Cultural Appropriation Of Black Culture

Cultural and traditions that people follow are being added to throughout many generations. There are many ways that people incorporate parts of other cultures in their own. Cultural appropriation is when the culture of one group of people is adopted by another, due to stereotypes of the culture. An example of this is in black culture when their “style” is taken by many white rappers. The article “Preforming Blackness,” by Mary Bucholtz and Qiuana Lopez, explains this example saying, “a new hegemonic whiteness incorporates elements of black culture while enforcing essentialized radical difference” (681). Appropriation is viewed as a negative thing because it is usually used to make fun of, or pick on certain styles that another group or culture …show more content…
In the movie 8 Mile, Rabbit has difficulty completing rap battles, partially because of the pressure put on as a white rapper trying to make it in a competitive field. Once Rabbit was able to show how skilled he was in a rap battle at his work, he began to gain confidence. This created a cascade of events leading to his breaking of the barrier to entry that general is put on rap music. This shows that even though Rabbit is white, he was still able to be accepted into the rap community, since they have a common goal of creating passionate and meaningful music. In the text by Tani Sanchez, “Understanding Hip Hop Cinema,” the movie 8 Mile is discussed. Sanchez states that critics believe that Rabbit uses a form of “racial passing” to get accepted into the rap community (48). Racial passing is when, “a person presents himself as coming from a racial group that he or she does not actually belong to” (48). This can be seen in 8 Mile when rabbit dresses to match the style of the black characters in the movie, and he only hangs around African Americans in the movie. Rabbit’s actions throughout the movie show that his success in rap could be partly due to his acculturation into the black community that surrounded him. Even though race is seen as one of the main barriers to entry for rap and some other types of music, nationality can also play a …show more content…
In Feel the Noise, the brothers brought their version of a popular Puerto Rican style of music, Reggaetón, to New York. Rob and Javi were able to blend their two styles together, into something unique that appealed to both Puerto Rican and American culture. In 8 Mile, rap music was able to make Rabbit feel more accepted and well respected by the mainly black community that surrounded him. At the beginning of the movie, Rabbit was not seen as a part of the community by anyone other than his few close friends. However, this changed throughout the movie when more of his rapping was shared. Music was able to bring him more respect from the community that he lived and worked