This week I went to a Table Talk about cultural appropriation. I learned a lot more about it that I hadn’t really considered before. For instance, our leader for this talk, Sam brought up the political side of this issue. He discussed how some African independence movements borrowed elements from the Civil Rights Movement to further their fight. I think that this is a positive aspect of cultural appropriation, if people like to label that way, but I personally think that this action can be named something else.

To me, cultural appropriation is always negative, but we discussed nuanced ways in which there is a gray area. For example, the people who are borrowing might not have an intention to criticize the culture. We also discussed power and how the people who often benefit from appropriation are often part of the group with more power in the situation. Some examples of cultural appropriation we talked about are hair braiding, costumes, and music. Hair braiding is something I feel very strongly about due to its presence in my culture. I think that there is a difference between whether someone braids their hair to share in my culture versus misrepresenting and devaluing the art of hair braiding, for instance.

In conclusion, I learned that there is often no clear answer to whether someone has appropriated another person’s culture or not. I also learned that politics has to do with the causes and effects of appropriation.