As a white woman, appropriation has frequently baffled me. I have struggled with it since I first heard the term four years ago, but I have also had the privilege of only having to think about it when I want to. Last semester, I finally figured out how I can think about it as a white woman.
I was sitting with my friends at dinner when one of my friends brought up the word “y’all.”
“If you think about it, y’all is the perfect plural because it is gender neutral.” My savvy feminist friends quickly agreed. I agree too. “You guys,” the colloquial alternative, does gender the neutral as male which norms the male experience to the exclusion of all others. At the same time, I will never use “y’all” at Bowdoin.
I made a conscious decision to purge “y’all” from my vocabulary when I left North Carolina for Maine. I love “y’all.” It is gender inclusive. It is super easy to type on a phone, and it slows down your words beautifully when you use it. But as a Southerner, I cannot use the word “y’all” without immediately being associated with all the terrible aspects of the South. Sitting with my mostly New England friends, I felt a stab of jealousy that they could use my word when I could not. That’s when I finally understood appropriation. These well-meaning, northern people were able to choose what parts of the South they wanted to engage with, but I had to take all or nothing.
Of course, appropriation is often about much more than comfort, and it is frequently done by people who are not well-meaning. People can appropriate the work and culture of a marginalized people and then turn around and commercialize and capitalize upon them. People can appropriate another culture with malicious intent or to dismiss and belittle that culture. People can appropriate another group’s culture to make it into a joke. Appropriation both reinforces and emphasizes the privilege that majority social groups experience.
I do not wish to equate my experience with “y’all” to the appropriation we have been struggling with on Bowdoin’s campus. Unlike minority groups, the South deserves to have its identity questioned. It does have a long legacy of racism, homophobia and bigotry. Southern whites have not been historically repressed or systematically excluded. And unlike racial minority groups, the South does not experience institutionalized compassism. (Get it? Compass rose? Southern?) They do not have to struggle to succeed in a country stacked against them. Southerners like myself can choose to eradicate “y’all” from their vocabulary and switch their country for alt/indie, and the JOBs will never think to ask me about hushpuppies or confederate flags. I do not mean to defend the South, and I do not want to discourage people from using “y’all.” It is a great word. I just hope that my mini example can help to clarify appropriation for other white people who, like me, were confused about how even well-meaning people can commit appropriation.
Claire Day is a member of the class of 2018.