Explaining that her ability to thoughtlessly pilfer elements from other cultures has been “deeply enriched” by her enrollment in AAS 271: Intro to Afro-American Literature, sources close to 20-year-old Amy Meyer reported Thursday that the LSA junior’s horizons of cultural appropriation have been broadened considerably by her fulfillment of the Race & Ethnicity requirement.
“Before taking her R&E course, Amy’s repertoire of borrowed cultural tropes was actually pretty narrow,” said Sidney Ackerman, a friend of Meyer. “Sure, she’d dip into what she liked to call the ‘Vernacular,’ or flash us deuces from across the dining hall. But that was pretty much the extent of her engagement with the deeply- entrenched practice of selectively and naively re-appropriating elements from minority cultures for her own purposes.”
“Honestly,” Meyer said. “I was reluctant at first about taking my R&E requirement. I thought it was going to be all preachy and sanctimonious, and that everyone would just tell me how ignorant I am all the time.”
But, Meyer says, engaging with the complex narrative dramas produced by Black American writers in the early twentieth century has taught her to explore “new and different ways” of accessorizing her increasingly “ethnically inspired” identity with her favorite bits and pieces of the Afro- American diaspora.
“I just love all the little mannerisms. Like, you know that ‘mmmm-hm’ they do when someone says something obvious or otherwise highly agreeable? I picked that up from an AAS 271 discussion section and my roommate loves it,” said Meyer.
“So sassy and precious!” Meyer added.
Meyer’s instructor also noted that the course has allowed the LSA junior to develop a new, more intensely parasitic relationship to Black American culture in both its contemporary and historical manifestations.
“All of the women we read about are so assertive and willful. I honestly feel such a connection with whatever experiences made them that way,” said Meyer. “My spirit animal is definitely a Harriet Tubman or Sojourner Truth- type figure.”
At press time, Meyer was reportedly considering adopting another form of appropriation, twerking, as an “olive branch of sorts” to the community.
