On today's college campuses, the notion of "cultural appropriation" is strongly condemned. Making food from other countries is cultural appropriation. Wearing your hair in dreadlocks is cultural appropriation. Praising black women on Twitter is cultural appropriation. Singing can be cultural appropriation. Dressing up for Halloween can be cultural appropriation.
Yet President Obama seemed to endorse the practice of cultural
appropriation in his speech to the Democratic National Convention.
"What makes us American, what makes us patriots, is what's in
here. That's what matters," Obama said. "That's why we can take the food
and music and holidays and styles of other countries and blend it into
something uniquely our own."
Excuse me, what? Obama must not be talking with college students lately.
If making food from other countries is cultural appropriation,
if adopting the music of other countries is cultural appropriation, if
dressing up for Halloween is cultural appropriation, where is the
outrage against Obama?
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