Cultural Appropriation

As a Scotsman, I demand that only people with a Scottish background be allowed to sing Scottish songs or play Scottish music, particularly the bagpipes.  No more Auld Lang Syne by Italian tenors or non-Scottish New Year’s Eve drunks (us Scots call it Hogmanay).  No more A Scottish Soldier by Irish singers.  And while we’re at it, only Scottish actors must be allowed to act in MacBeth (even if it was written by an Englishman.  Another sign of cultural appropriation?).  Similarly, only Italians should play Julius Caesar.  And only Canadians should play Mounties or Canadian sailors.

“No man is exempt from saying silly things; the mischief is to say them deliberately.”
  - Michel de Montaigne

But that all seems a bit ridiculous, doesn’t it?  Shakespeare gave his plays to the world and the world has embraced them in many different languages.  Some of the greatest actors to play Shylock were non-Jews.  The greatest actors to play Hamlet were not Danes.  Everyone sings Auld Lange Syne because it was meant to apply to everyone.  And I love John McDermott (an Irishman) singing A Scottish Soldier.  Playwrights and authors have consistently written about other peoples and cultures without recrimination.  My son, who is a published author, has written and had published a great short story about an Ethiopian jazz musician and he never heard any criticism from Ethiopians.

So why is it that certain groups condemn anyone “appropriating” their music or stories?  One of the favourite targets for our First Nations is Joseph Boyden.  I have read several of his books and I find his depiction of First Nation’s people to be very sympathetic.  The brouhaha over the casting of a couple of plays recently has even forced the cancelation of at least one production.  The same attitude is apparent among certain African-American groups who say that only African Americans should be able to write about them.  And yet one of the oldest and most powerful books about black slavery, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, was written by a white woman, Harriet Beecher Stowe.  And it spurred on the abolition movement in the US.  

If these groups want their stories told or their music appreciated, they should give it to the world and let the world enhance it, act in it or play it.  That way, their art will be remembered and appreciated by more people.

 

Now I don’t mean that I condone those who write about other races in a derogatory or stereotypical fashion.  This type of writing is particularly favoured by fiction writers.  You know, the “all Columbian are drug lords/all Arabs are jihadists/all Russians are spies” type of adventure stories.  Nor do I support writers who distort the history of different ethnic or religious groups.  But I do support any writing that describes people sympathetically and honestly no matter what the writer’s background may be.  

So, let’s look critically and sympathetically at writing, music, art and poetry that some would label cultural appropriation.