ARE YOU REPPING BLACK CULTURE OR EXPLOITING IT? (Feat. Uncle Smiley The DJ)

Hey UN•THERAPIST,

We need your help UN•THERAPIZING something, in your opinion, where’s the line between representation and exploitation?

We had a conversation surrounding the cartoon "Hey AJ" and one of the characters, Captain Durag, a superhero who wears a durag and flies around helping people.

Now, for some people, it was funny. Nostalgic even. But for others, it was offensive.

And what made the conversation even more interesting was that some of the same people who are upset about the character actively wear durags and bonnets themselves.

Once people found out the show's creator was Black, some of the outrage softened.

So now we had even more questions 👇🏾

📌 Was the issue really the representation itself?

📌 Was the discomfort connected to who was representing it?

📌 When does showing culture become exploiting culture?

Because sometimes we say we want representation, until the mirror reflects something we don’t want amplified.

So now we’re asking 👇🏾

📌 Are we upset because it’s inaccurate?

📌 Because it feels stereotypical?

📌 Or because it feels too familiar?

📌 And does intent matter depending on who created it?

📌 At what point does cultural expression become cultural exploitation, and who gets to decide where that line is?

Join us for another session of UN•THERAPY as we UN•THERAPIZE representation vs exploitation, cultural sensitivity, identity in media, and why some reflections make us proud… while others make us uncomfortable.

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