The Appropriation Paradox

My father joined the army fresh out of high school. After training as a “sigint” operator, his second tour took him to Munich, Germany. He married my mother shortly before moving to Germany and they settled in the small town of Bad Aibling, close to the army base and nestled under the gaze of the Wendelstein in the Bavarian Alps. I was born 11 months later in a Munich army hospital.

Although I don’t remember much from that first year of life, I do remember family references to my birthplace and still have a pair of lederhosen they bought me there. I don’t have a drop of German blood in me, but have always loved German things. In high school, I took German for four years and was a proud member of our high school German club. I learned all about German culture including German folk dancing which carried over to college. That’s where I met my wife. My wedding present from her was a Lladro statuette of polka dancers.

What’s my point? The reason I’ve embraced German culture is because I love it, respect it, study it, share it, and advocate for it. So yesterday’s story in the UK Daily Mail about a University of Houston Latina sorority who “culturally appropriated” black step dancing doesn’t make any sense. No one adopts a cultural practice that they don’t like. On the contrary, adopting cultural practices is a way to show your love and respect for it by making it your own. I don’t see anything wrong with that.

The main argument against cultural appropriation is that if you are not a [fill in the blank: race/gender/culture/religion] person, then you can’t do something that that a [fill in the blank: race/gender/culture/religion] person does. Let me get this straight: if I’m black, I can step. If I’m white, stepping is cultural appropriation. So the difference in these two scenarios is my color. Hmm.