashion-forward"

Why this happens:

• Dominant culture has power to define what's acceptable
• When they do it, it's legitimized
• When marginalized do it, it's stigmatized
• This is structural racism/colonialism in action

Who Has Power to Appropriate

Examining Privilege

Who typically appropriates:

• White people from people of color
• Wealthy from poor
• Colonizer cultures from colonized
• Dominant religions from marginalized spiritualities
• Those with institutional power from those without

Why they can:

• Face no consequences for appropriation
• Have platforms and resources to profit
• Can claim ignorance without penalty
• Protected by systems of power

Who cannot appropriate (in same way):

• Marginalized people adopting from dominant culture
• This is survival/assimilation, not appropriation
• No power imbalance is exploited
• Dominant culture is not harmed

The Harm of Ignoring Power

Why "Colorblind" Approaches Fail

The claim:

• "I don't see color/culture"
• "We're all human"
• "Let's just share everything"

Why it's harmful:

• Ignores real power imbalances
• Pretends we live in equal world
• Allows appropriation to continue unchecked
• Silences marginalized voices
• Perpetuates harm while claiming innocence

What's needed instead:

• Acknowledge power dynamics
• Recognize ongoing colonialism
• Center marginalized voices
• Work to dismantle power imbalances
• Respect boundaries as part of justice

Crystals for Justice and Accountability

Grounding in Truth

Truth and power:

• Obsidian: Seeing power dynamics clearly, facing uncomfortable truths
• Black tourmaline: Protection from denial, strong boundaries
• Smoky quartz: Grounding in reality of power imbalances

Justice and Change

• Hematite: Grounding, staying accountable to justice
• Sodalite: Truth, honest assessment of power
• Clear quartz: Clarity about structural inequality

How to Use

• Hold while examining your privilege
• Meditate with to see power dynamics clearly
• Use to stay grounded in justice work
• Keep as reminder of structural inequality

What to Do With Your Power

If You Have Privilege

1. Acknowledge it

• Recognize your position in power structures
• Don't deny or minimize your privilege
• Understand how you benefit from inequality

2. Don't exploit it

• Don't use your power to appropriate
• Don't take what's not yours
• Respect boundaries set by marginalized communities

3. Use it for justice

• Amplify marginalized voices
• Support decolonization efforts
• Advocate for systemic change
• Give resources and platform to those with less power

4. Work to dismantle it

• Challenge systems that give you unearned advantage
• Support redistribution of power and resources
• Don't just be "nice"—work for structural change

Integration: Power Makes It Appropriation

Cultural appropriation isn't just about taking from other cultures. It's about power—who has it, who doesn't, and how that imbalance is exploited. It's about colonialism's legacy continuing in new forms. It's about spiritual theft as part of ongoing extraction and exploitation.

Understanding power dynamics is essential. A Hindu person wearing jeans is not the same as a white person wearing a bindi because power flows in one direction. Marginalized people adopting from dominant culture is survival. Dominant culture taking from marginalized is exploitation.

The power imbalance is structural, historical, and ongoing. Ignoring it doesn't make it go away—it just allows harm to continue while claiming innocence.

See the power. Acknowledge the history. Respect the boundaries. Work for justice.

Next in this series: When Your Ancestors Were the Colonizers: Reckoning with Heritage