[TRIGGER WARNING: RACISM, RAPE, MURDER] Why POC get mad about cultural appropriation
POC who are angered by cultural appropriation are not being too sensitive. The “too sensitive” comment is deliberately invalidating. It shuts down the conversation and immediately shifts the blame to them for having a natural emotional reaction. That’s messed up.
Here are some (but not all) of the reasons POC might be mad:
Their jobs are not safe when they are unemployed at higher rates and receive little benefit of an improving economy.
Their names are not safe when they are turned down for jobs for being too ethnic or can’t get on a plane without being searched.
Their language is not safe when they are told to speak English (properly) so everyone else can be comfortable. And it’s difficult to find any necessary services in their language.
Their bodies are not safe when they are being beaten, raped, or tortured. And when they are unable to get the appropriate medical care. Or perhaps being treated like their life is an experiment.
Their families are not safe when their children are taken from them and your country has to pass a law to stop it.
Their religion is not safe when you accuse them of being a terrorist for it.
Their freedom is not safe when they are stopped-and-frisked, arrested, jailed, and sentenced at higher rates.
Their lives are not safe when they can get killed for accepting a ride home, having a bachelor party, being an immigrant who reaches for their wallet, waiting for a bus and getting propositioned, riding the train, knocking on the wrong door for a Halloween party, or carrying a bag of Skittles home. Too many more examples to name.
What’s left within their control when all of that can be taken from them?
Their culture. Their community. Their sense of identity. WHO THEY ARE. That’s what’s left at the end of the day.
Cultural appropriation takes even that smidgen of control from them.
But maybe they’re just too sensitive.
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