Aunt Jemima is gone, the Washington Redskins are gone, and the Cleveland Indians are gone.
Now a law professor wants to make sure companies that don't comply fast enough can be dragged into federal court.
Meet the new plan to turn cultural appropriation into a weapon with the full force of American law behind it.
Jeep Grand Cherokee Is the Target and Cultural Appropriation Law Is the Weapon
J. Janewa Osei-Tutu – a law professor at the University of Miami – has published a paper in Race, Racism and the Law calling for federal copyright law to be expanded into a new category she calls "cultural personality rights."
The target that makes her argument concrete is Jeep.
Osei-Tutu argues that the Grand Cherokee – a vehicle Jeep has sold since 1992, that makes up 43 percent of the company's American sales, and that millions of families have driven for three decades – should be forced off the market because Jeep profits from the Cherokee name without permission.
Her theory is that just as Taylor Swift can stop someone from using her name to sell T-shirts, cultural groups should be able to stop corporations from using their identity for commercial gain.
Intellectual property laws, she writes, are "underinclusive" because they protect individual identities but leave "cultural heritage" exposed to what she calls "misappropriation."
Stripped of the academic language, she wants to make cultural appropriation a federal offense.
Jonathan Turley Says It Would Unleash Endless Lawsuits on American Business
Jonathan Turley – George Washington University law professor and one of the country's most respected constitutional scholars – read the proposal and did not mince words.
"The proposal in this article would blow apart the copyright laws and use them to weaponize claims of cultural appropriation," Turley wrote. "It would codify the culture of viewpoint intolerance and speech regulation that currently characterizes higher education."
The enforcement mechanism is what should alarm every American business owner.
Osei-Tutu's framework gives any cultural group standing to sue over "impermissible" appropriation – but deliberately leaves the definition of impermissible vague, arguing the details can be worked out later.
Turley called that out directly: she "brushes aside the pesky problems in introducing such a subjective or self-defining standard into federal law."
That vagueness is the point – it hands activist lawyers an infinitely expandable tool.
Every Italian restaurant using a Roman name, every Irish pub, every country singer wearing a cowboy hat derived from Mexican vaquero tradition – all of it becomes actionable under a standard nobody can define in advance.
Turley says the result would be "endless lawsuits against creators and companies."
The Jeep Cherokee Name Change Fight Is Back and This Time It Has Federal Teeth
The woke name-change wave of 2020 ran on public pressure – boycotts, social media mobs, and corporate cowardice in the boardroom.
It worked.
Aunt Jemima became Pearl Milling Company. Uncle Ben's became Ben's Original. The Washington Redskins became the Washington Commanders. The Cleveland Indians became the Cleveland Guardians.
Jeep resisted – and when Newsweek asked current CEO Bob Broderdorf whether he had considered changing the Cherokee name, his answer was one word: "No."
Osei-Tutu actually claims in her paper that Jeep "finally agreed in 2023 to stop using the name Cherokee on its iconic vehicle." Turley fact-checked that claim in real time: Jeep is currently marketing 2026 Cherokees.
The professor cited a capitulation that never happened.
That detail reveals exactly how this law would work – advocates define the facts, define the violations, and companies face ruinous litigation costs just to prove their innocence.
Corporate America caved in 2020 because the cost of fighting back felt higher than the cost of surrendering.
A federal law eliminates the option to fight back entirely.
The Melting Pot Is the Target
Turley's sharpest point is personal.
As an Italian American and Irish American, he writes, he sees his own culture's language, food, and traditions woven throughout American life every day – and he considers that a source of pride, not a legal grievance waiting to happen.
America's strength has always come from that constant exchange – cultures arriving, contributing, and becoming part of something bigger than any one group.
Osei-Tutu's framework would put a federal price tag on that process and hand lawyers the power to bill anyone who participates without written consent.
The radical Left spent years telling America it needed to become more diverse and multicultural.
Now their law professors want to criminalize the natural result of exactly that mixing.
Sources:
- Jonathan Turley, "Law Professor Calls for Extension of Copyright Laws to Claims of Cultural Appropriation," jonathanturley.org, May 19, 2026.
- Stephen M. Lepore, "Jeep faces being forced to change name over 'cultural appropriation' under woke professor's plan to overhaul federal law," Daily Mail, May 22, 2026.
- "Jeep Sticking with Cherokee Name Despite Woke Outcry," Newsweek, November 4, 2025.
