This is a selfie of me taking notes at the #AskRachel forum. I can vouch I was there because I was surprised Rachel herself wasn’t there. I was nervous, who was I going to ask my questions?! Joke. Just a joke because there were many people and moderators that were there to guide the discussion during this forum to be as effective and useful as possible.

I enjoyed it, to be honest it was too long. The topic was “Cultural Appropriation.” So I hope people that read this don’t misunderstand me, in thinking that I was uninterested, I was most certainly interested, and can appreciate a good debate and conversation with fellow students and professors. But it was too long because after we explained what it means to “appropriate” and “appreciate” we should have spent the forum discussing positive ways on how to end the negative appropriation of various cultures. I think that any person with a good sense of what is right and wrong and what is respectful and disrespectful, should have the knowledge to refrain from appropriating  cultures in negative ways, because you do it once, you do it twice, someone will pick up your actions and continue the appropriating cycle thus degrading the specific culture. It is detrimental to the people with different cultures because it lessens their importance, ideals, individuality, and is directly related to a system of power. The ones appropriating are placing themselves above the ones they are appropriating.

There could be an instance of “appreciating” instead.

An example that I can relate to in popular media is in the movie “Mean Girls.” Great movie, but that is beside the point. The protagonist, Cady Heron moves from South Africa to America and has to attend an American school. Cady Heron’s skin is white, but her ethnicity isn’t exactly mentioned. She grew up in South Africa and is shown with braids similar to the culture of African women. In the Heron’s household there are multiple African tribal vases and knickknacks. Because the Heron’s skin color are all white, are they appropriating or appreciating the African culture? This example to me, is a definition of appreciating the culture. The Heron family lived in South Africa, they were zoologists, they lived amongst African culture, it was their life, everything they understood and knew. — Fast forward later into the movie, Cady herself assimilates to American culture. She becomes friends with three girls, all white, and learns to deal with the American high school culture and understands, in a skewed perception, the way of ways. So back to the tribal vase, Cady throws a party in her home and hides the vase under the kitchen sink, forgetting it’s once important meaning (as mentioned in the movie, Fertility Vase of Ndebele Tribe.) Her mother is shocked, that Cady has thrown a party, and above all, that she had forgotten the meaning of the vase and treated it in such a tossed-to-the-side way. Cady Heron had appropriated the culture, and assimilated to the American high school culture. Which, I could continue to argue that Cady had also appropriated American culture by acting in the way that she does in the movie, because not all American teenagers act like that.

I hope I didn’t lose the interest of my readers, but to confirm that you understand is to prove and explain in your own words. I hope the example made it easy for those that don’t have knowledge of what appropriating is, to understand and further see the differences for themselves.

At the forum, there was a man that in was passionate about how to define that we are appropriating culture, when we first need to define what culture is. In my notes I wrote what I heard: material and nonmaterial beliefs, unspoken rules followed by a mass of people. Culture to me is all that, and the respect and appreciation that to have a certain culture is what makes one unique. All cultures however are made up of living, breathing people. Though all 7 billion people on Earth may have different cultures, are different races, have their own ways of living life, we are all ultimately people, and we are all the same in a way where death and ceasing of existence should be our only enemy.

We also spoke of media’s influence on the issue of appropriation. Film, TV, newspapers, and various mediums for transmitting information, are all the most powerful influencers of how people view cultures, races, and other people. Celebrities like Miley Cyrus, people that portray themselves in such ways that they are not positively influencing others, appropriate culture, and because they are famous, some people may or may not listen. If they do listen, it is detrimental that they are following these negative examples, such as Miley’s at the VMAs and her braids. The problem however stems with those that first decided to set rules against African American women, that wearing braids in their hair, which is part of their culture, is not allowed in the work place, but a white young woman such as Miley Cyrus is celebrated or having braids in her hair. One last thought on Miley Cyrus- when this young lady dresses and acts in ways that are seen as disrespectful, AND follows to wear braids in her hair, she is indirectly insinuating, in the eyes of her audience, that being disrespectful is directly related to braids. It is detrimental. I have said this word a few times in this post but I cannot express it enough. We are diminishing the pure beauty of difference. In essence, change and the concept of time are the only things that have lasted since the creation of our Earth, and when our generation dies, the world will continue to rotate. It will continue to change, and it’s as if we’re putting roadblocks in front of our own path.

Ending thought- I raised my hand and talked at the forum and brought up an example of appropriating: American celebrations of St. Patrick’s day. We call it STATE PATTY’S. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll find a few excuses to drink, but we drink on a day that doesn’t have ANYTHING to do with drinking, simply because we relate it to the Irish, and we have always negatively stereotyped the Irish as drunkards. It’s ridiculous…I especially didn’t like it when people pinched me on this day because I didn’t wear green to school??? Don’t pinch me. Don’t disrespect culture, because you wouldn’t like it if yours was being disrespected…it’s all so simple it makes me sad we’re only making it harder for ourselves.