Vice President for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Meshea L. Poore continues her weekly series of short videos, exploring topics centered on helping members of the WVU community live, learn and work together with care and respect for each other.
This week's video, released Oct. 19, addresses cultural appropriation.
“Halloween’s coming up, and this is a time of year when cultural appropriation often makes an appearance,” said Poore. “Here’s one good way to check in with yourself about costumes you may be thinking of putting together for this year’s festivities. If this costume involves a culture that is not your own, are you choosing it because you appreciate and want to honor and respect that culture? Is it out of appreciation? Or is it a case of appropriation? Appreciating other cultures is a good thing, but not when it veers into turning into some sort of pop culture stereotype or meme. You see, when your motivation is not right, then maybe the costume is not right.”
The Let’s Talk series, with a new video each Tuesday, addresses a diversity of topics, including equity, xenophobia, and ableism.