I have been having issues with this question for the past few weeks. This is outlet where I feel comfortable enough to even voice the question to be honest. I am a huge fan of cultural appreciation, I love learning about different cultures  and what makes them unique.  I am also a big supporter of sharing culture as well.

The best example I can use from my life is dance styles. I have taken many different kinds of dance styles, Bally Dance, Hip Hop and Bollywood. I love to dance and I enjoy researching different styles of dance. Most dances have some sort of culture or even race associated with them. It’s a common practice in dance to experiment with style fusion, like Flamenco and Belly dance, or ballet and hip hop *coughsavethelastdancecough*. It’s also common for dancers of different cultural backgrounds to want to share their culture through dance.

I just don’t know where the line is, my approach is just to avoid getting anywhere near where a line may be. Can I enjoy rap music? Can I dance to rap music in my house? What about dancing to rap music in my car? Or on a stage? Would I  cross the line If i wanted to rap myself? Is there a difference between rapping in my room and rapping on a stage for people? Does appropriation only happen when there is an audience? Or if there is profit involved? What about for people who are light skinned, but of African descent and they want to rap, would they be accused of appropriation? Or just accused until there lineage was proven? I can’t wear cornrows but I can wear my hair in a crown braid, which is a Swedish hairstyle and I am not Swedish. Aren’t they just both different kinds of braided hair styles? Why is speaking foreign languages not appropriation?

Like I said, I would never talk about this with anyone. I don’t want this to come across as “poor little white girl can’t have cornrows.”, I am just curious, as a lover of different cultures. This doesn’t cover celebrities who will do anything for an extra 15 minutes of news coverage and a twitter hashtag. I know there isn’t an answer, everyone probably has their own personal checklist for what is appropriation vs. appreciation.

Hopefully now that I have this down in ink, er… pixels, I can get rid of that uncomfortable feeling that come when one is dealing with race issues. As uncomfortable as these last few weeks has been with dealing with singing blackfaced white american men, I think asking ourselves difficult questions and bringing up crazy things people did in the past is beneficial in some way. I don’t know exactly in what way, but sometimes it’s good to remind ourselves that we aren’t better than they were, we just have different circumstances. If I was born in the late 19th century I probably would have been enjoying the minstrel shows along with everyone else.

Those scary, scary minstrel shows.