Perhaps you’ve heard by now about the Utah teen who wore a traditional Chinese qipao dress to prom last week. As someone who the masses assumed was not Chinese (and she isn’t), the girl was unabashedly critiqued for her lack of cultural sensitivity.
That judgment may be warranted (and her namaste-like pose suggests it), but I have watched the subsequent debate about cultural appreciation versus cultural appropriation with a degree of unease.
While the topic delights to me to no end (so necessary!), the tenor does not.
This certainly isn’t the first time we’ve tried to parse out what’s safe or what’s offensive as it relates to reflecting a culture or lived experience that isn’t our own (whether that be about race, country of origin, sexuality, class, level of ability, etc.