scg has a crush on you(r post)!

Whenever I have spoken up and out about issues that are important to me I have tried to do so in ways that illuminate the discussion, put it in historic and cultural perspective with love, empathy and understanding. I have never been interested in interpersonal attacks, feuds or ‘checking’ individuals publicly. Whether people perceive my work in that way or not, my intention is always to have conversations with love, empathy nuance and understanding.

When in answer to Andy Cohen’s question on “Watch What Happens Live” on July 12, “White girls and cornrows, yay or nay? “I said what I said in an attempt to not get involved in what I understood at the time to be an Instagram feud between someone with whom I was not familiar and Kylie Jenner on the topic of cultural appropriation. I have never been interested in getting involved in any celebrity feuds.

In that moment, I also felt that the topic of cultural appropriation needs way more than the 10 seconds or less I had to respond at the end of the show to fully unpack. I said as much to Andre Leon Tally after the cameras stopped rolling. So on camera with seconds left in a live broadcast I said, "Bo Derek” the first iconic example of a white woman wearing cornrows I could think of. To be clear I understood when I said, “Bo Derek” that her rocking of cornrows with beads in the 1979 film “10” and that look on her subsequently becoming a cultural phenomenon when the black folks who had been rocking cornrows for decades before her had not similarly become a sensation is an example of the ways in which what bell hooks calls imperialist, white supremacist, capitalist patriarchal systems privilege certain bodies’ performances of cultural traditions over others. This is when cultural appropriation can tend to erase the marginalized people from whom the culture emerges.

Many are taking me to task for not defending Amandla Stenberg who I now know is a 16 year old black actress known for her work in the “Hunger Games” who has spoken out quite eloquently on the topic of cultural appropriation. In researching Amandla’s work and words, I was very impressed with a video I saw from her on cultural appropriation where she chronicled a recent history of cultural appropriation and black hair specifically. (https://youtu.be/O1KJRRSB_XA)

I was most moved by the question she poses at the end of her video, a question I, too, have asked from lecture stages. “What would America be like if we loved black people as much as we love black culture?”

For me this is the question at the heart of the discussion about cultural appropriation. What of the people whose culture is being mined for the ingredients that can be used in mainstream contexts to spice up the otherwise familiar recipes?

Far too often culture is appropriated without an understanding of the history and hardships from which that culture emerges. How do we lovingly make people aware of that history and the potential affects of cultural appropriation that further marginalize and stigmatize those already the most adversely affected by systems that disadvantage certain experiences, bodies and identities over others? These are points Amandla makes beautifully in her video.

We live in a multi-cultural society where being influenced by cultures different from ours is inevitable. But when the traditions and practices of marginalized communities are used by those in power and the material conditions of those who are marginalized are not changed individually and systemically this is when cultural appropriation is deeply problematic and even potentially exploitative.

These are some of my brief thoughts on cultural appropriation, thoughts that I felt needed a context different from the 10 seconds I had on live TV on Sunday night.

I am writing this in the hopes of continuing a dialogue about this issue in a loving, empathetic way that is not about individual attacks but about individual accountability. I always hope we can celebrate cultural differences without erasing those from whom the culture originates.

When Sam Swiller used hearing aids, his musical tastes ran to AC/DC and Nirvana – loud bands with lots of drums and bass. But after Swiller got a cochlear implant in 2005, he found that sort of music less appealing.

“I was getting pushed away from sounds I used to love,” he says, “but also being more attracted to sounds that I never appreciated before.” So he began listening to folk and alternative music, including the Icelandic singer Bjork.

There are lots of stories like this among people who get cochlear implants. And there’s a good reason. A cochlear implant isn’t just a fancy hearing aid.

“A hearing aid is really just an amplifier,” says Jessica Phillips-Silver, a neuroscience researcher at Georgetown University. “The cochlear implant is actually bypassing the damaged part of the ear and delivering electrical impulses directly to the auditory nerve.”

As a result, the experience of listening to music or any other sound through the ear, with or without a hearing aid, can be completely unlike the experience of listening through a cochlear implant. “You’re basically remapping the audio world,” Swiller says.

Deaf Jam: Experiencing Music Through A Cochlear Implant

Waterlining is great for adding a little va-va-voom to your eyes and giving them that bit of extra sultry definition. Whether you want to add some drama to your rich, smoky eye or reduce redness and brighten brighten with a nude eyeliner,  waterlining can be a great technique. Whilst there is no way to get eyeliner on the waterline to last all day there are a few ways you can make it stretch a little further and not disappear five seconds after you’ve applied it…

I’ve been helping out with my neighborhood’s home tour this year, which has been a really fun way to get to know a bunch of my neighbors. (Seriously, this is obvious, but it’s incredible how much more attached you feel to a place when you get to know the people around you.)

In Daily Shouts, a few thoughts from Monet on those stacks of wheat:

September 21, 1890

I was going to take the day off, but then I looked at the calendar and flipped out because I had wanted to paint what a stack of wheat looks like at the end of summer in afternoon light. I must have completely blanked on what day it was, so I had to book it down to the farm. Got that wheatstack on the canvas toot sweet. But now that I’ve painted what a stack of wheat looks like at the end of summer, I guess I have to paint what a stack of wheat looks like at the end of fall. And if I do fall, I have to do end of winter. And then the end of spring. Crap.

Monday morning—we want to stay in bed all day!

Comes with blank census form so Barbie can self-identify gender and sexual orientation

Dolls will have the option to be either racially diverse or talk but not both