A recent episode of the Dr. Phil show devoted to the topic of Cultural Appropriation pitted wonderful Black “conservative” Amala Ekpunobi against “woke” Black Professor Neal Lester of the U. of Arizona. Lester went on at some length detailing how the appropriation by any one Identity group of the cultural practices or values of another, was inherently abusive, inherently hateful! Kim Kardashian braiding her hair like a Black woman is apparently the act of a White Supremacist. His is a paradigm which poisons the relationship between every demographic on the planet, the Young and the Old, Blacks and Whites, Men and Women, Straits and Gays, etc., etc.. It is because of fools such as Lester that this blog is entitled “the politics of hate.”
Amala, to me at least, destroys Lester, defending the cultural interaction he seems to loathe as an expression of our Common Humanity, of the mutually shared intellectual, moral and aesthetic inclinations that bind us together, inclinations that are in fact the obvious antidote to the scourges of racism, sexism, etc..
Dr. Phil asks those in his audience who agree with Lester to raise their hands and only 3 or 4 people do so. The majority clearly shared Amala’s views. While most of them were White and of course likely to be dismissed as racists, a courageous Black women stepped forth and endorsed their point of view, mocking the absurdity of the grievance culture exploited by “intellectuals” such as Lester.
In her various online articulations, Amala Ekpunobi makes it clear that the pro-Black bias exhibited by this college professor is no less vile than the “systemic” racism he deplores in Whites, indeed that the very notion of “systemic” White racism is tainted with the demonstrably warped point of view cited above. While certainly not denying the injustices, past and present, to which her people have been submitted, she sees efforts to exploit “cultural appropriation” as but a desperate attempt by the Left to maintain the narrative of oppression which is the very basis of its world-view. That White Women wearing their hair in cornrows should be accused of disrespecting their Black sisters is absurd to Amala for whom such choices are most likely expressions of respect and admiration rather than disdain.
As an Italian, I have often chuckled over the notion that non-Italians who love pizza are somehow violating my heritage. Yet is this sentiment not perfectly in line with Neal Lester’s concept of “cultural appropriation”? That this man is a University Professor is frightening, though it no doubt explains why the “educated” geniuses at ABC, just a few days ago, chose to headline their Good Morning America show with news of Hailey Bieber’s dastardly decision to paint her lips brown. I have no idea of the discussion that ensued, but would simply suggest that a society which endorses and in fact celebrates the Leftist view that a White girl’s application of brown lipstick is an expression of racial intolerance, has utterly lost its mind.