Rae's Reads and Reviews

Today I’m doing something a little different. I’ll still be doing an in-depth recap this Saturday but this episode was so good, I wanted to post some of my thoughts right away.

let's talk cultural appropriation.
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new #grownish tonight at 8/7c on @FreeformTV. pic.twitter.com/v7YBPKjGG4

— grown-ish (@grownish) July 10, 2019

So this episode was all about cultural appropriation. Doug wanted to call out Vivek about appropriating black culture. Aaron felt like Vivek was just appreciating their culture, not appropriating. Nomi tried to school Sky on cultural appropriation and Sky called her out on doing just that with her hoop earrings and group of all POC friends.

who's ready to get educated? #grownish // @chloexhalle pic.twitter.com/zayiItBp0R

— grown-ish (@grownish) July 11, 2019

Zoey was doing her little styling/philanthropy thing and it really wasn’t that interesting. She had another epiphany about being selfish. At least she wasn’t in any drama this time.

Aaron tried to talk to Ana, talking about how he misses her and whatnot. She hit him with a “Thanks” and went on doing her thing. I was honestly so happy for sis, she’s becoming her own person and not worried about Aaron anymore.

Here’s what I have to say:

I honestly don’t think Vivek was culturally appropriating. Like he said to Doug later on in the episode, Vivek struggles with his identity and Hawkins really accepted him. He wasn’t trying to steal black culture, he just really connected with the people at Hawkins.

I feel like the Zoey storyline was super unnecessary for this episode. Nothing important happened there. It was the usual “Zoey figures out she’s selfish” realization she’s had every couple episodes.

The fact that she gave away Luca’s tux from formal is wild and definitely overstepping her boundary. That wasn’t hers to give away in the first place. Also, I didn’t even notice Luca wasn’t a part of this episode. He’s honestly not that important to me. Whether he’s in Season 3 or not is whatever.

I’m happy Doug and Vivek are good now. I do love Doug and I get the reasoning behind it, but Vivek’s the realest one on their team. Vivek has been supporting everyone in the crew longer than Doug, that’s for sure. But, I do love both their characters and I’m so happy they got that extra screen time.

There is a very very thin line between appropriation and appreciation. I love how #GrownIsh is tackling this topic!

— 🙏🏽 (@NateDaBoss13) July 11, 2019

What do you think qualifies as cultural appropriation?

How did you feel about Vivek getting actual lines?

What did you think of this week’s episode?

Let me know in the comments, let’s chat!