Dr. Neal Lester is a professor of African American Studies at Arizona State University.
As a guest on Dr. Phil, he stated "I put [cultural appropriation] on the same level of white supremacy, because white supremacy [is] intersectional." According to Dr. Lester, "when we're putting on someone else's culture, that is somebody else's identity." He continued by stating that "white supremacy is embedded in everything, in everything, and cultural appropriation is about that."
Dr. Lester also attacked white people with dreadlocks and afros by calling their appearance a "performance." He stated, "you do that because it's edgy, it's cool, but ultimately because it's not you." According to Dr. Lester, "you're getting some type of cultural capital from that."
Dr. Lester also wrote an article titled No, I'm not okay in which he discusses racism in America. He states to his "white friends who ask if I am okay, the answer is, ‘No, I am not okay.'" He continues by claiming that asking that question during the Covid-19 pandemic which "is disproportionately killing black and brown people in the US, and while experiencing the trauma resulting from the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd is not good." He also states that "Dealing with American racism in all of its insidious forms, police brutality, human loss and suffering cannot be captured in sound bites."
In the same article, he continues, "I am also not okay when I see so many Facebook posts and threads now of alleged white allies asking black folks to give them a blueprint of how and where to direct their anger and outrage." He then dismisses complaints about the 2020 riots that saw property destroyed across the United States. He says "While I do not legitimize violence as a principle, I ask that concerned individuals – black and white – measure the impact of destroying property as compared to killing people." He states that "Property can be insured and rebuilt. Dead bodies cannot be resurrected with a life insurance policy."
