Step Sisters

Set on the campus of a fictional university, the greek system is clearly divided between sororities and black sororities. The black sororities have a long tradition of participating in Step competitions and shows and it is part of their historical/cultural pride as black students. Then a white sorority gets put on probation and is about to have its charter pulled. The solution (presented by the Dean) is to have his black, Harvard aspiring intern teach the white sorority girls how to Step and enter them into the school competition. How could anything go wrong? I love watching dance films like this, and usually there is a cultural appropriation plot device that is used to give the story tension and an arc. But I wonder about the message. Is cultural appropriation OK if it is approved of by the culture being appropriated? How many of those cultural representatives (people) need to approve? Or is the approval in this case only in the fact that a bunch of money was donated to a cultural center? Or is the normalization achieved when the mainstream (read white) newspaper praises the overall effort? Can a people own a culture, or does cultural evolution always push current members beyond their comfort zone? This was not a great film, by any means. But thinking gets a bump in my ratings.
4 stars (out of 5)