Inappropriate Appropriation?

                Two co-eds at Pitzer College, in Claremont California, have demanded white women stop wearing hoop earrings, asserting that they “belong to the black and brown folks who created the culture.” The school’s student newspaper, the Claremont Independent, reported that “White Girl, take off your hoops!!!” was spray-painted on the college’s free-speech wall.

                Alegria Martinez of the Latinx (not a typo) Student Union said she painted the ‘message’ with other women of color who were “tired and annoyed with the reoccuring (sic) theme of white women appropriating styles.” What happened to the idea that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery? If, instead, ‘appropriation’ is now a sin, women of color shouldn’t be allowed to wear blue jeans or eat at McDonalds. And I guess all Americans should give up buying French wine or German beer.

                Free speech used to be a universal American birthright, but is now tragically and ironically confined to a wall on many college campuses. Yet, “speech” like Ms. Martinez and company spray-painted on Claremont’s barrier doesn’t do much to recommend the widespread return of campuses First Amendment rights.

                Pitzer’s mascot is a ‘Sage hen.’ It’s a pity some of the school’s women aren’t wiser.