In my first slate post, I explained how cultural appropriation is harmful to the Black community. Black culture benefits every other community, except for its own. It was important that I gave 6 examples as to why cultural appropriation is an issue in the world that needs to be solved, while also using my 6 sources as main ideas. The amount of various ways I persuade the readers to help seek the principle and bigger picture, of a struggle out of many, that Black/ African Americans face everyday are strong.

In view of the fact that Black cultural appropriation is my topic, to be an agent of change, I have teamed up with my classmate Tybria Bowser. Her You & The World project is about the African American Achievement gap, which connects to Black cultural appropriation, in many ways. We thought it would be a brilliant idea to combine our ideas, and work to produce a future mini course for class of 2025, and if successful, so on. It would be great to teach the youngest classmen on how to not harm their peers, especially at such an open and diverse school like SLA.

*Tybria and I emailed Jeremy Spry, proposing our act of change. We gave background information about our projects, and basically just went into depth about our plan. He agreed for us to move forward with our idea :). *

After hearing that there was a chance of our plan coming to life, Tybria and I created this mini course template, to help prepare and brainstorm criteria for the future freshman. We each went along and created material for each of our topics, and found a way to connect one anothers. The mini course will be 8 days long. We have an intro for the first day, and then cultural appropriation is spent using the next 3 days, and then I transition my last day into Tybria’s first day. She also has 3 days, and then our final class, the 8th day, we’ll let the students take control, and use that as a way to reflect on the course as a whole. I did some research mainly for my section of the course, and found a video to explain “What is Black culture?”. I thought it would be a great introduction to our first class.

The process in making and planning a mini course during a chaotic benchmark time like this was very difficult, but very interesting and enthusiastic. Tybria and I were able to finish our mini course template, and emailed it to Ms.Giknis and Jeremy Spry.

Unfortunately, Tybria and I weren’t able to hear back in time to see if our mini course was approved or not, but we feel very pleased with our journey, and feel supported through every step of the way. Before I close out my slate post, I just wanted to mention Tybria and I’s projects connect to each other, because of the double standards that Black people face when doing anything in society. It just made sense to collaborate on a project like this, because we can both use each other as a strength in educating future SLA students, about the Black community better. Like I said before, we aren’t aware if our mini course will be approved yet, but a way you can be involved, is by showing us your unconditional support, and being here with us on this journey.

Could you imagine your existence only being relevant for the identity theft of your creativity? The Black/African American culture is appropriated everyday, by not just white people, but also non-black minorities. Appropriating culture is the social equivalent of plagiarism, and adapting to an element, or elements of one another’s culture or identity. It’s not a problem to borrow from our culture, but you also have to know appreciating and appropriating, have two completely different meanings. White people will take our hairstyles, fashion, vernacular, and skin tone, without permission or give the credit, and will rock it like they started a phenomenal trend, but will degrade the true meaning of the culture’s components. Unfortunately, when the black community showcases black culture, we are less valued for rocking our culture, that white people and non-black minorities stole. If white people and non-black minorities are the problem, then they have to be our solution, and I want to help show them what they are doing wrong.

I’m pretty sure you’ve heard of the saying “Do it for the culture”, but never understood the significance of the quote. The term was created by the famous rap group migos, which is the only style of music that hasn’t been predominantly stolen from whites. No wonder it’s still labeled as the “ghetto factor” of music, because it hasn’t been normalized by white people yet. The appropriation of black culture is very significant because there are numerous ways you can harm a black person when doing so. We’ve been denied education, work, health care, shelter, and more, all because of our cultural components that whites are applauded for, when we are discriminated against. Yes I am an African American, but also light skinned, which basically fits the “beauty standard”. Women with lighter skin will always be the “beauty standard” according to society today, since it is the closest to white skin. Not to mention the discrimination against women with darker skin. But what people fail to realize is having lighter skin doesn’t make you any less black than a person with darker skin. I’m not under 120 pounds, I have round hips with curvy thighs, thick beach wave hair that is taken care of by protective hairstyles, full heart sized lips, and so much more that white people and non-black minorities feel the need to steal. I’m not saying that these features can’t be appreciated, but the trauma that the black community has been through just by walking out of the house with our music playing , or wearing our fashion, is just not ok.

The double standard of baby hairs, with black and white women.

When you have huge celebrities appropriating black culture like it’s nothing, of course it’ll be justified and defended. People have always provided others who have a platform with excuses for their unacceptable behavior, as if they’re superior to someone who works at Mcdonalds. Social media will accept a white girl with cornrows over a black girl with the same exact cornrows, because they favor black culture, but not black people. It is extremely important for people to know about this because the favoritism towards white people and non-black minorities against black culture can be extremely dangerous to the black community, because the racism that is dealt with is ignored.

Amandla Sternberg comments on Kylie’s Jenner’s post, because of her picture with cornrows.

Obviously feeling mocked, othered, and judged aren’t as serious as being in danger, but if you don’t see that as an issue, then you are the problem and don’t consider black people human. It’s just human decency and black people deserve to be treated with it too. The public will post “Black Lives Matter” or whatever trending incident that happened with a white cop, and black male, but will still appropriate black culture, and not realize that it is a part of systemic oppression.

Believe me I know what you’re thinking, “how has she not mentioned the usage of the N word by non-blacks yet?”. Well to answer your question, I’ve specifically avoided that topic, just because it’s a critical conversation for me, and my attitude towards it isn’t the most appropriate for a school project. I get very angry and argumentative when it comes to the usage of the N word by non-blacks. To make a change, I definitely want to create and plan a mini course, educating SLA students, non-blacks specifically, about the dangers of appropriating black culture, and how it is a system of oppression. As a black person, being born in black culture myself, my research has definitely impacted my understanding of acknowledging that non-black minorities aren’t fully innocent at all in this situation. I just hope people now know that wearing cornrows isn’t “just a hairstyle”.

Amandala Sternberg explains the meaning of a lot of famous components from black culture.

So my question to you is, do you love black people, or do you love black culture?

MY ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Hola soy Kyla. Yo tengo el pelo largo, moreno y rizado. Yo tengo los ojos avellanos. Yo soy alta. Yo soy trabajadora y responsable. También soy sincera y divertida.No soy ni antipática ni callada.

Yo tengo el pelo largo, moreno y rizado. Yo tengo los ojos avellanos. Yo soy alta. Yo soy trabajadora y responsable. También soy sincera y divertida.No soy ni antipática ni callada.

Mi hermono menores Kyle tiene el pelo corto, moreno y rizado. Kyle tiene los ojos marrónes. Kyle es simpático y callado.Kyle no es antipático.

Group Members: Kyla B, Sage D, Oliver A, and Gina Z In our podcast we discussed The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, a memoir about a dysfunctional family that runs from the law. Each one of us shared our first impressions/ reactions, provided a quote, and discussed the toxicity of the parents relationship, let alone their parenting.

References:

“I was overcome with panic that she’d see me and call out my name and that someone on the way to the same party would spot us together” (pg 3)

“ Fussing over children who only cry encourages them, she told us. That’s positive reinforcement for negative behavior.” - Page 28

“Dad kept telling me that he loved me, that he never would have let me drown, but you can’t cling to the side your whole life, that one lesson every parent needs to teach a child is ‘If you don’t want to sink, you better figure out how to swim.’” page 66

“You’d be destroying what makes it special,” she said. “Its the joshua trees struggle that gives it its beauty.” page 38

Noah always embraced that no one welcomed him into any cultures, that he felt he SHOULD belong in. He was not accepted as a colored person by other colored people, because he was either too white for black people, or to black for white people, and at the end of the day, he still chose to identify as a black man. In chapter 16, Trevor was very oblivious to the fact that he was getting bullied. He was also very oblivious when he managed to get his bike stolen from a girl. I think when Noah was more so young, he cared a lot about fitting in, and belonging to a group, that he didn’t realize all the sacrifices he took trying so hard. In chapter 10, there was a Valentine’s Day dance, and a girl named Maylene who had a major crush on Trevor. There was huge talk amongst the friend groups about Trevor asking out Maylene, so he could take her to the dance. But the thought of him liking Maylene never actually crossed his mind. He said yes, but just for the wrong reason. Unfortunately, she broke his heart right before the dance for someone more “cool and better looking”, and Noah was devastated. I honestly can’t say that Noah’s writing impacted my own, because he uses a ton of humor and dialogue, and those aren’t techniques that I would refer back to when writing. I didn’t choose to use humor because I would consider myself just an intentionally funny person, and I feel as though when using humor in your writing, there’s a lot of brainstorming, because you try so hard to make the reader laugh. Furthermore, my goal wasn’t to make people laugh. I wouldn’t want people to laugh at my vignette at all. When my vignette is read, I want people to take the time to sit and think about what I just wrote. As an outsider looking in, which you are, the reader, I gave you points of views of other characters in my story who are ALSO outsiders to my culture.

Gina Zou and I created a soundtrack for the book ‘Far From The Tree’. here are the links to our project.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1XNqfAHIT8ukaAQ8hvR2kbfCOmDjH1IpLHpZFWG9xa5k/edit?usp=sharing

https://docs.google.com/document/d/13gKMgVhJnQNQekF9s6fOtSTPs2mNANKFrA8Tvj3S5ro/edit?usp=sharing

En esta unidad, los estudiantes han aprendindo cómo introducirse con los verbos ser o llamarse, usar el verbo tener para expresar su edad y cuántos hermanos y mascotas ellos tienen, las nacionalidades y el verbo hablar para expresar los idiomas que ellos hablan en la casa.

Aquí están las presentaciónes de los estudiantes en español 1: https://flipgrid.com/aa5fc082

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1RVZk9bEbXssRE2LPFIUVNjDFNJ3yFwOmp9FbJ7KACtE/edit?usp=sharing

I’m making a presentation about how two specific characters from The Vampire Diaries personally inspired my urge and passion for my future acting career. Before quarantine I was serious about wanting to direct, produce, and act, but I wasn’t so eager to explore the variety of different personalities to play and create, until I started watching The Vampire diaries. Obviously, within 8 months of being locked up inside, it’s not fun at all. To get through a time like this, me and my mom started watching The Vampire Diaries, where I was introduced to the two characters who inspired the type of characters I want to play. Klaus Mikaleson and Kai Parker, the two powerful, supernaturnatural, and feared villains. The show itself paves the way for my identity towards creating shows and movies in the supernatural genre. Basically, because of quarintine 2020, I know now exactly what I want to do with my future.