Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
Editorials & Other Articles
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: White hip hop artist under fire [View all]kwassa
(23,340 posts)391. It isn't up to you whether it exists or not. Me, either.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_appropriation
http://racerelations.about.com/od/diversitymatters/fl/What-Is-Cultural-Appropriation-and-Why-Is-It-Wrong.htm
http://everydayfeminism.com/2013/09/cultural-exchange-and-cultural-appropriation/
Cultural appropriation is the adoption of elements of one culture by members of a different cultural group, specifically the use by cultural outsiders of a minority, oppressed culture's symbols or other cultural elements.[1][2] It differs from acculturation or assimilation in that cultural "appropriation" or "misappropriation" refers to the adoption of these cultural elements, taken from minority cultures by members of the dominant culture, and then using these elements outside of their original cultural context. This cultural property may be forms of dress or personal adornment, music or art, religion, language, intellectual property or social behavior, all of which may have deep cultural meaning to the original culture, but may be used as fashion by those from outside that culture.
http://racerelations.about.com/od/diversitymatters/fl/What-Is-Cultural-Appropriation-and-Why-Is-It-Wrong.htm
Susan Scafidi, a law professor at Fordham University, told Jezebel.com that its difficult to give a concise explanation of cultural appropriation. The author of Who Owns Culture? Appropriation and Authenticity in American Law, defined cultural appropriation as follows:
Taking intellectual property, traditional knowledge, cultural expressions, or artifacts from someone else's culture without permission. This can include unauthorized use of another culture's dance, dress, music, language, folklore, cuisine, traditional medicine, religious symbols, etc. It's most likely to be harmful when the source community is a minority group that has been oppressed or exploited in other ways or when the object of appropriation is particularly sensitive, e.g. sacred objects.
In the United States, cultural appropriation almost always involves members of the dominant culture (or those who identify with it) borrowing from the cultures of minority groups. African Americans, Asian Americans, Native Americans and indigenous peoples generally tend to emerge as the groups targeted for cultural appropriation. Black music and dance, Native American fashions, decorations and cultural symbols, and Asian martial arts and dress have all fallen prey to cultural appropriation.
http://everydayfeminism.com/2013/09/cultural-exchange-and-cultural-appropriation/
But even if the line between exchange and appropriation bends, twists, and loop-de-loops in ways it would take decades of academic thought to unpack, it has a definite starting point: Respect.
What Cultural Exchange Is Not
One of the reasons that cultural appropriation is a hard concept to grasp for so many is that Westerners are used to pressing their own culture onto others and taking what they want in return.
We tend to think of this as cultural exchange when really, its no more an exchange than pressuring your neighbors to adopt your ideals while stealing their family heirlooms.
True cultural exchange is not the process of Heres my culture, Ill have some of yours that we sometimes think it is. Its something that should be mutual.
Just because Indian Americans wear business suits doesnt mean all Americans own bindis and saris. Just because some black Americans straighten their hair doesnt mean all Americans own dreadlocks.
The fact is, Western culture invites and, at times, demands assimilation. Not every culture has chosen to open itself up to being adopted by outsiders in the same way.
And theres good reason for that.
Ethnic clothes and hairstyles are still stigmatized as unprofessional, cultural foods are treated as exotic past times, and the vernacular of people of color is ridiculed and demeaned.
So there is an unequal exchange between Western culture an all-consuming mishmash of over-simplified and sellable foreign influences with a dash each of Coke and Pepsi and marginalized cultures.
People of all cultures wear business suits and collared shirts to survive. But when one is of the dominant culture, adopting the clothing, food, or slang of other cultures has nothing to do with survival.
So as free as people should be to wear whatever hair and clothing they enjoy, using someone elses cultural symbols to satisfy a personal need for self-expression is an exercise in privilege.
Because for those of us who have felt forced and pressured to change the way we look, behave, and speak just to earn enough respect to stay employed and safe, our modes of self-expression are still limited.
Edit history
Please sign in to view edit histories.
443 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight:
NoneDon't highlight anything
5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
RecommendedHighlight replies with 5 or more recommendations
do you think it is acceptable for black people to be pop/country/classical/polka artists?
msongs
Dec 2014
#3
One can criticize Iggy Azalea for being a tasteless jerk aping racist stereotypes...
Odin2005
Dec 2014
#301
It's a good thing I have a strong historico-theoretical basis for my opinion.
Gravitycollapse
Dec 2014
#286
Charley Pride proves it's acceptable for black people to be country artists
jmowreader
Dec 2014
#121
Yep. A cool thing about country is that it has evolved in its give and take with other musical forms
ancianita
Dec 2014
#349
She is Australian and changes her vocal style to sound like she's African American
gollygee
Dec 2014
#9
To be fair, the OP (unlike you) only used quotation marks when quoting someone.
Nye Bevan
Dec 2014
#10
Again, it is about her changing her style of speech to mimic African Americans
gollygee
Dec 2014
#14
Cultural appropriation is when dominant groups take over something from an oppressed group
gollygee
Dec 2014
#76
Beg pardon? I don't think you mean he was well spoken for a person of color. Thats the way he talked
marble falls
Dec 2014
#376
My parents like a country music singer from (I think) Australia who fakes his southern accent.
arcane1
Dec 2014
#37
black people in australia are not african americans unless they are visiting or expats
JI7
Dec 2014
#33
"This thread is going nowhere" Don't ALL race threads on this clueless web site go nowhere? Isn't
Number23
Dec 2014
#229
He doesn't appropriate a stereotyped version of a speaking style of a person of color
gollygee
Dec 2014
#418
I agree. It is very racist to claim someone can't sing a certain way because they are white
joeglow3
Dec 2014
#332
Actually, she changed her vocal style to sound like a southern rapper...not AA per se.
PragmaticLiberal
Dec 2014
#92
I would rather look at Rihanna or Beyoncé than Iggy. Not so much with Nicki Minaj..
_Blue_
Dec 2014
#243
Iggy's sound and style is popular. She shouldn't be punished for artistic success.
_Blue_
Dec 2014
#247
Mick Jagger and Mick Hucknall are English, John Fogerty is American, and they do the same thing.
Ken Burch
Dec 2014
#350
I would have told her: Welcome to the club, plus the exploitation and the people that have been..
BlueJazz
Dec 2014
#35
she only gets emotional while talking about both her songs and slave reparations.
Calista241
Dec 2014
#410
Now that I think about it, I don't see African Americans playing banjo very often either.
arcane1
Dec 2014
#42
Ahistorical reductionism is not a valid intellectual position. Try again.
Gravitycollapse
Dec 2014
#21
Who exactly appointed you the judge of what is or is not a "valid intellectual position"
branford
Dec 2014
#25
Unprovable in what respect? If you want to be an absolutist, up your semantics game.
Gravitycollapse
Dec 2014
#279
WRONG! Native Americans certainly own the right to call their artwork "Native American".
KittyWampus
Dec 2014
#90
Yes, Ayn Rand, you have the legal right to do a number of irresponsible things. n/t
gollygee
Dec 2014
#242
So, I just watched an Iggy Azalea video so I would know what the brouhaha is over
TransitJohn
Dec 2014
#82
Thank you, beat me to the punch. I don't care about Iggy personally but she stinks.
sir pball
Dec 2014
#216
It would be like saying Azealia Banks wears a straight wig to give herself a more anglo look...
951-Riverside
Dec 2014
#30
If you think that hair is "anglo", you are ignorant of African-American style.
morningfog
Dec 2014
#38
I'm only pointing out how absurd and idiotic her attack on Icky Australian is
951-Riverside
Dec 2014
#39
Of course it is acceptable. You can't control music and art like something you own.
Vattel
Dec 2014
#40
Can she take it? Here is her twitter log regarding the latest Banks poutrage...
MelungeonWoman
Dec 2014
#192
And yet, like most popular male rappers, they're nowhere near exceptional in their rapping skills.
nomorenomore08
Dec 2014
#253
White appropriation of black culture is nothing new but Iggy takes it to another level
Number23
Dec 2014
#45
His name's Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu, and unlike Iggy he's amazingly talented...
Violet_Crumble
Dec 2014
#399
"difference between Iggy and Eminem and the Beastie Boys is that they've got talent and she doesn't"
EX500rider
Dec 2014
#306
Actually yes.....and if Eminem's talent is singing about raping Iggy I can do without, thanks..
EX500rider
Dec 2014
#318
So it's about the money. It's really only offensive because she's successful. n/t
hughee99
Dec 2014
#107
If you got that out of my post, out of the article in the OP and out of the comments in this thread
Number23
Dec 2014
#125
So I should do a bit of research into the number of black people that railed about
hughee99
Dec 2014
#140
As I said in my first post to you, your inability to read and process the lines of this conversation
Number23
Dec 2014
#141
The style is part of the artistic work, and the style is what is being appropriated.
kwassa
Dec 2014
#263
Okay, so this is not really what we were discussing before, where style is part of an artist's
hughee99
Dec 2014
#274
Cultural appropriation has a definition. It has been posted repeatedly. Read it and understand.
kwassa
Dec 2014
#387
Nice to see you, fishwax. You're one of a handful DUers that has really tried to not make this place
Number23
Dec 2014
#291
That one post was all that was needed on this OP. Thanks for saying it: she uses it to....
marble falls
Dec 2014
#380
there is sort of an implicit racism in implying southern black women sound a particular way.
KittyWampus
Dec 2014
#91
They call Aerosmith "the grandfathers of rap" because of "Walk This Way"..
Ghost in the Machine
Dec 2014
#144
Wah Wah Wah, Someone else wants to express themselves in the same medium as me.
Taitertots
Dec 2014
#84
However you and your sister might not have fit in with some black strippers in Miami either.
EX500rider
Dec 2014
#308
Anyone who believes in racial appropriation is a segregationist and instant racist.
chrisa
Dec 2014
#127
he edited to add the message body vs just title, to make sure it was hideable
uppityperson
Dec 2014
#204
how do you make it? as kids we liked cold rice with milk, sugar, cinnamon for breakfast, it got
uppityperson
Dec 2014
#209
So you're a Dan Snyder fan, who thinks redface on football fans is just 'honoring' Native Americans?
Erich Bloodaxe BSN
Dec 2014
#254
the Beastie Boys 'Paul's Boutique' is widely regarded as one of the greatest hip-hop albums..
frylock
Dec 2014
#130
Because of course hip-hop has never, ever had anything at all to do with race or politics.
Spider Jerusalem
Dec 2014
#138
I don't see Banks or anyone else saying white ppl shouldn't be hip hop artists
fishwax
Dec 2014
#147
"I also think it's strange how similar her name and Azealia Banks' name are."
EX500rider
Dec 2014
#225
And my parents said that about Pearl jam, Nirvana, sound garden and Alice in chains
joeglow3
Dec 2014
#206
This 'old' parent was saying that about Hanson, S club 7 and the Spice Girls...
Violet_Crumble
Dec 2014
#298
If the quote is accurate (never a given), then Banks does not understand music.
True Blue Door
Dec 2014
#200
Iggy's been quite gross, but rap/hip-hop aren't giving their beats back to the Art of Noise anytime
MisterP
Dec 2014
#278
Is it acceptable for white people to play jazz? Or for black people to play classical?
hatrack
Dec 2014
#325
anyones free to 'make music & try to sell it' Iggy is not a decent musician anyway.
Sunlei
Dec 2014
#330
I suspect very few fans of Iggy ever think of the racial aspect you are claiming here.
DCBob
Jan 2015
#438
I think she is simply copying a music style that is very popular and profitable.
DCBob
Jan 2015
#442