I was actually reading a great post about that shared by Maki earlier today, which is what prompted my question to you.
http://japaneseamericaninboston.blogspot.com/2015/07/monets-la-japonaise-kimono-wednesdays.htmlThe poster's general conclusion was that it WASN'T cultural appropriation on the whole, though the museum could have added more context.
I think, "it's certainly nothing to be upset over if their heart's in the right place" is something to be determined by the person getting hurt, though, not by us. Like, a white kid could grow up with a group of black kids, hear them calling each other the n word all the time, and use it because they do, not out of malice. And maybe the kids wouldn't mind. But if any of their parents or grandparents were hurt by a white kid blithely using a word that has a legacy of hatred, that's not a situation where you can just say, "Hey, chill, the kid didn't know." It's a situation where you say, "The kid intended no harm," and then you explain to the kid the history of the word, and why it's really not acceptable for most contexts.
A less charged example might, again, be the war bonnet, or a particular piece of clothing from a culture with a lot of significance and/or a very specialized use. I don't think it's okay to tell people who are deeply hurt by people grabbing bits of their history willy-nilly without regard to the historical context that they should just get over it. Especially given the European tendency to plunder everything they could get their hands on from India, Asia, and most other places they visit, and just use that as decoration in their homes because it was "exotic".
Look at the history of the hula dance. First it was a special thing, then it was denounced and all but banned, then it was commodified and commercialized.
I'm not saying every instance of crying "cultural appropriation" is right - a lot of white people who don't understand what they're talking about definitely have taken it too far, denouncing people who aren't visibly Indian for waring saris, even when invited to, etc. I'm just saying that cultural appropriation DOES exist, and we need to take the history of European colonialization into account when understanding why people might be hurt when white folks do things/take things without a good understanding of it.