Hey D. Sylvester! I came here from your most recent article that was a response to this one, and just had to check this one out.

I think you explain appropriation brilliantly. What I want to add is, to be honest, I find White appropriation of Black things (like Blaccents and hairstyles and whatnot) to be just…lazy. For example, I’ve seen White rappers like Plan B (though don’t quote me on this, because I’m not super well versed in rap music) use the key elements of rap music but instead of faking Blaccents, use their own regional, hometown accent instead. For Plan B, it was something like Cockney accent and Cockney speech.

As an Asian person, the idea of appropriating Black speech to be “cool” or trendy or stylish makes no sense to me whatsoever. Why should I appropriate someone else’s culture, when there are elements of my own culture that I can better represent and express? And if White people want to appropriate because they’re bored of their own culture or whatever, well, maybe it’s time to do some innovation!