brushfire"This, yes, this, it was always like this." -Stanley Koehler
REFLECTIONS OF AN EMPTY NESTER
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Cultural appropriation. Yes, it’s a thing.
At my daughter’s college last year, a first-year student showed up at the dining hall wearing a sombrero. Maybe she thought it was funny, it matched her outfit or she wanted attention. A Latino student questioned her fashion choice. When she gave a flippant response, he explained why it was offensive to him. Instead of apologizing and saying it was not her intent to offend anyone, she chose a defensive tact. The exchange escalated to an argument and soon social media took over. The end result was a series of town hall-style meetings and the young woman apologizing in tears. Had the national media latched onto this incident, there likely would have been a backlash about political correctness and minority fragility and an outpouring of support for the innocent “victim,” known on campus as “sombrero girl.” In the absence of such public scrutiny, the administration handled the incident with cultural sensitivity and hopefully everyone learned something in the process. I, too, might not have known wearing a sombrero would cause offense, but if someone from that culture told me it did, I would respect their point of view. My niece is getting married next year to a young man whose parents emigrated to the U.S. from India. My sisters and I are looking forward to wearing saris and experiencing a Hindu wedding. If Indian family members told us this was in any way offensive, we would arrive in Western attire. However, we are abiding by the wishes of the bride and groom. We are sharing in and celebrating another culture, not appropriating it as our own in a mocking or careless fashion. There is a difference, but drawing the distinction requires careful attention to subtlety and nuance. More often than not, a suggestion of cultural appropriation is met with an attitude of callous dismissiveness. Here's a more mainstream example. I’m not Catholic, but I’ve attended many Catholic weddings and funerals. While I’ve stood in line during the Eucharist to accept the priest’s blessing, I would never dream of receiving Communion, not because I fear being struck by lightning, but because it would be disrespectful. On the other hand, if I did receive Communion as a non-Catholic and a Catholic called me out on it, how do you think that person would I feel if I belittled their discomfort? We can all agree wearing black face is wrong. You don’t see a lot of hijabs or yarmulkes at Halloween. Is wearing an Indian headdress or war paint offensive? The Washington football team and fans supporting their racially charged name in spite of protests from the Native American community don’t appear to think so. For many, the sombrero incident may have seemed innocent enough, the whole brouhaha blown out of proportion. But I am old enough to remember a Frito corn chips television commercial depicting a sombrero-wearing Mexican singing, “Ay, ay, ay, oh, I am the Frito Bandito.” As a child, I sang this catchy tune with my brother, mimicking the cute little bandit’s heavy accent. My husband and I recently performed the song at the dinner table with perfect recall — “I like Frito’s corn chips I love them I do, I like Frito’s corn chips, I’ll take them from you” — much to our children’s horror. Until our daughter relayed the sombrero incident to us, we hadn’t given this commercial much thought. Now we agree it was offensive and understand why it was taken off the air. We’ve come so far… or have we? A presidential nominee beginning his campaign stereotyping Mexicans as rapists and drug dealers — if not bandits, exactly — is a huge step backwards, but sometimes we have to go back before we can move forward with new understanding and awareness. Just ask sombrero girl.
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Mary Anne BrushJournalist, fiction writer, wife and mother |