Appropriate: A Provocation

If you're a teacher this book is not only invaluable, it's a necessity,

Redkal’s work in Appropriate: A Provocation is impressive. Cultural appropriation is a touchy subject, and I have seen well-intended writers utterly fail in handling it. I have seen so-called experts get it wrong, as well, both in lambasting people for something innocuous and also defending things that were particularly egregious. I was prepared for either. I was pleasantly surprised when I got neither.Redkal is patient and intelligent, using very close readings of existing stories and poetry to exemplify her arguments and make something that might be completely balking to a non-academic understandable. Despite the title being “A Provocation”, the piece is actually very compassionate. It does not shy away from its positions, perhaps, and some may find that provocative, but the reasons are presented so carefully that it reads less like an angry manifesto and more like a measured explanation.Interestingly, the piece does not offer many hardline statements. While I believe this is to the benefit of the piece, it again is surprising from a book with such an intentionally, well, provocative name. That is not to say the book is wishy-washy. Her discussion on American Dirt, for instance, is civil but scathing, making observations about the work as a sort of “marketplace colonialism.” That being said, her discussions on the book are less rage at the author for making the idea, and more an illustration of how something like this can happen.All of this is to say that the book is great. You can tell she is a poet, even through this dense and potentially upsetting of material. The prose is brilliant. Highly recommended.

I loved reading Appropriation: A Provocation. I highly recommend this book to any sort of content, entertainment, or artistic creator. It delves into the concept of cultural appropriation, what it means when it is appropriate, and how we can recognize it in ourselves. I think a lot of my enjoyment came from making this book into an interactive experience. There were lots of underlinings on the pages and thoughts in the margins as I decided how this could be applicable to me and to my own writings. It was provoking indeed. It didn’t provide me the answers I thought it would, that of an explicit list of what is right and what is wrong, but rather provided questions about our goals and hopes within our writings. I received my copy of the novel at a meet and greet and this was her urge to me as I asked about how to incorporate representation without falling into appropriation. Without spoiling it she explained just that to me. She demands that we rather look at and question our own desires within our writings.Another thing I truly appreciated was the way the format of the presented essays provided an open and humble tone. It is written as letters letter from a professor truly attempting to help her students grow in understanding. This tone provides room for improvement rather than a full reprimanding of white creators. This is a topic that requires discomforts and demands growth, and Rekdal finds a way to encompass this topic with both compassion and intelligence.

This was a disappointing read and would absolutely not clarify what cultural appropriation is or how to avoid it. If anything, it made even fairly obvious cases of appropriation seem murky. The writer seemed afraid of offending readers by stating a strong opinion.

A comprehensive and thoughtful analysis of the topic