In advance, the above quote was told to me while having discourse over the Kotaku Critical Role article. Sorry if it's a bit clickbaity but I would like to get some answers from a variety of people.

BLUF: Without resources of several paid consultants or hassling friends for "details about their culture" how is a DM suppose to incorporate other cultures and unique environments to their settings (homebrew or not)?

So, being the fool that I am, I decided to engage with the comment section and twitter discussions on the Kotaku article about Critical Role Campaign 3 ( https://kotaku.com/critical-role-marquet-third-campaign-asian-cultures-col-1848500055) because I was interested how I could be more sensitive to the idea of cultural appropriation. The conversations were much less nuanced than I had hoped.

Upfront, I'm not really going to defend Critical Role who are in a league of their own. I also think the Kotaku article is a bit purposefully hostile for the sake of views, especially on a website that derives it's name from a tongue-in-cheek reference to a Japanese word. But it struck me as rearing the head of arguing that "colonziers", which seems to be used exclusively to mean white people, cannot and should not use "other cultures". I do remember the cultural appropriation debates raging on the internet and we never really got to a good place with them before they fizzled out due to other pressing matters - yes, I am aware that not everyone has stopped having this conversation and it's still very alive in some communities I frequent but I'm meaning the better part of the internet.

So, what's a gal to do?
I'm American, come from Germanic Jews that left during the second world war, and I've lived in multiple countries due to being in the military to include Japan and Afghanistan. I've had the privilege to travel to multiple states, Canada, Germany, Czech Republic, Poland and England. I love incorporating what I saw of those cultures - the good and the bad - into my homebrew worlds and storytelling. However, I'm also a woman of conviction who wants to do right by the people of the world and don't want to participate in "orientalism" or other stereotypes. So, I'd love to hear people's thoughts.

Caveats, to address some of the more common dismissals I'm expecting:
o "You're not CR, don't worry about it." - I feel like the topic pertains to more than just the most visible aspects of our community. While someone might watch CR and get into the fandom, we're the actual faces they'll see and I want them to be comfortable.
o "Stick to your own culture" - If I did that I would remove most European roots, any Japanese similarities, my favorite parts of Hawaiian culture from my travels and many other insights I bring that make me a unique GM. I also think this is a toxic mindset.
o "Just ask (racial group) people" - This tends to be a dicey proposition. Being from the queer community I know how tiring it is to be my straight/cis friend's go-to explainer of all things LGBTQ . I don't want to impose that on my friends in return, and to be fair, they might not know a lot since they're largely going to be American.