Imitation structurally denies the imitator’s own cultural virtues

Evidence

Imitation necessarily judges the qualities of the imitated superior to those of the imitating. It accordingly denies or fails to recognize the virtues and values, contributions and characteristics in and on their own terms of those at hand, of fellow citizens and civic contributors unless socio-cultural clones and drones of the imitated. — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 1137

Categorization

• XREF: Pairs with Bhabha’s mimicry concept in the preceding paragraph and with postcolonial critiques of assimilationist national projects. — connects to: Magic achieves domination through mimetic imitation, not through claiming absolute truth — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 37; Emulation and mimicry cannot make non-Western literatures respectable — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory: Classes, Nations, Literatures, 914