Much is made today of “cultural appropriation,” the act of emulating styles, behaviors, language, cuisine, etc that are rooted in or traditionally associated with other cultures. It’s the latest battlefield of the social justice warriors, who went so far as to take to task actress Blake Lively for quoting a Sir Mix A Lot lyric in reference to her expanding (due to pregnancy) derriere. The PC police have run amok with this, and it has created yet another means by which those seeking reasons to act aggrieved can lash out at others.
It seems, though, that cultural appropriation (CA) is not a level playing field. We don’t hear much about CA in the “wrong” direction, i.e. from European cultures to non European ones. I’m sure you’re rather appalled and befuddled by this inequity, given how even-handed SJWs are in their other campaigns.
I’m particularly stricken this morning by the shocking appropriation by the black community of the term “gangster,” a term they’ve so co-opted as to have established their own variant (gangsta) and to have identified an entire sub-genre of rap music (itself the subject of CA by white artists such as Eminem). The emergence of the term “gang,” from which the term “gangster” derives, traces back to the American West, where groups of criminals (or, in contemporary terms, outlaws) gave themselves (or were given by the sensationalizing press) names such as The James-Younger Gang, The Dalton Gang, and the Clanton Gang. Wikipedia lists 48 gangs of note in the Old West, and a quick survey suggests that their constituents were predominantly white. The ethnic stock of the Old West tended towards northern European (Scandinavian, Finnish, German, etc, and of course English), and many of the gang names (family names, with many gangs comprised of siblings) support the notion that the term “gang” belongs to white culture.
Now jump to the 1920s and the Prohibition era. That’s when the term “gangster” entered the public consciousness. But – who were the (pardon the appropriation) “OG original gansters?” Al Capone, Lucky Luciano, Meyer Lansky, Carlo Gambino, Sam Giancana, Bugsy Siegel, Mickey Cohen, and Machine Gun Kelly are legendary gangsters, with names that most of us easily recognize. They’re also all white, of Italian, Irish, Eastern European, German, and other ethnicities.
So, do we don our “social justice” caps and demand an apology from Ice-T, Dr. Dre and Ice Cube? Do we suggest that only The Beastie Boys, who self-identified as “gangsters” and are/were white, could legitimately use the term?
Of course not. The entire premise of “cultural appropriation” is ludicrous. Every culture in history has “appropriated” elements of others, and time and interconnectivity ensure that this will continue ever onward. Dreadlocks, now ubiquitously considered to be a “black” hairstyle (and more specifically, Jamaican or Rastafarian), are, as I’ve discussed, found throughout history, all the way back to ancient times (countless ancient greek Kouros statues sport dreadlocks). Pasta, a staple of Italian cuisine, is legendarily Chinese in origin, and tomatoes were brought from the New World. And, in a nation that has dubbed itself a “melting pot” since its founding, it’s even more absurd.
Those wacky Europeans, unfortunately, have looked to outlaw certain forms of CA via trade agreements and other legislation. Back in 2014, European negotiators wanted to debar American cheese makers from calling their cheeses Brie, or Parmesan, or Roquefort, or Muenster. Of course, the reasons for this are far more about self-interest than about preservation of cultural identity and heritage. If people want to buy Brie, and only French cheese in that style can be called Brie, the French cheesemakers gain a competitive edge.
That’s the reality behind CA. It’s all about establishing an upper hand and a position of dominance. It isn’t about the culture, but rather about bludgeoning others down to a subordinate position in the grievance hierarchy. It’s also an over-reach, as more and more people are fighting back against the increasingly picayune and silly expressions of (fake and exaggerated) outrage.
As for the CA of “gangster?” Consider it respect for the old white OGs.
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