In a decontextualized world, we have two characters. Let’s, fictionally, call them Michelle and Melania. They both work with the public. Michelle gives a speech. The speech becomes accessible to the public. A while later, Melania delivers a speech appropriating Michelle’s words. Maybe not exactly the same words but obviously alike. Now let's say that both Michele and Melania were not known persons and that we don’t know who wrote that speech. Words are all in the world, and many used words- sentences are different, they are compositions of an alphabet and have a subject. Since we don’t know about Michelle’s speech, we only hear Melania’s speech, we go with it. Or even if we heard Michelle’s speech we assume that it is a coincidence or we pretend to not see it. Due to the shallow reasons we all know, Melania gets a better platform to deliver the speech. She has a good status and is appealing to the magazines. She is easier to be portrayed and to be included since the world treated her well - different from Michele who had to be more assertive and hard due to her difficult path. Her path is actually what brought up her speech. While Michelle's speech is genuine, Melania will make it to more magazine covers. She will have a good season out of that. And many will consume it not knowing that they are actually being deprived. The deprivation of the public relies on the fact that Melania's words are not genuine as is Michelle’s words - who first delivered them from a place of Truth. This way, even if Melania can make a spectacle of it, even if she can use her good clothes to impress the press, even if she can pronounce a big social issue word, her speech is empty - that if we can see past her composition. The thing is, ‘words’ are not just ‘words.' They are first thoughts rooted in personal experiences in life, which makes the pronunciation of them a necessity. Michelle’s speech is rooted in social perception. Thoughts of a deep nature are not spectacles to the masses. Even if Melania uses the exact same ‘words’ of social concerning, Michelle's ‘words’ come from her need to speak and from a place of truth. The simple act of plagiarizing another to talk about a social issue takes the strength of it due to the lack of ethics. Ethics is necessary for any circumstance and field and career. Final, even if we do not acknowledge the authorship of that speech, even if we can read an excellent media cover of Melania’s speech, the power of transformation and effectiveness of that message can only be possible through Michelle - since integrity in truth is what is transformative. *Art and artists can learn from it! [Appropriation, Plagiarism and, Social Justice © Eva Rocha, September 28, 2021]
