What a mushy, squishy and inadequate response to the issue at hand, which is really quite clear and does demand a yes or no answer.  Specifically, do you believe in the idea of cultural appropriation?  Should non-native writers be able to write about the a native experience, real or imagined?  Or in broader terms, can writers, particularly white writers, credibly write about characters, particularly minority characters, whose lives, backgrounds and experiences are completely foreign to them?

I know where I come down.  Hell, why not?  And let readers decide whether they writing has merit.  I believe in the marketplace of ideas, and think by stifling creativity with arbitrary rules we would do nothing but harm our society.  And yes, this is an issue of freedom of expression.

That's my view.  I have no idea what the author's view is.