Cultural appropriation is wrong as much as humanity is stupid.

There are certain things that evoke outrage. Black rappers in confederate flags are frowned upon. White frat boys in dashikis are denounced. Tanned models on runaways in coconut bikinis and headdresses are condemned and hated. All because I suppose, certain articles of garments have been adopted as sacred symbols by one congregation of people with an ideology or rather, a culture.

Nations, cities, and all states of being have become independent spheres of influence with either animosity or infatuation arising at the intersections of where each meet. Whether it be in high schools or on the stages for entertainment. We’re absolutely outraged at Utah senior Keziah Daum, a white female, deciding to wear a red cheongsam, or Qipao, a high-collared and form-fitting traditionally Chinese dress to prom. However, we critically acclaim and get to clutching our hearts when Kung Fu Kenny hops around on stage with ninjas and in (you guessed it) traditional Chinese garments.

While it is my opinion that certain articles of dress are more than justified as being recipient to the want for redress of grievances they evoke, I find that it’s only a lonely minority who recognize that their sense of belonging is contrived by nothing more than what exists in their manmade environment. Essence and the utmost sincerity of intention, integrity, knows no universal merit but is bound only by what the people decide is true. Tis abstract really, but trill and true. Perhaps so much so as to be able to make everybody question just exactly who is “you.”

As a human race with finite minds we’re up in arms with uproar over the hundreds of years of pain we’ve perpetuated against one another to the point of only wanting to find solace in the immediate separations we’ve grown so accustomed to since the onset of the continental drift. What intention is friendly and which is foe? That’s for you as a people to decide. While Kendrick Lamar’s current aesthetic is admittedly cultural appropriation, it is in no way as terrible as a caucasian Ip Man with no Iq ignorant of everybody he’s offending by wearing a tunic to prom.

Being frank for some moments. White people or those who appear as though their skin is a tad couple of shades lighter than brown are at the very bottom of the list when it comes to receiving amnesty and resonation because unfortunately, we live in the aftermath of a history tainted by. You get the idea even if I say “it” now don’t you? The sole fact that this sentence’s meaning can be implied to some and refuted by others is the very reason that there’s always cultural appropriation alleged when things so simple as garments are taken out of a culture’s “context.”

With that being said, in no way do I believe that lines can’t be drawn and knowledge is taken into consideration. Essence is something abstract like a scent only observed in the presence of the tried and true to whom an effort at a greater understanding has been made so as to not proceed in ignorance. Learning is all the difference we have between offense and evolving from the states of hurt that plagued our past generations. It pays to know that hurt is nothing if not past tense. For this reason, dictating what is appropriate of races and included within “cultures,” is something requiring the utmost of caution in proceedings lest a loophole be made and hasty generalizations once more give way to violent reasoning.

Unfortunately, in the case Keziah Daum wearing a dress of a culture, not hers, she’s only been reminded by the people of what we all are: the byproduct of separations and painfully stupid human history.