The Bruno Mars Controversy Proves People Don’t Understand Cultural Appropriation

Before we begin any discussion of Bruno Mars and cultural appropriation, we must lay down a few ground rules:

1. This will not be a debate about the quality of Bruno Mars’ work. That discussion is too subjective, and no one will ever reach a consensus on any kind of art. Plus, some people have shit taste in music, and I’ll be damned if I’m about to argue music with anyone who believes 21 Savage is better than Nas.
2. For the sake of this argument, Bruno Mars is not black. He has a mixed racial background that includes Ashkenazi Jew, Puerto Rican and Filipino. One can debate where he fits in the African Diaspora, the meaning of “blackness” or whether race is an artificial construct. I can almost guarantee that if I called him right now and asked him to list his top five macaroni-makers, he’d have to think about it for a minute, and none of the names in his top five would begin with the word “aunt.”
3. Black people created every form of American music. But there is a specific, indefinable genre of music that begins with R&B and encompasses hip-hop that we will heretofore refer to as “black music.”

The furious debate about Mars and whether or not he is a cultural appropriator has bubbled beneath the surface of his career for a while. It existed before he remade Earth, Wind & Fire’s “Uptown Funk” or Bell Biv DeVoe’s “Finesse.” Even when—

Wait … I’m being told that the previously mentioned songs are Bruno Mars originals. But I’m pretty sure the S.O.S. Band made “24 Karat Magic.” I think it was the B side to “Take Your Time,” so let’s use that as an example. What? That’s an original song, too? OK, I’m going to have to do a little more research on this and get back to you.

But before Mars won a Grammy and Meshell Ndegeocello called him a karaoke singer, there were always people who thought that someone put Michael Jackson, Prince and James Brown into a blender with a quarter cup of lukewarm water, a dollop of mayonnaise and a smidge of racial ambiguity, and out came the next pop sensation.

The conversation was reignited when this clip from the Grapevine (not this one; the other one) began circling the internet:

Seren Sensei, the woman in the clip, makes a convincing argument breaking down why Mars is a derivative artist who—willingly or not—gets to trade on his racial ambiguity.

But does that necessarily mean he is guilty of cultural appropriation?

There is no universally accepted definition of the term, but it generally relates to the use of the art, artifacts, symbology or anything of cultural significance to a minority or nondominant group of people by a person who is not in that group.

What separates cultural appropriation from a cultural exchange or paying homage is when someone “borrows” an item or symbol of cultural significance without acknowledgment, attribution or permission. One of the other hallmarks of appropriation is using someone’s culture to demean, make fun of or diminish it.

Understanding the definition and the power dynamics involved in cultural appropriation is the key to understanding the concept. When Kim Kardashian put cornrows in her hair and called them “Bo Derek braids,” it was cultural appropriation because she made no acknowledgment of the culture from which the style came.