June 25, 2024 • 18 mins
Why is cultural appropriation such a controversial topic? How are opinions on cultural appropriation changing in recent years? What actually counts as cultural appropriation? Are you guilty of it?
This episode has been pulled from the archives. I answer all of the most pressing questions and offer clear guidance. Enjoy.
To support Marie and get exclusive resources, head to patreon.com/mariebeech. To learn more about Marie's DEI services, head to mariebeecham.com. Leave a new rating or review this month, and I'll donate $1 to EJI.org on your behalf.
This episode has been pulled from the archives. I answer all of the most pressing questions and offer clear guidance. Enjoy.
To support Marie and get exclusive resources, head to patreon.com/mariebeech. To learn more about Marie's DEI services, head to mariebeecham.com. Leave a new rating or review this month, and I'll donate $1 to EJI.org on your behalf.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:10):
Hello and welcome back. I'm yourhost, Marie Beacham, and you are
listening to No Better, Do Betterpodcast that makes it easy for you to
get informed about race really quick.Before you put your phone down, a
reminder that if you leave a ratingor review for the podcast by the end
of June, I'll be donating onedollar to Equal Justice Initiative on your behalf.
(00:32):
Equal Justice Initiative is a fantastic organizationthat works to make the criminal justice
system a little bit more just.They represent and defend and advocate for the
most vulnerable people who are wrongly accused, unfairly sentenced, victims of racism,
and all sorts of terrible things.Equal Justice Initiative swoops in and does incredible
(00:54):
work. So again, if youhaven't already and you leave a rating or
review right now for the podcast,I'll donate one dollar to Equal Justice niched
it. The other fun thing we'redoing for the month of June is revisiting
your favorite episodes, covering all ofyour favorite topics again and giving them a
fresh, new twist. This episodeis a comprehensive look at cultural appropriation,
(01:18):
what it is and what it isnot. A lot of the episode is
actually laying out what cultural appropriation isnot, because we can be a little
over eager in calling out appropriation whenreally there is such a thing as sharing
stuff between cultures. That's what we'llbe getting into. And I must say
that all the other episodes in JuneI have a bunch of interjections throughout and
(01:40):
new information and all these things I'msprinkling in. But this episode, because
it is over a year old andin my humble opinion, it's pretty flawless,
I didn't feel like I had anythingto add. This re release is
pretty much untouched in its original formsince it's such a throwback, and I
know that most of you have neverheard it before, so I hope it'll
(02:00):
be helpful and useful and very clearwhat counts as cultural appropriation, what doesn't
count as cultural appropriation, and howcan you make wise calls in your day
to day life without further ado.In today's episode, we are talking about
cultural appropriation. It is a topicthat so few people have a decent grasp
(02:21):
on. It's one of those topicswhere you know it's kind of bad and
you kind of know why, butyou couldn't talk about it for very long.
Boy, cultural appropriation is a heatedtopic, and for good reason.
We're talking about something in which peopleare disrespected or stereotyped or made a mockery
of, and those are very badthings. But cultural appropriation isn't all cut
(02:46):
and dry, because everybody has adifferent take on what really counts as cultural
appropriation. In the first place,there's a whole range of opinions. To
some people, cultural appropriation is justblackface. To others' cultural approbe is everything
that makes its way from minoritized culturesto white culture. And that's a lot
(03:06):
of things, in case you didn'tknow. So in this episode, we're
going to clear it all up.I'll be walking through what cultural appropriation is
by definition, what we should makeof it, what counts and doesn't count,
and how this is super relevant toyour daily life. So let's just
get right into it, starting withwhat is cultural appropriation? So, according
(03:29):
to Encyclopedia Britannica, cultural appropriation takesplace when members of a majority group adopt
cultural elements of a minority group inan exploitative, disrespectful, or stereotypical way.
Whenever the conversation goes to cultural appropriation, whenever you read an article about
it. Everybody seems to fixate ona few celebrities who have been notorious for
(03:52):
cultural appropriation, But it's not justabout celebrities. It's not just about a
few people in society. The wholeconversation surrounding this topic raises questions of what
counts as appreciation or inspiration or sharingof art between cultures versus what is exploitation
or plagiarism that kind of thing.The question that needs to be asked is
(04:15):
does every single trend and style thatstarted within communities of color now count as
cultural appropriation when it makes its wayoutside of that community? Or is cultural
appropriation just intentional impersonations of something likethe physical attributes of people of other races.
Or what if a white person grewup in that culture, if they're
(04:36):
surrounded by that culture themselves, isthat still appropriation? It's their culture?
You see what I mean here?These are big questions. So it's not
just about what to make of afew celebrities. It's about how you,
personally and society as a whole,should go about sharing things between cultures.
It's hazy. According to Britannica,cultural appropriation is any time a member of
(04:59):
a majority group oversimplifying the meaning oradopting an element of a minority culture without
consequence, while members of the minoritygroup face backlash for that same cultural element.
The epitome of something like that wouldbe traditionally black hairstyles. Dreadlocks are
something that many company dress codes andschool dress codes have banned for years,
(05:19):
cornrows or a style that's always beenseen as ghetto. But when white celebrities
then are seen walking the red carpetwith those things, then their trendsetters and
trailblazers. That's an example of theminority group always faced backlash for that,
but a member of the majority groupdoing the same thing receives praise. So
(05:40):
why is cultural appropriation a problem?Let me tell you. Historically, cultural
appropriation has been used as a toolto mock marginalized cultures. It's a way
to maintain racial stereotypes and belittle andmisrepresent people. You can't talk about cultural
appropriation without talking about minstrel shows,in which way white people would paint their
(06:00):
skin black paint on exaggerated big lips, and act out the worst racial stereotypes
imaginable as entertainment for other white people. Black people who were being played by
white people were depicted as animalistic,mindless, reckless, dangerous, and minstrel
shows. If you even look upphotos or videos, it's probably one of
(06:24):
the most horrifying versions of cultural appropriation. And while that exact thing might not
play out today, cultural appropriation isan umbrella term, and it describes all
cross racial cultural impersonations and disrespect.This topic is difficult to put into words.
I'm talking really difficult, Like Ihave recorded this episode a few times.
(06:46):
I ditched it, scrapped it becauseit didn't do it justice, so
it never graced your beautiful ears.But I keep bringing it back to the
docket because it's so relevant. Isit something that we need guidance on?
And I've got of framework for youthat I think is pretty darn good for
discerning what counts as cultural appropriation andwhat counts as appreciation. The reason why
(07:08):
it's so important to get these categoriesright is because we don't want to not
call something cultural appropriation when it is, because that means we're allowing disrespect and
stereotypes to go unchecked for like,ah, that's fine, who really cares,
don't be so sensitive? Well,that's a problem because wherever racial stereotypes
are maintained, you're paving the wayfor racial prejudice and discrimination. But also,
(07:31):
and equally important, we don't wantto call something cultural appropriation when it
isn't, because that causes a lotof confusion and it undermines the instances where
actual injustice is present. There hasto be some way that art and beauty
and inspiration can be shared between cultureswithout stereotyping cultures or exploiting cultures like that.
(07:55):
That has to be a thing.So what I'm gonna do is walk
you through two categories with really clearindicators of what counts as a cultural appropriation,
what we should be avoiding, andwhat doesn't count as cultural appropriation.
So I've created categories, if youwill, and I'm calling them societal versus
personal. So let's start with societal. When I say societal, I'm talking
(08:18):
about things that started in a minoritizedculture and made their way to mainstream white
culture us of a how should werespond to that? So at the societal
level, cultural appropriation is how trendsthat were once seen as tasteless, ghetto,
unprofessional, or whatever are adopted bywhite culture and then viewed in a
neutral light. Or maybe even apositive light. So by this view,
(08:41):
this would be every single trend,art form, phrase, style of clothes,
style of music, all of that, any of those things that started
in communities of color and made itsway to mainstream white culture, that would
all be considered cultural appropriation at thisa scietal level. So here's the thing.
(09:01):
This is nearly impossible to keep trackof because so many of the things
that are a part of everyday lifewould be things to avoid. You would
be oh so surprised if you triedto avoid everything that made its way to
mainstream culture that started in communities ofcolor, you'd probably have to scrap like
(09:22):
one fourth of the words in yourvocabulary. You'd have to scrap a lot
of the clothes in your closet,you'd have to take a lot of the
music off your playlist. Like theart and creativity of communities of color has
made its way to the mainstream,but unfortunately it isn't recognized as coming from
communities of color. People just go, oh, there's this new thing.
(09:43):
Isn't it cool? Isn't it nice? Even though it's not new and it's
something that's been around, it justhasn't been around you, you know,
So when we're talking about this societallevel where something has gone from a community
of color and it's made its wayto mainstream white culture, what should you
do? What is responsible stewardship inthat case, when we're talking societal level,
(10:05):
I don't think that the primary goalhere is avoidance, because when things
have made their way to the mainstream, they're in the mainstream. It's not
that you need to treat everything thatstarted within black culture like a landmine you
can't go near. You'd have ahard time getting a thought out. But
that doesn't mean, oh, everybody'soff the hook. It doesn't really matter.
No, I think that the responsiblething to do is to acknowledge and
(10:30):
honor and give credit where credit's due. I'm in no way excusing something like
disrespect, but I'm saying you can'tuse words like basic and bogus and shady
even though they started in the blackcommunity. That's what I mean here.
You don't need to do an extensiveresearch project to track down what things started
where, but you just need tocontinually operate with respect and never participate in
(10:54):
a trend or anything like that thatwould be considered disrespectful or mocking. But
let's talk about the personal level,because this is the part I really need
yea hear. So, how shouldwe respond to cultural appropriation at the more
individualized level. Here's what I wantyou to hear. The cultural appropriation that
we should be most aware of andmost opposed to is more than just sharing
(11:18):
between cultures or inspiration between cultures,but imitating people of other cultures. So,
in other words, we should bevery clearly opposed to anything that's the
equivalent of blackface today. I'm talkingif anybody is imitating physical attributes associated with
a certain racial group, like skincolor or eye shape. That's an obvious
(11:41):
sign of disrespect. That's where you'retreating a culture like a costume, and
I don't think we should tolerate that. So when I say this personal level
of cultural appropriation, what I meanis that there's impersonation going on. You're
not just acting how people in yourculture act. You are intentionally impersonating another
(12:01):
culture. Here's one that I thinkgoes under the radar all too often.
It's the one that has always boiledmy blood, though nobody seems to discuss
it, is when you imitate peopleof other races. I am deeply frustrated
and saddened and hurt when I hearpeople imitating how people of another culture speak,
(12:22):
and it's always so subtle. It'sso subtle that it can get off
the hook is innocent, but imitatingenforces racial stereotypes, and it's really scarily
similar to minstrel shows. This imitationof people of another race seems to be
on the rise when people are quotingaudio from viral videos where it's the voice
(12:43):
of a black person and everybody's lipsyncing it and everybody's quoting it and it's
all funny. I'm not saying youcan never quote a TikTok again in your
life, but I even remember inchildhood when I'd be surrounded by white peers
who would always be impersonated black peoplefrom viral videos, and they would talk
(13:03):
in a fake accent, just enoughto add a little punch to the punchline,
but just subtle enough to be innocentof racism. And it made me
feel embarrassed as a black person,because I felt like Black people were being
mocked. And yet it's something thatyou don't even know how to address.
I encourage you to try to payattention to this in your own life and
(13:24):
notice if you change your voice maybewhen you're in storytelling mode or joke mode.
How you talk is how you talk, and so I'm not saying you
need to change the way that younaturally talk if it happens to be similar
to the way that people from othercultures talk. But the clear mark and
measure of when you're leaning into mockeryor disrespect is when you're speaking outside of
(13:46):
your typical patterns of speech. Andyou know what that is. You know
when you're switching your voice to geta reaction, or when someone has a
thick accent and you're telling a storyabout what they said and you speak in
the accent too. It's just notrespectful. And I want you to be
most critical of yourself. Sometimes culturalappropriation and others is obvious, but you
(14:09):
shouldn't be out there calling cultural appropriationwilly nilly because you might not know what
culture somebody grew up in. Youdon't know people's experiences, background motives,
but you know yours perfectly all theway down to your core. So with
all things, you gotta be mostcritical of yourself because you have the most
information on yourself and you can fullycontrol yourself. So as a general rule.
(14:30):
With this personal or impersonating cultural appropriation, that's where we should be the
most stringent about recognizing it and callingit out. The closer it is to
the people group themselves, their skinor eyes or hair or speech, that's
when cultural appropriation is most obvious,most clear. That's where I think having
(14:52):
a conversation is most merited. Butwhen we're talking about arts or creativity or
quisie or music or fashion trends thatare associated with a certain group but made
their way to another group, that'swhere I think we can be less stringent
about banning certain things or avoiding certainthings, because sharing between cultures is a
(15:15):
natural and beautiful thing, and itshould be done without creating gain for the
majority group but loss for the minoritygroup. Now, if you brush up
on cultural appropriation, this seems tobe the direction quite a few people are
going. A decade ago, moreand more things were being considered cultural appropriation,
and it seems like the general consensusis a little bit of backtracking and
(15:37):
realizing that some degree of sharing betweencultures is good and helpful and part of
a flourishing society. I mean,if you think about it, with every
single thing that's created not just arts, but everything. It's shared between cultures.
Inventions are patented for multiple countries.Globalization has made this reality. So
(15:58):
I'm not trying to be the girlwho called culture utual appropriation and said that
everything that didn't start right here inthe US of A is cultural appropriation,
because that's not the case. Wedon't need to call things cultural appropriation when
they aren't. To do so wouldundermine the instances where there is actual disrespect,
where there is actual marginalization. Andagain, I'm talking about societal levels
(16:19):
sharing between cultures. But that said, there is a type of cultural appropriation
that you should absolutely be deliberate anddiligent about avoiding. If you're a member
of a majority group, you shouldnot be adopting cultural elements of minority group
in a way that's exploitative or disrespectfulor stereotypical. For talking cultural level sharing
(16:42):
societal level, more often than not, that's a okay. But if we're
talking about any kind of impersonation whereyou are traveling beyond your typical cultural lane
and you are deliberately impersonating another group, you're not acting in a way that's
true to you. You're dabbling insomething else. For the sake of fashion
(17:03):
or impact or humor. That's whereI'm gonna need you to check yourself.
Okay, Okay, I hope Icould offer a little bit more clarity on
a kind of confusing thing. Beforewe wrap, I've got to thank you
for your open hearts, open mindssupport for the podcast. I am so
glad that these episodes reach your earsand your minds and affect your lives.
(17:29):
It's such an honor that you giveme your time and your attention and openness
to the ideas I present like itis no small thing, So thank you,
thank you, Thank you. Asa reminder, if you have not
yet left a rating or review andyou'd like to, now's the time because
I will donate one dollar to EqualJustice Initiative on your behalf. When you
(17:51):
enjoy these episodes, you should totallysend them to your friends, to your
group chats, post them online onsocial media, share them on your stories,
start a conversation with someone, orshout it from the rooftops. There
are lots of different ways that youcan share this message with your people,
with your social circle, and Iencourage you to do that. As always,
(18:12):
I mean it when I say hostingthis podcast is truly an honor and
a privilege and a joy, andI am so grateful for every single one
of you. And if you onlytake away one thing from this episode,
I hope'es that change starts with you.
Hello and welcome back. I'm yourhost, Marie Beacham, and you are
listening to No Better, Do Betterpodcast that makes it easy for you to
get informed about race really quick.Before you put your phone down, a
reminder that if you leave a ratingor review for the podcast by the end
of June, I'll be donating onedollar to Equal Justice Initiative on your behalf.
(00:32):
Equal Justice Initiative is a fantastic organizationthat works to make the criminal justice
system a little bit more just.They represent and defend and advocate for the
most vulnerable people who are wrongly accused, unfairly sentenced, victims of racism,
and all sorts of terrible things.Equal Justice Initiative swoops in and does incredible
(00:54):
work. So again, if youhaven't already and you leave a rating or
review right now for the podcast,I'll donate one dollar to Equal Justice niched
it. The other fun thing we'redoing for the month of June is revisiting
your favorite episodes, covering all ofyour favorite topics again and giving them a
fresh, new twist. This episodeis a comprehensive look at cultural appropriation,
(01:18):
what it is and what it isnot. A lot of the episode is
actually laying out what cultural appropriation isnot, because we can be a little
over eager in calling out appropriation whenreally there is such a thing as sharing
stuff between cultures. That's what we'llbe getting into. And I must say
that all the other episodes in JuneI have a bunch of interjections throughout and
(01:40):
new information and all these things I'msprinkling in. But this episode, because
it is over a year old andin my humble opinion, it's pretty flawless,
I didn't feel like I had anythingto add. This re release is
pretty much untouched in its original formsince it's such a throwback, and I
know that most of you have neverheard it before, so I hope it'll
(02:00):
be helpful and useful and very clearwhat counts as cultural appropriation, what doesn't
count as cultural appropriation, and howcan you make wise calls in your day
to day life without further ado.In today's episode, we are talking about
cultural appropriation. It is a topicthat so few people have a decent grasp
(02:21):
on. It's one of those topicswhere you know it's kind of bad and
you kind of know why, butyou couldn't talk about it for very long.
Boy, cultural appropriation is a heatedtopic, and for good reason.
We're talking about something in which peopleare disrespected or stereotyped or made a mockery
of, and those are very badthings. But cultural appropriation isn't all cut
(02:46):
and dry, because everybody has adifferent take on what really counts as cultural
appropriation. In the first place,there's a whole range of opinions. To
some people, cultural appropriation is justblackface. To others' cultural approbe is everything
that makes its way from minoritized culturesto white culture. And that's a lot
(03:06):
of things, in case you didn'tknow. So in this episode, we're
going to clear it all up.I'll be walking through what cultural appropriation is
by definition, what we should makeof it, what counts and doesn't count,
and how this is super relevant toyour daily life. So let's just
get right into it, starting withwhat is cultural appropriation? So, according
(03:29):
to Encyclopedia Britannica, cultural appropriation takesplace when members of a majority group adopt
cultural elements of a minority group inan exploitative, disrespectful, or stereotypical way.
Whenever the conversation goes to cultural appropriation, whenever you read an article about
it. Everybody seems to fixate ona few celebrities who have been notorious for
(03:52):
cultural appropriation, But it's not justabout celebrities. It's not just about a
few people in society. The wholeconversation surrounding this topic raises questions of what
counts as appreciation or inspiration or sharingof art between cultures versus what is exploitation
or plagiarism that kind of thing.The question that needs to be asked is
(04:15):
does every single trend and style thatstarted within communities of color now count as
cultural appropriation when it makes its wayoutside of that community? Or is cultural
appropriation just intentional impersonations of something likethe physical attributes of people of other races.
Or what if a white person grewup in that culture, if they're
(04:36):
surrounded by that culture themselves, isthat still appropriation? It's their culture?
You see what I mean here?These are big questions. So it's not
just about what to make of afew celebrities. It's about how you,
personally and society as a whole,should go about sharing things between cultures.
It's hazy. According to Britannica,cultural appropriation is any time a member of
(04:59):
a majority group oversimplifying the meaning oradopting an element of a minority culture without
consequence, while members of the minoritygroup face backlash for that same cultural element.
The epitome of something like that wouldbe traditionally black hairstyles. Dreadlocks are
something that many company dress codes andschool dress codes have banned for years,
(05:19):
cornrows or a style that's always beenseen as ghetto. But when white celebrities
then are seen walking the red carpetwith those things, then their trendsetters and
trailblazers. That's an example of theminority group always faced backlash for that,
but a member of the majority groupdoing the same thing receives praise. So
(05:40):
why is cultural appropriation a problem?Let me tell you. Historically, cultural
appropriation has been used as a toolto mock marginalized cultures. It's a way
to maintain racial stereotypes and belittle andmisrepresent people. You can't talk about cultural
appropriation without talking about minstrel shows,in which way white people would paint their
(06:00):
skin black paint on exaggerated big lips, and act out the worst racial stereotypes
imaginable as entertainment for other white people. Black people who were being played by
white people were depicted as animalistic,mindless, reckless, dangerous, and minstrel
shows. If you even look upphotos or videos, it's probably one of
(06:24):
the most horrifying versions of cultural appropriation. And while that exact thing might not
play out today, cultural appropriation isan umbrella term, and it describes all
cross racial cultural impersonations and disrespect.This topic is difficult to put into words.
I'm talking really difficult, Like Ihave recorded this episode a few times.
(06:46):
I ditched it, scrapped it becauseit didn't do it justice, so
it never graced your beautiful ears.But I keep bringing it back to the
docket because it's so relevant. Isit something that we need guidance on?
And I've got of framework for youthat I think is pretty darn good for
discerning what counts as cultural appropriation andwhat counts as appreciation. The reason why
(07:08):
it's so important to get these categoriesright is because we don't want to not
call something cultural appropriation when it is, because that means we're allowing disrespect and
stereotypes to go unchecked for like,ah, that's fine, who really cares,
don't be so sensitive? Well,that's a problem because wherever racial stereotypes
are maintained, you're paving the wayfor racial prejudice and discrimination. But also,
(07:31):
and equally important, we don't wantto call something cultural appropriation when it
isn't, because that causes a lotof confusion and it undermines the instances where
actual injustice is present. There hasto be some way that art and beauty
and inspiration can be shared between cultureswithout stereotyping cultures or exploiting cultures like that.
(07:55):
That has to be a thing.So what I'm gonna do is walk
you through two categories with really clearindicators of what counts as a cultural appropriation,
what we should be avoiding, andwhat doesn't count as cultural appropriation.
So I've created categories, if youwill, and I'm calling them societal versus
personal. So let's start with societal. When I say societal, I'm talking
(08:18):
about things that started in a minoritizedculture and made their way to mainstream white
culture us of a how should werespond to that? So at the societal
level, cultural appropriation is how trendsthat were once seen as tasteless, ghetto,
unprofessional, or whatever are adopted bywhite culture and then viewed in a
neutral light. Or maybe even apositive light. So by this view,
(08:41):
this would be every single trend,art form, phrase, style of clothes,
style of music, all of that, any of those things that started
in communities of color and made itsway to mainstream white culture, that would
all be considered cultural appropriation at thisa scietal level. So here's the thing.
(09:01):
This is nearly impossible to keep trackof because so many of the things
that are a part of everyday lifewould be things to avoid. You would
be oh so surprised if you triedto avoid everything that made its way to
mainstream culture that started in communities ofcolor, you'd probably have to scrap like
(09:22):
one fourth of the words in yourvocabulary. You'd have to scrap a lot
of the clothes in your closet,you'd have to take a lot of the
music off your playlist. Like theart and creativity of communities of color has
made its way to the mainstream,but unfortunately it isn't recognized as coming from
communities of color. People just go, oh, there's this new thing.
(09:43):
Isn't it cool? Isn't it nice? Even though it's not new and it's
something that's been around, it justhasn't been around you, you know,
So when we're talking about this societallevel where something has gone from a community
of color and it's made its wayto mainstream white culture, what should you
do? What is responsible stewardship inthat case, when we're talking societal level,
(10:05):
I don't think that the primary goalhere is avoidance, because when things
have made their way to the mainstream, they're in the mainstream. It's not
that you need to treat everything thatstarted within black culture like a landmine you
can't go near. You'd have ahard time getting a thought out. But
that doesn't mean, oh, everybody'soff the hook. It doesn't really matter.
No, I think that the responsiblething to do is to acknowledge and
(10:30):
honor and give credit where credit's due. I'm in no way excusing something like
disrespect, but I'm saying you can'tuse words like basic and bogus and shady
even though they started in the blackcommunity. That's what I mean here.
You don't need to do an extensiveresearch project to track down what things started
where, but you just need tocontinually operate with respect and never participate in
(10:54):
a trend or anything like that thatwould be considered disrespectful or mocking. But
let's talk about the personal level,because this is the part I really need
yea hear. So, how shouldwe respond to cultural appropriation at the more
individualized level. Here's what I wantyou to hear. The cultural appropriation that
we should be most aware of andmost opposed to is more than just sharing
(11:18):
between cultures or inspiration between cultures,but imitating people of other cultures. So,
in other words, we should bevery clearly opposed to anything that's the
equivalent of blackface today. I'm talkingif anybody is imitating physical attributes associated with
a certain racial group, like skincolor or eye shape. That's an obvious
(11:41):
sign of disrespect. That's where you'retreating a culture like a costume, and
I don't think we should tolerate that. So when I say this personal level
of cultural appropriation, what I meanis that there's impersonation going on. You're
not just acting how people in yourculture act. You are intentionally impersonating another
(12:01):
culture. Here's one that I thinkgoes under the radar all too often.
It's the one that has always boiledmy blood, though nobody seems to discuss
it, is when you imitate peopleof other races. I am deeply frustrated
and saddened and hurt when I hearpeople imitating how people of another culture speak,
(12:22):
and it's always so subtle. It'sso subtle that it can get off
the hook is innocent, but imitatingenforces racial stereotypes, and it's really scarily
similar to minstrel shows. This imitationof people of another race seems to be
on the rise when people are quotingaudio from viral videos where it's the voice
(12:43):
of a black person and everybody's lipsyncing it and everybody's quoting it and it's
all funny. I'm not saying youcan never quote a TikTok again in your
life, but I even remember inchildhood when I'd be surrounded by white peers
who would always be impersonated black peoplefrom viral videos, and they would talk
(13:03):
in a fake accent, just enoughto add a little punch to the punchline,
but just subtle enough to be innocentof racism. And it made me
feel embarrassed as a black person,because I felt like Black people were being
mocked. And yet it's something thatyou don't even know how to address.
I encourage you to try to payattention to this in your own life and
(13:24):
notice if you change your voice maybewhen you're in storytelling mode or joke mode.
How you talk is how you talk, and so I'm not saying you
need to change the way that younaturally talk if it happens to be similar
to the way that people from othercultures talk. But the clear mark and
measure of when you're leaning into mockeryor disrespect is when you're speaking outside of
(13:46):
your typical patterns of speech. Andyou know what that is. You know
when you're switching your voice to geta reaction, or when someone has a
thick accent and you're telling a storyabout what they said and you speak in
the accent too. It's just notrespectful. And I want you to be
most critical of yourself. Sometimes culturalappropriation and others is obvious, but you
(14:09):
shouldn't be out there calling cultural appropriationwilly nilly because you might not know what
culture somebody grew up in. Youdon't know people's experiences, background motives,
but you know yours perfectly all theway down to your core. So with
all things, you gotta be mostcritical of yourself because you have the most
information on yourself and you can fullycontrol yourself. So as a general rule.
(14:30):
With this personal or impersonating cultural appropriation, that's where we should be the
most stringent about recognizing it and callingit out. The closer it is to
the people group themselves, their skinor eyes or hair or speech, that's
when cultural appropriation is most obvious,most clear. That's where I think having
(14:52):
a conversation is most merited. Butwhen we're talking about arts or creativity or
quisie or music or fashion trends thatare associated with a certain group but made
their way to another group, that'swhere I think we can be less stringent
about banning certain things or avoiding certainthings, because sharing between cultures is a
(15:15):
natural and beautiful thing, and itshould be done without creating gain for the
majority group but loss for the minoritygroup. Now, if you brush up
on cultural appropriation, this seems tobe the direction quite a few people are
going. A decade ago, moreand more things were being considered cultural appropriation,
and it seems like the general consensusis a little bit of backtracking and
(15:37):
realizing that some degree of sharing betweencultures is good and helpful and part of
a flourishing society. I mean,if you think about it, with every
single thing that's created not just arts, but everything. It's shared between cultures.
Inventions are patented for multiple countries.Globalization has made this reality. So
(15:58):
I'm not trying to be the girlwho called culture utual appropriation and said that
everything that didn't start right here inthe US of A is cultural appropriation,
because that's not the case. Wedon't need to call things cultural appropriation when
they aren't. To do so wouldundermine the instances where there is actual disrespect,
where there is actual marginalization. Andagain, I'm talking about societal levels
(16:19):
sharing between cultures. But that said, there is a type of cultural appropriation
that you should absolutely be deliberate anddiligent about avoiding. If you're a member
of a majority group, you shouldnot be adopting cultural elements of minority group
in a way that's exploitative or disrespectfulor stereotypical. For talking cultural level sharing
(16:42):
societal level, more often than not, that's a okay. But if we're
talking about any kind of impersonation whereyou are traveling beyond your typical cultural lane
and you are deliberately impersonating another group, you're not acting in a way that's
true to you. You're dabbling insomething else. For the sake of fashion
(17:03):
or impact or humor. That's whereI'm gonna need you to check yourself.
Okay, Okay, I hope Icould offer a little bit more clarity on
a kind of confusing thing. Beforewe wrap, I've got to thank you
for your open hearts, open mindssupport for the podcast. I am so
glad that these episodes reach your earsand your minds and affect your lives.
(17:29):
It's such an honor that you giveme your time and your attention and openness
to the ideas I present like itis no small thing, So thank you,
thank you, Thank you. Asa reminder, if you have not
yet left a rating or review andyou'd like to, now's the time because
I will donate one dollar to EqualJustice Initiative on your behalf. When you
(17:51):
enjoy these episodes, you should totallysend them to your friends, to your
group chats, post them online onsocial media, share them on your stories,
start a conversation with someone, orshout it from the rooftops. There
are lots of different ways that youcan share this message with your people,
with your social circle, and Iencourage you to do that. As always,
(18:12):
I mean it when I say hostingthis podcast is truly an honor and
a privilege and a joy, andI am so grateful for every single one
of you. And if you onlytake away one thing from this episode,
I hope'es that change starts with you.
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