I wrote this in response to a friend's Facebook call for comments on a New York Times piece, "In Defense of Cultural Appropriation."
I think much of 20th century social progress was abetted, if not in some cases directly driven, by what many today dismissively call “cultural appropriation.”
This more or less began in the '20s with nascent integration in jazz, and really picked up steam after the war, as the nation gradually grew to understand African-American culture as more than just inferior or quaint.
Remember, as recently as the turn of the last century, W.E.B. Du Bois had to plead for cultural relevance and respect on the basis of “the American fairy tales and folklore [being] Indian and African.” How far we have come since then, with mainstreaming and universal acceptance of art forms rooted in black culture as quintessentially American.
Especially, and somewhat ironically, in the South—a cultural cauldron in ways going far beyond the violence and victories of Civil Rights. What we call R&B, Rock & Roll—even folk, country and gospel music—was the result of many decades (centuries, really) of cultural cross-pollination, often driven, now as ever, by talented young people more interested in inspiration than labels and boundaries.
It’s true Elvis was seen as a white guy who could sound black, and had his first hit with an Arthur Crudup blues song. It’s also true that Chuck Berry was considered a black guy who could sound white, and had his first hit with a reworking of a western swing fiddle tune first recorded by Bob Wills.
Throw into the mix influences criss-crossing the pond—most importantly the effect of American music on young Britons in the 50s and 60s, which subsequently awakened young white America to this nation’s full musical heritage—and the positive effect this had on the fortunes of a generation of black musicians—and the picture becomes even more complicated. (At the risk of sounding unfashionably uncynical, it's been a long time since pop music appropriation equaled exploitation, despite what Jesse Williams may believe.)
Art does not fit into the neat boundaries proposed by academicians, and never will.
