My Love Affair With Cultural Appropriation

I was about fourteen when the startling realization of my place in society hit me like a bag of coins across the face.

My eyes were literally bulging out of their sockets while staring up at the auditorium stage, where two uniformed police officers, one male and one female, stood sentry. Standing between the officers were two of my classmates, strapping fourteen-year-old black boys who lived in the surrounding neighborhood. The cops had been invited to the school by administrators. The ostensible reason for the invite was to establish trust between law enforcement and the teenagers who attended classes at Smiley Middle School.

The time came for the cops to initiate a roleplay of a “typical encounter” between police and the neighborhood kids. That is why those two black boys were occupying the same space as the police. The young boys feigned abject fear, flitting their eyes from side to side before turning to face each other, their mouths hanging open. The boys’ actions elicited nervous laughter from the kids in the audience.

The male police officer, an older white man with brown hair, sought to quell the emotions. “All right everyone,” he said. “Let’s calm down. Just calm down now.”

As the nervous laughter subsided, Officer Steve nodded to the female officer and said, “Okay Michelle. We can go…