Semi-random thoughts (should I invoke disclaimer 3b, too?): One of the problems I have with "authenticity" is that it's outsiders deciding that other people are or are not authentic. It reminds me a lot of the classism you discussed in your stuff white people like post. The reason White People complain about lower-class white people wearing "too much" make-up (to use an American example of classism), is because the lower-class people are being "inauthentic." Same with making desserts from mixing together cake mix and jello mix: "inauthentic." (Unless you're talking about red velvet cake, in which case it's authentic again.)
See rydra_wong's review of Cooking Like Mummyji: "authenticity," as a system imposed by privileged people, is a mechanism that writes others out of their own lives and cultures.
On the other hand, "authenticity" has at least some of its roots in trying to protect people from being written out of their own lives and cultures: a way to keep privileged outsiders from coming in and using their privilege to take over the shaman business, or anime business, or Chinese cooking business. (I don't think that's the main source of its roots; just one of the roots, which happens to be a good one.)
Which is where the segregation/gentrification analogy comes in: the root cause of the problem is deeper than the solutions being proposed, so all the "fixes" are actually only temporary harm-reduction measures. There's an unaddressed difference in power, and as long as that power-difference persists, the temporary "fix" for an immediate harm is going to tend to lay the path for a different kind of harm.
Such as it is, harm reduction isn't too bad of a short-term option, I think. But it helps a LOT to try not to be too ignorant, to stay aware of the potential bad effects of what you're doing. And it helps even more to realize that it's a kludgy, short-term patch that doesn't address the root of the problem.
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On the other hand, "authenticity" has at least some of its roots in trying to protect people from being written out of their own lives and cultures: a way to keep privileged outsiders from coming in and using their privilege to take over the shaman business, or anime business, or Chinese cooking business. (I don't think that's the main source of its roots; just one of the roots, which happens to be a good one.)
Which is where the segregation/gentrification analogy comes in: the root cause of the problem is deeper than the solutions being proposed, so all the "fixes" are actually only temporary harm-reduction measures. There's an unaddressed difference in power, and as long as that power-difference persists, the temporary "fix" for an immediate harm is going to tend to lay the path for a different kind of harm.
Such as it is, harm reduction isn't too bad of a short-term option, I think. But it helps a LOT to try not to be too ignorant, to stay aware of the potential bad effects of what you're doing. And it helps even more to realize that it's a kludgy, short-term patch that doesn't address the root of the problem.