Beyonce Cultural Appropriation

[DemeLarell 931]

15 hours ago, FfFfFfFF said:

Egypt is more Middle East  socially and politically 

..... but geographically Africa 

[Bebe 17,094]

40 minutes ago, doppelganger said:

I only hear this criticism from the united states though. People from other countries know Hollywood is simply a money making machine, and will always present stories from the lense of  Hollywood-ness rather than a pursuit for authenticity which honestly is not realistic for films about ancient cultures. 

Hollywood sometimes represent Borneo or SouthEast Asia with laughable interpretations. It’s really not that big of a deal for us. We make our own films. 

I'm not actually from the U.S, but of course people aren't stupid - everyone knows Hollywood is a money making machine - but most people also recognise that media representations really matter. 

Stories affect how we live our lives, how we see other people, how we think about ourselves. 

"Martins managed to co-author one study, however, about television’s effect on self-esteem with Kristen Harrison of the University of Michigan, published in 2012. Focusing on children, the pair found that TV made subjects feel good about themselves ― if those subjects were white boys. Girls and boys of color, on the other hand, reported lower self-esteem as they watched. 

“We feel pretty comfortable that it’s this lack of representation that could be responsible for this effect,” Martins said. 

“There’s this body of research and a term known as ‘symbolic annihilation,’ which is the idea that if you don’t see people like you in the media you consume,” she explained, “you must somehow be unimportant.” (In a 1976 paper titled “Living with Television,” researchers George Gerbner and Larry Gross coined the term with a chilling line: “Representation in the fictional world signifies social existence; absence means symbolic annihilation.”) 

In Ramón’s words, “You may wonder, ‘Do I matter? Does society value me as a person?’”

https://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/entry/why-on-screen-representation-matters_us_58aeae96e4b01406012fe49d

It's disturbing that "Holly-woodness" has to equal "white". There are black and brown actors in the U.S, Hollywood has the big budgets, but instead of representing people of colour in their own stories and histories, they cast white people. 

The white-washing of Ancient Egyptians in popular culture has changed the way a lot of people view history. The most popular and circulated images have a way of sticking with you. Ancient Egypt was an amazing civilization. It's a symbol of pride and wonder still today. And there's been a feeling that, when we think of Egypt, we don't often acknowledge its African history.

Hollywood is currently in a system where actors and actresses of color don't get prime billing, save for a few exceptions and this isn't just about movies honestly... it's true in music, fashion, television, novels... It sends the message that white people are responsible for achievements (like the ancient Egyptian civilization) made by non-white people. It's subtly reinforcing the racial hierarchy. White actors usually play the good guys, and so it perpetuates the image that the whiter you are, the better you are as a person.

People get mad when white people appropriate stuff like Ancient Egyptian culture because it happens in aggregate and therefore helps propagate this racial hierarchy. 

[Pablo 7,812]

Y'all better stop using english because it originated from Latin letters, which is cultural appropriation.

[KingRedd 3,139]

Dang this topic got lit...

My question is.. and only answer with an actual answer, if white people never took Africans from Africa, would there not be black people in Egypt all that time, and all over the continent of Africa. If someone is Egyptian they are African. It’s like someone saying I’m from French not European. France is the specific area, but Europe nonetheless 

[Super 1,037]

cultural appropiation does not exist

[swordstalker 1,829]

2 hours ago, geopang said:

how does that change the fact that ancient Egyptians were indeed black? Just because a country was invaded, does not mean the race of the people changed. For example with Ethiopia. The country was inhabited by Italy, yet we don’t view their history as anything but black/African. The fact is Ancient Egyptians were not middle eastern/arab... they were black Africans. Therefore, she is not appropriating culture. 

Ancient Egypt was around for an incredibly long time and was invaded, inhabited and repopulated so many times, of course it wasn't racially homogeneous. Just because there was a country (Ethiopia), that was invaded by a European country and managed to stay relatively tied to their African roots, doesn't mean that's the case for every region. Also, that's a ridiculous comparison. The lifetime of Italian Ethiopia is negligible compared to the thousands of years that Ancient Egypt was around. 

The journal Nature is esteemed and highly reputable, and reports that Ancient Egyptians were more closely related to people from the Levantine than Sub-Saharan Africa. Source: https://www.nature.com/news/mummy-dna-unravels-ancient-egyptians-ancestry-1.22069

Further, let's take a look at the results from genetic testing of various mummies. Ramesses III was part of Haplotype E1b1a, which is most commonly found in West, South and Central Africans

Meanwhile, Tutankhamun was part of Haplotype R1b, which is very clearly dominated by Western and Central Europe:

Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23247979

[Bam 1,695]

Just now, DemeLarell said:

..... but geographically Africa 

It's like, she could wear the dirt not the culture.

[Bam 1,695]

Wow, I love discussions like this. I thought GGD only knows hunties and butts but damn, we smart as hell.

[rhohelio 0]

i think some of you are putting the cart before the horse.  egypt at the time of Nefertiti was before the concept of "Africa" existed.  and even by the time of the Romans was considered part of Asia.  And even when it came to be called Africa by western civilizations it referred to the maghreb, and is as likely to have been of Roman origin than any other. 

calling egyptians of that time period African is like calling the Aztecs "north American".  it just isn't so. 

is this cultural appropriation?  under the current rules of play, i don't see how it isn't a blatant rip off.  somehow it seems that beyonce has license to be an egyptian queen or zulu or any place on the continent.  and she can have blonde hair.  but bruno mars is a cultural appropriator?  and about that . . . why do we forget that the artist he most directly ripped off was sting/the police? 

Beyonce puts on an amazing stage show.  but maybe i am a cynic.  i don't see homage and appreciation in her work (and i didn't at the super bowl either where i thought she commercialized earlier civil rights acts).  i see exploitation and money manufacturing.  she put on a great show at coachella.  but for some reason my mind kept going back to the busby berkeley. 

but ultimately i think cultural appropriation is a sham, so in my world this is fair play.  like zuckerberg's character said in the social network, "just because i build a chair, doesn't mean i owe money to everyone who's ever built a chair."

 

[DemeLarell 931]

21 minutes ago, Bam said:

It's like, she could wear the dirt not the culture.

That’s a little ignorant to say. If we’re going with that train of thought.... Asian Americans should just let go of their history and culture. Same goes for Irish Americans and Russian Americans and so on. While we’re at it let’s tell gaga she should abandon her Italian roots and culture. We (African Americans) are way more than what you might think of us. A lot of us don’t know exactly where are ancestors originated from exactly in Africa because they didn’t “merrily row themselves over here” so we tend to embrace the many African cultures as a whole. 

[MJHolland 12,725]

19 hours ago, ALGAYDO said:

She’s African-American, and Egypt is is Africa, so wouldn’t it just be more of a homage to her ancestors? But then again, as someone pointed out already, Egypt is way more Middle-Eastern when it comes to culture and politics, so I really wouldn’t know ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

1

Saying this is like saying the Eskimos and Cherokee/Navajo/Sioux Indians all have the same cultural ancestry and cannot appropriate each other's cultures because they're all from North America  Or like saying a Vietnamese person can't appropriate Japanese culture because they're both Asian  

No, Beyonce is not Egyptian and it's pretty ignorant to say she is close enough because she has Nigeria blood (VERY distant Nigerian blood).

Let's not play cute. We all know why people are not mad a Beyonce when they were mad at Katy Perry for the same thing.

1.) Beyonce can get away with anything. Nobody is allowed to criticize her anymore without being a hater. I love Bey and think she's SO talented (one of the most), but I'll get screamed at for any criticism, online or in person. 

2.) People only care about race issues such as appropriation when white people do it because SJWs are anti-white. They literally think you cannot be racist if you are not white. You see it all the time in the media now, people making fun of others for being white or "too white". Personally, I don't care about ragging on people for being "white-acting" if you can also handle being ragged on for being black-acting. But issues like these are entirely biased against white people specifically. 

[FfFfFfFF 56,089]

4 hours ago, DemeLarell said:

..... but geographically Africa 

And what's the relevance?

On a cultural, social, ethnic, political level and partially geographical Egypt is part of the Middle East, not Africa and Egyptians are not black race.

[Bam 1,695]

 

Is this appropriation? When white people wear dreadlocks, people bash them.

[Borislshere 53,084]

2 minutes ago, Bam said:

 

Is this appropriation? When white people wear dreadlocks, people bash them.

If you're referring to her hair color, black people can be naturally blonde  

[Bam 1,695]

Just now, Devyn said:

If you're referring to her hair color, black people can be naturally blonde  

Then how about this?

 

Let's bash gaga then. She's appropriating black and middle eastern and south asian culture.