But but, people mix and borrow cultural bits all the time, across all sorts of lines, etc. etc., I can’t hear you, I can’t hear you!!!
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That’s a pretty majestic beard, actually. Oh, the majesty of that beard…
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Don’t misunderstand. I am very aware and sad about the issues we see in Ferguson and the like. That shit has to stop.
I just find this idea of “appropriating” artistic endeavor, like this video talks about, a double standard that literally comes down to race in 2014. According to Ms. Stendberg, you can freely produce gansta rap and it be authentic as long as you even physically seem a little black. But I’m pretty sure Drake, a Canadian half-Jew raised in a wealthy Jewish neighborhood and racially ambiguous, has about the same claim to the American black experience that Iggy Azalea does, a lower-middle class white woman who specifically moved to the United States in her teens to become part of the hip-hop community and work on her singing and rapping. Again, not in a pejorative way, but this video is the epitome of racism. Ms. Stendberg calls out people like Macklemore simply because he’s white, not because his rap is inauthentic.
That’s what I find inconceivable. That racism is OK as long as your normally the group being prejudiced against. Racism is not OK, period. And there is no qualifier on artistic expression as long as the expression is authentic, and sadly sometimes that includes parody of an art form. I could support what Ms. Stendberg said if it related to the authenticity of those performing rap rather than literally the race of those performing it.
How can an accusation of racism not be pejorative?
But a bigger problem here: “racism” has victims. And now you’re claiming the real victims of racism here are white. Do you seriously not see the problem with what you’re saying? I mean, I’m sure you’ve had it pointed out to you before…Oh, right, I forgot. You just don’t listen very well.
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I think people like Eminen, Macklemore, and Iggy Azalea could claim victimization. That if their work was done by a black artist it would be more easily accepted and they might reap better financial reward and acclaim.
But you’re right, something can’t be claimed racist if there is no consequence to the action. Explain to me the injury black artists incur from white artists rapping? In 20 years of a grammy for rap album or song, only Eminem and Macklemore have won as white artists. Are you saying they didn’t deserve it because they were white? And what about the fact that while an overwhelming majority of rap and hip-hop albums are produced by and performed by black artists, the majority of sales of rap and hip-hop music is to white people?
First, not all rap is gangsta rap. Second, why are you more an authority on rap than she is or on black identity?
Except that I’d imagine that there are similar racial tensions in Canada that exists here in the US. Many of the black Canadians who have long histories there are from African Americans fleeing the fugitive slave law of 1850.
Also, what @anon15383236 said about your comments about racism…
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[quote=“anon61221983, post:136, topic:55674”]
First, not all rap is gangsta rap.[/quote]
Duh. That’s why I’m asking why work by Macklemore is “appropriating” when his work is authentic to his experience unless it’s simply racist? That road goes both ways you know. Are you trying to tell me there aren’t black racists?
Miss Stendberg says: “So black hair has always been a central component of black culture. Black hair requires upkeep in order for it to grow and remain healthy. So black women have always done their hair. It’s just a part of our identity.” White hair hasn’t always been a component of white culture? White hair doesn’t require upkeep for it grow and remain healthy? White women have never done their hair? White women’s hair isn’t a part of their identity too? And from that she extrapolates that because braids are so pertinent to the black experience (though she appears in the video with straightened hair), somehow white artists are appropriating when they braid their hair in cornrows. Granted she’s young, but even this fails miserably on logical fallacy. And wait a second, she’s also bi-racial, and possibly binational with her father a white guy from Denmark. How is it she identifies fully with the black American being biracial with a foreign father?
[quote=“anon61221983, post:136, topic:55674”]
Except that I’d imagine that there are similar racial tensions in Canada that exists here in the US. Many of the black Canadians who have long histories there are from African Americans fleeing the fugitive slave law of 1850.[/quote]
Actually no. When I spoke to black people they say they have little in common with black Americans that way. They don’t segregate their speech or culture. There is racism in Canada for sure, but the dynamics are fully different than here.
Already addressed. What else as a white person am I not allowed to do that exclusively for the black community? Just for my records?
P.S. It’s hard to hear you over since I was listening to some “appropriated” music of Usher, you know the church boy raised in Chatanooga who sings things like “Shorty, I don’t mind that you dance on a pole, it don’t make you a ho. Gotta make dat money money money.”
this board really needs an unlike button, beardist!
no, racism can have victims. but racism can also be an entirely internal thought process with no outward effects, and everywhere in between. just because there is bad racism of one form, which may have a very large negative effect, that isn’t a good excuse for smaller scale racism. or to put it another way, the solution to racism isn’t more racism.
That’s Chattanooga, dude. And wtf?
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Not really sure what else I can say… you seemed to have swerved a bit into invective here.
ETA: On the subject of white women’s hair, I will say that my own hair is fairly forgiving and easy to take care of. I’m sure I don’t speak for all white women, but it’s pretty much wash and go with me.
Your rebuttal is to correct my spelling of a city in Tenese?
Ah, so now we get a better picture of where all this is coming from. You, a white woman, is defending the position of a biracial woman, on the injustices suffered by appropriating black culture.
Uh-huh.
I never said I wasn’t white… Everyone here knows I’m white. I never hid the fact that I’m white. I’m agreeing with her assessment of things. What’s the problem? You seem to be imposing your view of how she should view the world. I’m having a hard time seeing what you’re getting at here?
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Tennessee…
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Look, the bigger problem is not cultural appropriation, but the fact that there are poseurs who pretend to be black urban/native/whatever, but then are totally oblivious to the plight of the various peoples they are imitating.
The thing is, everyone hates poseurs. You rise to asshole status when you are not only a poseur, but show disinterest or even contempt for the people you are imitating. Or worse, your imitation is actually a form of ridicule - in which case, you’re not so much a poseur as a bigot.
There are white poseurs. There are black poseurs. There are native poseurs. We should certainly call them out for being inauthentic. We should definitely call them out if they’re being downright racist. People who found a way that helps them express themselves? Meh.
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