BUZZ
ANALYSIS: Who can say what is and what is not ‘cultural appropriation’? What are the rules?
Washington University in St. Louis recently opened a 24-hour convenience store at its popular campus student hangout Ursa’s Fireside.
The store was named “Bear Bodega” following a dining services contest … with a prize going to the student whose moniker was chosen.
According to a WashU University Services news release, the Bear Bodega utilizes Amazon’s “Just Walk Out” technology for “a fully checkout-free experience,” and offers “a variety of grab-and-go meals, snacks, beverages, and commonly purchased convenience items.”
Contributors to the student newspaper Student Life were less than enthusiastic; earlier this year Senior Forum Editor David Ciorba chided the checkout system as putting money in Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ pocket instead of offering employment opportunities to the local community.
This past week, contributor Lissy Portorreal expressed similar sentiments, but especially her displeasure at the use of “bodega.”
“While I am not blaming the student who submitted this name,” writes Portorreal, “it was a moment of oversight for WashU to choose this name without thinking of the cultural significance that comes with the word ‘bodega.’”
She says using “bodega” for the new store “contributes to the erasure of Caribbean culture and traditions,” especially Puerto Rican and Dominican.
My hometown, Lawrence, is about 85% Hispanic and has the second highest concentration of Dominicans in the United States — second only to New York City. Lawrence is a densely populated but small city, and due to its prominent Latine population, it has countless bodegas.
I spent most of my summers as a child at my grandma’s house. Her home sat in the middle of a one way street, but twice a week she sent me — along with my sister and my cousin — up the road to the bodega. …
A bodega is more than just a convenience store — it is a social center. Neighbors would check in with one another, gossip about an ongoing divorce, or ask about your extended family back in the Caribbean. …
The new Bear Bodega has no cashiers, no human connection, and no bodega man to take care of the community. It will be nothing like the bodegas I grew up with.
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Portorreal, who may have grown up in a low-SES community but attended an elite, $80,000-per-year private boarding school (where she won its “Social Justice Community Award” for “commitment” to DEI and “dedication to anti-racism”), does concede “bodega” originated in 19th-century Spain.
Given that Western European origin, would this not make use of “bodega” acceptable?
Then again, years ago in a move to be more “inclusive,” the University of California Merced told students not to use “Greek life” when referencing fraternities and sororities.
Universities also have stopped using words like “field” (allegedly anti-black), and even “American,” and objections have been noted against the words “grandfathering,” “picnic,” “brown bag,” “snowflake,” and even “booty.”
What are the rules when it comes to cultural appropriation? Should Bear Bodega put up a plaque or something noting the word’s history — like professors adding a land acknowledgement to their syllabi?
Even a columnist in the progressive Atlantic said of cultural appropriation: “The idea that I ought to stay in the cultural lane I was born into [is] outrageous … I don’t want to live in a world where the only cultural inspiration I’m entitled to comes from my roots.”
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