Cultural Appropriation This year in Spanish we did a unit on cultural appropriation and wrote an essay arguing its importance. Some of the things we talked about was how modern Native Americans are portrayed in popular media. For decades, Native Americans have been depicted in childlike, over sexualized, savage ways. While at the same time, they culture being used in inappropriate ways. White people participate in "Pow Wows" and wear feathers in their hair and big head dresses at music festivals, while not respecting the cultural significance these things have to Native Americans. This assignment in Spanish class fits within the pillar Recognize Perspectives because it helped me to understand the feelings that minorities have when they see someone trivializing an important aspect of their religious or cultural beliefs without even respecting them as a people. Furthermore, this addresses my overarching question in that it helped me to see how, after centuries of genocide of the Native American people, dominant white culture then begins to completely destroy the meaning of the culture of Native Americans. This assignment helped me see another aspect of Native peoples fight for basic human rights in the US.