All analogies are imperfect by definition. Hopefully you understood the concept: there's a difference between the collaboration between equals and theft by oppressor. I wouldn't think that's too controversial.
Would it be morally ok for the prisoners to steal the guard's music?
No, not really.
What if cultural borrowing is the societal
precursor to acceptance and integration?
Yeah, I think it often is! It's probably a good thing more often than not.
I hope you are not misunderstanding the concept of cultural appropriation to mean that you should literally never collaborate with or incorporate outside influences? If so then, well, good news - it's not that.
I thought this was a really elegant summary and powerful metaphor that helped me understand the perspective of people who believe it's a problem, even though it didn't change my position and attitude toward its applicability. The idea of "civilization" as a prison (babylon) is a very rich idea in rastafarian culture on whose shoulders dancehall stands.
If you know dancehall and even an outsiders view of rasta culture, I read the article as using a bit of trivia as an attempt at a kind of ideological castration of dancehall music by retelling its origins and attributing credit for it not to a black rastafarian man in Jamaica, but to an asian woman in Japan. Rastafarian masculinity is problematic for american black progressives, and the article seemed consitent with their cultural unmooring project.
While the objection to the metaphor a reasonable challenge - that the metaphor has underlying complexity doesn't diminish it for me.
That's a pretty tortured metaphor.
Would it be morally ok for the prisoners to steal the guard's music?
What if cultural borrowing is the societal precursor to acceptance and integration?