Is it appropriate to appropriate?

My skin tells many stories. The scar on my right arm is an emblem of remembrance to the day a rusty nail tore my flesh. The freckles on my face are traits I inherited from my mother. But my skin tone is the most deceptive.

Often, people will assume I am of Mexican descent. When the question, “¿Hablas español?” used to come, my answer would always be no, in Spanish. But as years rolled along, I became more comfortable with the language. “No, no hablo espanol. Lo siento.” This was unknowingly my first lesson in cultural appropriation.

I am mixed. My mother, Caucasian, is who I’ve been raised by yet I am still largely in touch with my family on my dad’s side, which is African American. According to Tumblr, the origin of cultural appropriation discussions, as a black girl, I should own cornrows and no one who is not African-American should because cornrows are a “black” thing. Should I wear my hair straight on one side and the other be braided back to properly show the races I represent? Or would wearing cornrows make me seem like an appropriator because, after all, my skin says I’m Latina?

Just because I don’t fluently know a language it doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t try. More importantly, what it does mean is that I should try without being labeled an appropriator. When I say “porque” instead of “because” and “no se” instead of “I don’t know”, I am not mocking the Spanish language. I am trying to learn it.

Basing culture off of looks is the true detriment to freedom of expression. How would anyone know if I was non-Mexican just because I don’t speak Spanish if I look Mexican? Of course, a white man in a sombrero would stand out out more than me if I were wearing the same thing but why is that seen as mocking rather than a person enjoying their time? More important, if a man of Mexican descent who unknowingly doesn’t speak Spanish is wearing a sombrero and a false mustache is he labeled an appropriator as well? Or is there just some merging of two terms denouncing ethnicities?

Cultural appropriation is commonly confused as racism. A person yelling slurs at someone isn’t classified as appropriation, that’s just racism. Appropriation is the theft of one culture’s beliefs and practices with the intent of changing it.

Seventy years ago, the entertainment business was a cesspool of appropriation. Black songs would be recorded but never played on the radio, at least not in their original form. Whites would take them, sing the same lyrics to a different beat and call it their own. Theft of another culture was happening behind closed doors and blasted through millions of speakers, unknowingly perpetuating the real definition of what I’ve been accused of for believing drawing Henna tattoos on non-Egyptians and the wearing of head dresses on non-Native Americans and sombreros on non-Mexicans is embracing a culture, not mocking it.

So when a white man puts on a sombrero on Cinco de Mayo, he isn’t trying to change Mexican culture. Maybe he doesn’t understand the significance of the holiday. Perhaps he, along with nine out of 10 of the Latino students in my Spanish 5-6 class, thought it was Mexican Independence Day. But that’s not cultural appropriation. It’s just ignorance shared even with the culture itself.

If we label fashion statements as sacred belongings of one culture, making it taboo to others, we show that immersement into another world shouldn’t exist. This freezes the melting pot. After all, the best way to understand someone is to step into their shoes, isn’t it?