Excellent question! It all comes down, as far as I can tell, to ideas about "power" and historical significant as carried through to the present day. Essentially, one way of looking at it is that by imitating said culture without understanding the context behind said imitation, you're treating the other culture as some sort of object removed from history and lived experience. By pretending like it's just something "fun" to do, you support the idea that the history "doesn't matter". This invalidates a major part of the minority population's identity, which is often heavily based upon this shared experience of suffering. And so it's offensive.
I tend to find this argument a little bit disingenuous, mostly because if you flip the question around and ask what the "appropriate" way to wear such a garment is, it becomes notoriously difficult to pin down exactly what standards are appropriate and what exactly people are getting offended about. The logic also translates into instances which seem patently ridiculous, such as people getting mad at Avril Lavigne (sp?) for her ridiculous "Hello Kitty" song and museums for allowing people to try on kimonos (which is ORIENTALIST somehow). It also leads to slippery slopes defining boundaries of identities, especially in the realms of fiction (say Disney characters) and with ideas about power relations.
That's not to say just because you can't define something it isn't worthwhile - many feelings such as acceptance, gratitude, empathy, justice, etc. are difficult to define exactly yet still are valuable concepts. I just find the general arguments about cultural appropriation in general to be a lot more about feeling offended because of perceived insensitivity (is satire okay? Is it acceptable to imitate if you know the history top to bottom? Or if you have minority friends or come from a minority neighborhood?) rather than because the action in-and-of-itself invalidates the struggles and history of the chosen group.
Always happy to discuss, of course, especially with off the cuff replies written on my phone :).
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