Jacquelyn Mitchell

"Can I touch it?" the stranger asked. "It's so long, it's so black, it's so wavy," the woman said, reaching for Nusrat Qadir's hair. Then the stranger asked, "Is it real?" "No, I'm a blonde in disguise," replied Qadir, a second-generation American of East Indian descent, before she shook her head and walked away.

"Can I touch it?" the stranger asked. "It's so long, it's so black, it's so wavy," the woman said, reaching for Nusrat Qadir's hair. Then the stranger asked, "Is it real?" "No, I'm a blonde in disguise," replied Qadir, a second-generation American of East Indian descent, before she shook her head and walked away.

I thoroughly enjoyed "Intercultural Etiquette." I especially wish to praise Jacquelyn Mitchell for creating the course for her Afro-American studies program at UC Davis. Nevertheless, I do object to the implication that cultural borrowing is essentially insensitive to the natives. For one thing, if I hadn't seen the movie "10," I would have not been aware of the unique African-style braids. It has never occurred to me that the producers or Bo Derek were being racist or poking fun at another culture.