Cultural Appropriation or Honoring A Culture In the World of DEI

I have been hesitant to publish this article for a few weeks.?My fear: offending my network of peers.?As a multi-race woman, I have always struggled to fit in to any of my cultures.?Perhaps that is why I seek unity among all who are marginalized.?We already face enough barriers, so divisiveness only elevates our collective inability to break through them.??Some of you may think this article is a controversial point of view.?That is not the intent.?I believe it is important to look through a lens of unity to bridge the schisms that permeate the world.

It is easy for new generations to label something as cultural appropriation, but for many who grew up virtually never seeing any representation in media, when you did see a positive representation of your culture by anyone it was something to celebrate.

In the 1970s and 80s, rap was considered ghetto music, if you even got a chance to hear it.?Only select radio stations would dare play it.?I grew up listening to Grand Master Flash, Kurtis Blow, the Sugarhill Gang, and Afrika Bambaataa thanks to my wanna-be-DJ cousins.?WBLK was our favorite radio station.

In 1980, Blondie (with lead singer Debbie Harry) released Rapture.?OMG, a white girl rapping.?But the response back then was “that’s amazing”! It made it to #1 on the top 100.?DJs, black and white, were playing it everywhere.?It exposed a whole new form of musical art to a massive audience, including Mobb Deep and the Wu-Tang Clan, who told Debbie Harry it was the first rap song they had heard.?Imagine rap without those ground-breaking artists.

Yes, rap is art.?And just like the Cubist or Impressionist art movements, some people will have differing opinions on whether it is good or bad art.

Elvis has often been criticized for stealing Big Momma Thornton’s Hound Dog, as well as other blues songs.?One needs to consider exposure bias.?Those were melodies and musical styles he heard growing up and fell in love with.?He grew up poor and lived in predominantly black neighborhoods.

It is true that music licensing was very sketchy back then (and now) and many black artists never got their fare share of compensation, if they got any at all. And it would be unfair not to consider hijacking musical styles for profit as another form of colonization.?But you also have to consider that this opened the ears of listeners to appreciate Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Fats Domino and so on.

Ravi Shakar, Indian sitar player, was a major influence on the Beatles.?And their integration of his music opened a whole new world of sound.

Is Yo-Yo Ma appropriating European culture when he plays Beethoven or Debussy??Frankly, if you want to hear one of the most beautiful cultural fusions of music, The Silk Road Ensemble he plays with is spectacular.?Ma believes that music can foster connections that stimulate the imagination and reinforce our humanity.?His Obrigado album is inspired by Brazilian music. Brazil was a colonized, and enslaved nation with some living conditions today that would shock Westerners.?Yet Ma is not disparaged.

And where would music be if that sultry, super chill rendition of Lauren Hill’s “Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You” was vilified as reverse appropriation??Or Ella Fitzgerald singing “Mack the Knife” which was originally a German song?

Gwen Stefani has been criticized for her Harajuku girls.?Again, in her youth she travelled to Japan and fell in love with the culture.?#Exposurebias.?She is not mocking the culture but sharing her joy.?K-pop boy band BTS is using musical models that are rooted in Back Street Boys and Nsync, and those boy bands were inspired by The Jackson 5, the 4 Tops, and the Miracles.?That’s what today’s boy band members were exposed to.?That’s what they fell in love with.

Billy Ray Cyrus loved Lil Nas X’s sound and they rerecorded a fantastic version of Old Town Road.?Ice T had his own heavy metal band in the 90s called Body Count. The Police had a reggae/ska-inspired sound that made others fall in love with Jamaican music.?You can’t fault people for what inspires and moves them.?

All those early artists saw the beauty and magic in other cultures’ sonic vibes—that is the power of music.?It laid the foundation for today’s artists.?Art should be a safe place for integration, exploration, and paying homage to cultures.?

As you look to your DEI strategy, instead of segmenting groups vying for their fare share, consider what struggles marginalized employees have in common: a desire to be treated fairly, paid equitably, and rewarded equally.

#dei #diversityequityinclusion #unity #unityindiversity #hr #hrcommunity #culture #culturetransformation #chro #humanresources #CMO #brandculture #strategicinsights #brandeconomics #branding

Each month, I dedicate my time to learning something about a marginalized group.?This month, I have been focusing on Black History within and beyond North American borders and how it intersects with other cultures or marginalized communities.?Last week I posted a story on Yasuke, the first Black Samurai.?It was fascinating to learn about his acceptance in a rare subset of Japanese Culture.?Next week, I’ll be celebrating Frederick Douglass’s birthday by sharing some insights on his friendship with Susan B. Anthony.?I hope this inspires others to learn more too, so we can appreciate the struggles of all minorities at different times in history all over the world.

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