The Issue Of Cultural Appropriation

Dear Editor,

I completely disagree with your opinion. People should not be forced in their own cultural homogeneous bubbles just because racism hasn't been eradicated yet. Your article includes many examples through pop culture but you poorly prove and conclude your argument.

You ask "Why shouldn't I be allowed to twerk, or wear a kimono, or call myself a sassy, black woman or do whatever else the f** I want." or that you "think that it’s bull** to have to uphold values or beliefs that are not my own." What you should ask yourself is why there's soo much uproar.

You should first look at the line between cultural exchange and cultural appropriation. Although there has been drastic change with views on different races, the movement still hasn't completely dwindled. The fact is, Western culture invites and, at times, demands assimilation. “Ethnic” clothes and hairstyles are still stigmatized as unprofessional, “cultural” foods are treated as exotic past times, and the vernacular of people of color is ridiculed and demeaned. So there is an unequal exchange between Western culture and marginalized cultures. There are those of us who have been forced and pressured to change our identity just to earn enough respect to stay employed and safe and gain acceptance into society. Using someone else’s cultural symbols to satisfy a personal need for self-expression is an exercise in privilege.

Further, people shirk “ethnic” clothes in corporate culture, but wear bastardized versions of them on Halloween. There is no exchange, understanding, or respect here – only taking without permission. This is what cultural appropriation is. Cultural appropriation is itself a real issue because it demonstrates the imbalance of power that still remains between cultures that have been colonized and the ex-colonizers.

Going back to your claim of dividing races as a solution, you have to think about race itself. Race is a socially constructed concept. It derives from people's desire to socialize and classify. The current mainstream view in the social sciences and biology is that race is a social construction mainly based not in actual biological differences but rather in folk ideologies that construct groups based on social disparities and superficial physical characteristics. The official position of the AAA, adopted in 1998, finds that advances in scientific knowledge have made it "clear that human populations are not unambiguous, clearly demarcated, biologically distinct groups" and that "any attempt to establish lines of division among biological populations [is] both arbitrary and subjective."

Really, this is a discussion of a very narrow definition of a phrase which actually has a much broader meaning. It doesn't attempt to be a comprehensive argument but as a simplistic little rant about Taylor Swift twerking while black people are shot behind. You completely disregard the concept of mixed race.

What you should be doing is not arguing but starting an actual conversation with both sides. Until then, there won't be any unity. There won't be communication and no compromise.  We have to stop fighting and talk and humanity won't be able to come to the conclusion that we have to unite as a species and stop dividing ourselves into races.