#stuffthathappens

I’m a regular participant in a local improv gym (that is people getting together who likely don’t know each other but will say yes and work on that). I’m also Latina AF. Today, I was in a situation where I was familiar with about 3% of the room and was open to the idea of meeting more people and going for drinks and such and finally we’re standing outside, waiting to all leave together, when a fellow member (white, Irish, female) discloses that she’s learning salsa and I ask why. 

This throws her off, she considers that she’s immersing herself in the culture when I point out that salsa isn’t a genre that belongs to the Spanish, and just when I’m getting ready to tell her that her choice can be best described as ordering steak at a seafood restaurant, a Spaniard gives us her two cents. 

“Well, but you can learn salsa anywhere.” This is true, but you don’t say you’re immersing yourself in Spanish culture by learning salsa because you’re perhaps ignorant non-European cultures. You can also learn about yoga anywhere around the world, but it’d be ridiculous to say that white chicks invented it and you most definitely don’t tell people you’re immersing yourself in white chick culture through it. “I understand that salsa isn’t ours but we’ve made it our own.”