Cultural appropriation and microaggressions are common complaints on campuses across the country, including most recently an allegation of cultural appropriation raised after a drum line formed at an event at UC Davis. Now, Miami law professor J. Janewa Osei-Tutu has suggested codifying cultural appropriation claims as copyright violations. It is the type of incredible proposal that is eagerly embraced inside, and largely ignored outside, of higher education.
In her paper “Protecting Cultural Personality” in Race, Racism and the Law, Osei-Tutu calls out various companies for designs or slogans that she views as impermissible cultural appropriation:
“Fashion houses and brands, such as Timbuk2 and Louis Vuitton, have designed and marketed clothing based on traditional ethnic clothing styles or symbols, or named their fashion lines after established cultural groups. This is often done without the knowledge, consent, or involvement of the cultural group. Unlike brands such as Coca Cola, Nike, or Apple, or Taylor Swift, these cultural identities and their corresponding cultural heritages are perceived as belonging to no one and therefore free for anyone to take and monetize.”
The sources that she cites include such claimed violations as Comme des Garçons featuring white models with cornrow wigs as appropriating black culture.
She also cites how protests led to various companies withdrawing products accused of cultural appropriation, including Jeep, which “after discussions with the Cherokee Nation … finally agreed in 2023 to stop using the name “Cherokee” on its iconic vehicle.” That may come as something of a surprise to Jeep, which, after redesigning the line due to poor sales, is marketing the 2026 Cherokees.
Denouncing intellectual property laws as “underinclusive,” Professor Osei-Tutu insists that it is unfair for companies but not cultures to be able to use copyright laws.
There are obvious reasons for this distinction, including the protection of creative and free expression. As is often the case on the left, the regulation of speech is often justified in the name of inclusion or diversity.
Osei-Tutu’s proposal would codify the ambiguous, subjective standards that are now commonly raised in universities and colleges. It would prevent artists and speakers from using common imagery or expressions in product expression and design.
The replication of cultural images or references reflects their influence on our society. They are part of our collective identity. Groups that were once isolated and even suppressed have become valued reference points. As an Italian American and an Irish American, I regularly see the language, foods, and traditions of my culture in society. Even when some make me cringe, I am proud of that influence. These are contributions to a “melting pot” of different cultures (a term itself listed as a microaggression).
For those embedded with identity politics and scholarship, there is no greater threat than notions of cultural assimilation and cross-cultural norms.
Professor Osei-Tutu believes that copyright laws could create a system of enforcement of “cultural personality rights.” With the imprimatur of federal law, cultural appropriation would become more of a recognized and enforceable principle.
She emphasizes that each group can base such claims on its own self-definition:
“The group can be self-defining and it is not necessary for the public to have significant knowledge of the group. It suffices that the public is aware that an indigenous group called the ‘Cherokee’ exists. An awareness and understanding of the accurate representation of the cultural identity is not necessary. The fact that the appropriating entity is sufficiently aware of the cultural identity to adopt and use it for commercial purposes indicates not only recognition of the cultural personality but also of its potential commercial value.”
It is hardly surprising that this theory would gain acclaim and traction in higher education, where faculties run from the left to the far left. Appointments and publications today tend to be the result of a race to the left. Anti-free-speech publications continue to outnumber pro-free-speech publications substantially. Articles that trash the Constitution or call for radical changes to our constitutional or legal systems find eager audiences on faculties and law reviews.
The proposal in this article would blow apart the copyright laws and use them to weaponize claims of cultural appropriation. It would codify the culture of viewpoint intolerance and speech regulation that currently characterizes higher education.
Professor Osei-Tutu brushes aside the pesky problems in introducing such a subjective or self-defining standard into federal law. She writes that the actual details can come later:
“Drawing on a dignity-based version of the U.S. right of publicity, trademark law, and human rights law, this Article has articulated the normative foundations to establish a legal framework for a cultural personality right. This Article focuses on the challenging first step of justifying a new cultural identity right rather than detailing the precise scope and limitations of such a right.”
She also brushes aside the dangers to free speech, which she recognizes but insists “[q]uestions regarding freedom of expression, which go beyond the scope of the current Article.”
Of course, citizens would support such a proposal. However, the hope is that such a change could be added to a list of radical measures to pursue if Democrats retake power. Professor Osei-Tutu also notably calls for international recognition of this right, a pitch that is likely to receive greater support from various international bodies.
If successful, it would also allow any group to effectively control images and references related to their culture: “This ability to control the use of one’s cultural heritage and collective identity by excluding those outside the community is one of the salient aspects of the debates regarding the misappropriation of intangible cultural heritage.”
It is an approach that would Balkinize commercial speech and unleash endless lawsuits against creators and companies.
Jonathan Turley is a law professor and the best-selling author of “Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution.”
Can anyone imagine this person with this mindset getting, and keeping, a real job in society? Are law school faculty actually idiot magnets?
Law schools are indeed idiot magnets.
Look no further than Jonathan Turley as proof of this.
Not only that, Turley himself acts a magnet for the idiots such as you who infest this miserable excuse for a blog.
Oooooh, such a clever, witty put-down. Your mom must be proud to have raised such a genius. You rival Heath Ledger in dark brilliance! /sarc
I may or may not be part Indian, probably am. I get sick and tired of left-wing so-called Indians spouting off about how “colonizers” stole this that and the other. They are AMERICANS, just like the rest of us, now and they need to come to grips with that fact. Ignore her!
There is no end to flow of stupid and pernicious ideas coming from the addled brains of “academic” progressives. She should return her law degree since it is based on a foundation of ideas developed by white oppressive dead European patriarchal cis gender men. Also since Basketball was invented by a white person, the vast majority of NBA players are cultural appropriators
She would have better chance peddling such absurdities in Canada, where they readily embrace this type of stupidity.
It occurs to me that while the majority of the citizenry in this country manage to get a life and pursue it, the detritusof the 60s counterculture revolution found their way into the hallowed halls of education from preschool up to the college in universities of the professions, clearly understanding that the only way to profoundly change society is to get at it while it’s young.
Law professor J. Janewa Osei-Tutu will have to give up her clothes her hair color and style…clearly ‘cultural appropriation’ in her case
Same for Maxine Waters…surrender that wig b***h!
This copyright idea for ‘cultural appropriation’ is so stupid it could only have come from a DEI hire in a university.
Besides flirtations with Marxism I suspect DEI is responsible for the dramatic decline in the quality of university education and the value of a diploma.
And realize this: Janewa has a hand in training future lawyers and judges, thus polluting our courts with lunacy like this.
Young – check out these hypothetical examples:
https://x.com/elonmusk/status/2055733245417750793
Obama played by a Ryan Gosling, Muhammad Ali played by Mark Wahlburg, etc.
Oldman–
That’s great!
I think I want to see Mike Tyson in the role of Cinderella.
That would be true Diversity, Inclusion and Equity [DIE].
Isn’t this just another example of the Divisiveness in DEI? I’m not a conspiracy guy, but this seems like an attempt by the Marxists to sabotage Western society by emulating and expanding on (appropriating) the biblical story of the tower of Babel. If white people can’t use native American words, can others use English, etc? Can Africans, Asians or Europeans play basketball? Where would it end?
Apparently, publish or perish applies to low-IQ pseudo-intellectual DEI hires, just as it does to actual scholars.
There is a fantastic Indian documentary called “Raja, Rasoi Aur Anya Kahaniyaan.” It is mostly about Indian cuisine. There are some interesting segments about changing demographics due to wars and migration and the effects on the cuisine. Cultural appropriation works in both directions. Cultural appropriation will continue regardless of the efforts of some delusional academic’s efforts to politicize and monetize it. She can go sit on a fencepost and rotate.
Has this idiot professor had any comment regarding the play “Hamilton”? If not, why not?
No, and she was fine with casting a black woman as a 9th-century Viking king.
Don’t forget the black Helen of Troy.
Posted this above, meant to be here. Some hilarious examples of the Left’s double standards.
https://x.com/elonmusk/status/2055733245417750793
You guys beat me to the punch. This occurred to me the moment I saw the Professor’s post.
Once again, if the left accuses you of something, it’s because they’re already shamelessly guilty.
That she’s from Canada, schooled in Canada, began her career in Canada, likely says a great deal about her philosophical leanings
Clarence and Ginni Thomas’s latest luxury cruise aboard a Republican megadonor’s superyacht hit an unfortunate snag on Tuesday when a major hantavirus outbreak struck the vessel.
Fears abounded that the couple might become infected by the virus, which can spread via rat to rat contact.
In Washington, Samuel Alito’s wife sent out a distress signal by flying the QAnon flag in her front yard upside down.
In another setback for the Thomases, Donald J. Trump ordered Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to mastermind the response.
^ So funny I forgot to laugh ^
Once again you prove that left wing nuts lost the ability to be funny.
TDS, TDS …
Liberalism is a mental disorder.
True.
And the Left ruins everything it touches.
Seems unconstitutional to me. The sort of protection this professor seeks would (1) do nothing to promote the progress of science and useful arts; (2) not be for a limited time; (3) belong neither to authors nor to inventors. Therefore Congress is not authorized to make such a law, and it would violate the first amendment.
Agreed. The next step for these absurd academics would then be state laws. But those would, in my view, violate substantive due process, as they would not survive rational basis let alone strict scrutiny, the latter of which would likely apply given they limit a fundamental right – freedom of speech – as yo point out.
So in reaching the peak of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, we have embraced the absurd.
What an achievement. /sarc
Seems like childish silliness from an attention-seeking academic nobody.
Ok, that’s fine, but then black people can’t make or sell hot dogs or hamburgers, nobody but Italians can make pizza or spaghetti, and nobody but those of European descent can make or play a violin.
It was be a sad world where only those with a racial or ethnic heritage that spawned any of the myriad parts of our vast, shared culture were able to take part in it.
Just plain stupid.
Not so fast, dear Anon. Pizza is based and an improvement of the flatbreads used by North African nomads. Spaghetti, Vermicelli, etc are variations of Mie brought back from Asia by Marco Polo. People have migrated and cultures have mixed and mingled for tenths of thousands of years. In most cases, it may not even be possible to accurately allocate cultural phenomena to certain ethnic groups with any reasonable degree of accuracy. The idea is stupid in that the result would be the balkanization and then sub-balkanization of humanity for no apparent benefit then to separate us for the purpose of control (divide and conquer on a global scale). Academia is losing its credibility at an increasing pace with the nonsense it produces. Perhaps we should start with reducing the exorbitant salaries professors at US universities receive, far more than professors are paid in any other country. And stop subsidizing useless research with taxpayer funded grant money.
Want to know why the American people don’t honor, respect or obey the law. This article explains it beautifully. The combination of academia’s insanity with the judiciary’s power is poison to our society. Unfettered, this lunacy leaves us only one option. Disdain, disrespect, contempt and disobedience. Cornered by this madness, The People will react. Once that happens the world will be a much different place. Very different. Perhaps better. Perhaps not.
Bah haha – the psuedo PhD Prof’s name says it all. This idiot is just looking for ‘reparations’ in any form possible. The evil Racist, Colonialist, Supremacist “person of non-color” was (seems to think IS) the root of all her ‘people’s’ woes and only MONEY will make it ALL GOOD NOW, right? Typical Illuminati of Color trying to pry that World Wallet open for a few more dollars (cause she ain’t gettin no yuan, ruble, rupee, or other international currency). NOT GONNA HAPPEN IN THIS LIFETIME SWEETHEART! BACK TO YOUR DIRT FLOOR CLASSROOM DRAWING BOARD.
I hereby stake my claim to the self-defined, “cultural personality right:” white boy.
Let the royalties roll in from all those who culturally appropriated the word “white.” (You can have “boy” for free.)
That includes you Sherwin-Williams, with your extensive line of subtlety tinted *white* paints. An you Taylor Swift with your song titled “*White* Horse.” And all you appropriating companies who create *white* noise devices.
An insane take – again – from the left. What if Europeans did the same? Would black women give up their hair straighteners? What about all the musical instruments invented by whites? Pianos, saxophones, trumpets, trombone? Would this extend to inventions? Only Chinese could use gun powder. Only Americans could get polio shots, fly in airplanes and use cell phones. We could claim the moon as its original indigenous people. This woman is a moron.