• RubberDuck@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Yes, Yes, Shapiro is a douche, we agreed on that there is no need to copy-pasta his “best of”. Do not give him clicks (someone else commented, hate listening is still listening)

    The point was and still is that the “appropriation” rhetoric is such weak sauce that is hurts the other points you are making instead of helping it. A lot of people will read your comment and might even agree, and when they read “cultural appropriation” they immediately dismiss everything you wrote. Culture is shared not owned. Even things like rap are experienced by everyone (albeit in different ways, eliciting different reactions and feelings) there is no owner. Just like the whole hair braid discussions… useless…

    But fine you go ahead and yell into the void.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      I was going to make a substantive reply to this, but I don’t think the rudeness at the end there was warranted, so I won’t.

      • RubberDuck@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        I was merely trying to point out that all the other things Shapiro is and says are way more damaging and heinous and they fall flat if intermixed with these points. Not to be rude. At that I failed and I appologise.

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          Okay, fair enough on the rudeness.

          My point wasn’t to say in any way that any white person rapping is culturally appropriating.

          I am saying when racists take expressions of a culture that they are racist against and uses them, then it is cultural appropriation.

          Minstrel music involved playing folk songs sung by black people, accompanied by a banjo, which was a traditional instrument of black people, sung in a fake black vernacular. They were also in blackface, but the blackface was not what made it appropriation. The “this thing you created is ours now too, you N—s” that made it appropriation.

          And this is no different.

          Here are some of the lyrics to Shapiro’s rap. They are absolutely done in a ‘black’ vernacular:

          Let’s look at the stats, I’ve got the facts

          My money like Lizzo, my pockets are fat

          Homie, I’m epic, don’t be a WAP

          Dawg, it’s a yarmulke, homie, no cap

          Shapiro doesn’t talk like that normally. Ben Shapiro doesn’t call people ‘Homie’ or ‘Dawg.’ That’s Shapiro trying to sound “black.” That is textbook appropriation.

          So I’m sorry if people take me saying ‘cultural appropriation’ to mean ‘Ben Shapiro is a white person doing music invented by black people,’ but that is not what appropriation means, so I don’t think that is on me.

          • RubberDuck@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            I would call it racist, double-dog racist even maybe. I understand your viewpoint, I just think the cultural appropriation angle takes away from the point you are making.

            Allyough he is doing it with the clown world guy and his chosen vernacular is rap… so maybe this explains the medium.

          • null@slrpnk.net
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            8 months ago

            It’s bad enough when white people who don’t hate black people appropriate black culture…

            My point wasn’t to say in any way that any white person rapping is culturally appropriating. I am saying when racists take expressions of a culture that they are racist against and uses them, then it is cultural appropriation.

            It’s your original comment that’s inconsistent with this. Maybe it’s not what you meant, but it reads like you’re saying “it’s bad enough when white people appropriate culture, but it’s worse when racists do it”