So the other day I had a conversation with someone whom if you're in my class I'm sure you already know. Nonetheless, I said something along the lines of "lets not listen to Tupac, I don't want to appropriate that culture" sort of as a cheap joke towards the person in question. I really didn't mean it negatively, but what ended up happening was the exact opposite. I was then praised for my sensitivity to the PC culture. I then went onto explain that cultural appropriation was not something that bugs me nor do I even particularly care.
Anyways, this kind of inspired me to address some of the arguments towards ideas such as "white" people should not listen to music directed towards African-American people.
I'd like to start by talking about just saying that white people can't listen to black people music. All I really have to say about this is, if you try switching the names around and it sounds racist to you than you'd be right. In both cases. If we use your logic, then I am not allowed to listen to jazz because it has it's routes in the songs the African-American slaves sung and African-Americans can't listen to Classical Music due to the lack of African-Americans in the genre.
An argument to this was that there is a difference due to the "privilege" that I receive as a white male. But firstly, how does one know how much privilege I have? And, on top of that, I see little to no evidence of ALL African-American people being oppressed! It is just plain silly. For example, to say that Quvenzhané Wallis (the girl from that new Annie movie) is a poor helpless black women and is more oppressed then the white homeless gentleman I passed on my way to school is incredibly misguided. There are white people who go through hard times and there are black people who go through hard times.
"Well what about my ancestors?" some may say, this may offend some but did I personally enslave you or your ancestors? No. Hell, my ancestors didn't even enslave any African-Americans, being poor Norwegian immigrants. Now, I don't want to downplay the atrocities that African-Americans felt, but we have to accept the fact that bad things happen and that we are some of the most lucky people to ever had lived and to say that we can't enjoy our favorite musicians is ridiculous.
Another thing is what is one of the main goals of (most) artists? Exposure. If you have a rapper who only raps about money and being famous, why wouldn't want the exposure from more than just the African-American community? Like, I understand marketing and target audiences, but if white person connects with this song, with this genre of music, where is the issue here? If you think Tupac wasn't happy to be making millions of dollars from his fans, whomever they may be, then you are ignorant. If an artist doesn't have an issue with white people listening to their music (which I can't really think of any examples nor would I care if I could seeing as that is just plain racist) then their fans shouldn't have an issue either.
Nevertheless, music is not about segregating races and restricting listeners, it's about having that freedom to enjoy, understand and appreciate the work and the emotion put behind the music.
Anyways, this kind of inspired me to address some of the arguments towards ideas such as "white" people should not listen to music directed towards African-American people.
I'd like to start by talking about just saying that white people can't listen to black people music. All I really have to say about this is, if you try switching the names around and it sounds racist to you than you'd be right. In both cases. If we use your logic, then I am not allowed to listen to jazz because it has it's routes in the songs the African-American slaves sung and African-Americans can't listen to Classical Music due to the lack of African-Americans in the genre.
An argument to this was that there is a difference due to the "privilege" that I receive as a white male. But firstly, how does one know how much privilege I have? And, on top of that, I see little to no evidence of ALL African-American people being oppressed! It is just plain silly. For example, to say that Quvenzhané Wallis (the girl from that new Annie movie) is a poor helpless black women and is more oppressed then the white homeless gentleman I passed on my way to school is incredibly misguided. There are white people who go through hard times and there are black people who go through hard times.
"Well what about my ancestors?" some may say, this may offend some but did I personally enslave you or your ancestors? No. Hell, my ancestors didn't even enslave any African-Americans, being poor Norwegian immigrants. Now, I don't want to downplay the atrocities that African-Americans felt, but we have to accept the fact that bad things happen and that we are some of the most lucky people to ever had lived and to say that we can't enjoy our favorite musicians is ridiculous.
Another thing is what is one of the main goals of (most) artists? Exposure. If you have a rapper who only raps about money and being famous, why wouldn't want the exposure from more than just the African-American community? Like, I understand marketing and target audiences, but if white person connects with this song, with this genre of music, where is the issue here? If you think Tupac wasn't happy to be making millions of dollars from his fans, whomever they may be, then you are ignorant. If an artist doesn't have an issue with white people listening to their music (which I can't really think of any examples nor would I care if I could seeing as that is just plain racist) then their fans shouldn't have an issue either.
Nevertheless, music is not about segregating races and restricting listeners, it's about having that freedom to enjoy, understand and appreciate the work and the emotion put behind the music.