Now as a newly established Chapter, the sisters of Omicron Chapter wanted to start a discussion
with members outside of our APIDA community. We joined our friends, the brothers of Sigma
Lambda Beta, for some food and discussion regarding Cultural Appreciation versus Appropriation.

This fall has been our first official semester as the Omicron Chapter of Alpha Phi Gamma
National Sorority Inc! Following this accomplishment, we wanted to make sure to stay in touch
with our roots and the original goals that our Charter Constellation Class set for us. It has always
been the goal for the ladies of this chapter to spread cultural awareness to our university, which
led us to this semester’s focus event, APhiG Discusses Appreciation vs Appropriation. This
event was held on November 17th, alongside the brothers of Sigma Lambda Beta International
Fraternity Incorporated, Kappa Chapter (Sigma Lambda Beta is currently the largest Latino
Fraternity in the United States)!

At our event, we enjoyed a wonderful socially-distanced cultural meal. The brothers
brought homemade steak, al pastor, and chicken tacos and our own sisters provided chicken and
pork adobo. This provided us a great opportunity to meet the brothers at UIUC while also
learning more about their culture through their food and lively conversations. During this
potluck, we got to introduce ourselves to each other and also learn about the cultural and social
differences and similarities between our organizations, simultaneously planning future
collaborations.

After settling down with the conversation enjoying the delicious meals, and making sure everyone filled out the waiver form 😉 our Cultural Community Chair shared an informative and thought-provoking presentation about the difference between cultural appropriation and cultural appreciation, as well as how to call it out when we see cultural appropriation taking place. We received a list of questions to help us and others draw the line between the two, such as “Am I honoring this culture or simply imitating it?” and “Do I understand the significance of what I am doing here?”. We learned ways to be more culturally sensitive and aware, and how to continuously battle cultural appropriation on a larger scale. Afterward, there was a stimulating Q and A session where we discussed how our own school mascot had changed because of how our school had learned from its mistake of cultural appropriation, leading to a discussion about how it is okay to make mistakes, as long as we are always learning from them. This event was a great opportunity to strengthen our connection with another organization outside of the APIDA community, and continue to work on our goal of spreading cultural awareness. We hope to continue hosting events like these, and we are excited to be able to share our achievements!

If you’d like to view the presentation, here is the link:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1T7daCyubh0kCrc0ZoHf_csRZvXAepfzon39kpIm-
sTY/edit?usp=sharing

For questions, please reach out to draco.aphig@gmail.com!