"Imitation is the greatest form of flattery," is how the saying goes, and that saying is as inaccurate as just about every United States History lesson plan being taught in America. All White people do is steal. Don't shoot the messenger, it's been proven through properly-taught history. But for some odd reason, the stereotype of thieves is often associated with Black people. It's 2016, and they're still stealing! Not in the manner that they did beginning in the 1600s, but through numerous other schemes, one of which is appropriation.

I equate it to that lingering White privilege that many of them involuntarily operate in. They see us doing it and decide that they should be able to do it too. There is absolutely nothing wrong with sincere admiration and appreciation. The problem comes in when we're told that our cultural identifiers are unfitting or have never existed.

I'm enraged and deeply annoyed every time I see a major magazine highlight a trend and dub it something new when, in fact, it's something that Black men and women have been doing for years. With that being said, you haven't discovered anything and there's nothing "new" about it. The message that this relays is that they're going to continue stealing trends and ideas and using them as their own. This is called cultural appropriation. What happened to giving credit where it's due? But then again, a thief isn't going to steal something and then enlighten everyone that it's stolen and who it has been stolen from.

Stop calling our Bantu knots "couture mini buns," when you throw them into your White models' heads. Stop acting like baby hair is the new thing. Black women have been gelling down their edges since the '80s. Apparently White women have discovered that wrapping their hair reduces frizziness and have gone as far as calling it a new technique. I can go on all day about the things that these culture vultures claim to have discovered. None of this is new. We've been doing these things for a number of years.

It may seem petty. It may cross some minds that it doesn't matter who did it first. But it does matter. It matters because everything that people of color do ends up being White-washed. The credit, the glory, the accolades, all of it is stolen because European Americans take everything they can get their hands on and call it their own. When they get their hands on it, they misconstrue things. There's no reason why movies on the history of Africa should contain an all-White cast. I'm still trying to figure out why the casting director of the work-in-progress Michael Jackson movie thought it would be a splendid idea to cast a White man to play our beloved Michael. We're all aware that Michael underwent some skin bleaching procedures to balance out the blotchiness caused by vitiligo. We're all aware that, over time, his appearance transformed dramatically. However, Michael Jackson was an awakened black man. There are interviews of him specifically stating that he didn't want a White actor playing him in a movie. But remember what I said: European Americans take everything they can get their hands on and White wash it.

The cultural appropriation and the White washing is irritating. But nothing strikes a nerve more than the backlash and criticism that we receive on things that make us who we are. There's a significant factor that adds to the beauty of being Black. Our genetic makeup allows for extreme diversity within the color of our skin, the texture of our hair and the structure of our faces and bodies. They won't verbally admit it, but I truly believe that many are enamored by us. It's all in their actions. White women everywhere strive to look like us. They get tans, they get lip injections, they try to wear our hairstyles, they have fat transfers done. They are going out of their ways to attain the features that many Black women are born with.

Now here's the issue with that: Black people everywhere are teased for having rich skin. Black people everywhere are made fun of for having full lips. Black people are being shunned, denied employment and kicked out of school for having kinky hair. Black women are made to feel indecent for having curves. But no sooner than a European American attempts to adopt a naturally-attained trait of an African American, they are praised for it. Every Halloween is flooded with disgusting images of White people dressed in Black face, mocking our culture.

And it doesn’t just happen around Halloween; social media has exposed the year round mockery of my beautifully-made people. We are being blatantly teased, belittled and made fun of.

This is why we side-eye the Kim Kardashians and Kylie Jenners of this world. This is why we're not here for Rachel Dolezal and her shenanigans, amongst other reasons. Why aren’t we allowed to be who God made us to be and be accepted for it? We are talking about factors that we have no power or control over. But when someone who was not born with it, and happens to be White, does it, there doesn’t seem to be an issue. They’re considered trend-setters with remarkable features.

So what you’re telling me is that the features are acceptable so long as they’re not on a Black person’s body?

They want the features but they don’t recognize what the Black people who have those features went through in the past and are still experiencing today. I would bet my last dollar that a European American wouldn’t be able to endure what we have been subjected to as African Americans. Starting from the very beginning, all the way up to today. Remember, it was the Moors who saved, educated and civilized them. *sips tea*

We are the OGs. We were born with the pigmented skin. We were born with the hair suitable for dreads, fros, cornrows and freestyle braids. We were born with the full lips. We were born with the thick thighs and broad hips. Those features are of us. Black men and women have been raped, castrated, beaten and murdered for having those features. My people were placed on display in human zoos to be groped and exhibited as primitive animals. These things are still happening today! Although they are not happening in the same manner that they happened during those past times, it’s still going on.

So no, I don’t take lightly to White folks adopting our characteristics. My culture is not a fad, a trend, or a costume, especially when we are persecuted and condemned for being a certain way. It is not something that anyone should be able to pay to have. Their ancestors did not, they have not, and their offspring will not have to suffer for being born Black and having those Black features. We are not going to peacefully allow them to adopt our characteristics without having endured our struggles. I’m unapologetically Black. I love the skin I’m in. I should not have to share it as I am to do with everything else in this world. I stand firmly by that and I will never change my mind about it.