"Cultural Appropriation"

Did Hank Williams culturally appropriate?

     I've been a bit perplexed over the concept in recent months, but had a difficult time putting it into words.

     I read a column this morning in The Chicago Tribune by a law professor and former Dean of a law school that achieves what I could not, and he does it using the Ken Burns Country Music documentary as an example. James Huffman says he told his his higher-ed peers to watch it, and not because they will love they county music....

Rather I’m urging them to watch it because they will seldom encounter a more convincing refutation of the culturally divisive notion of cultural appropriation that now pervades the academy.

“Cultural appropriation,” according to Maisha Johnson, writing in the online magazine Everyday Feminism, “is when somebody adopts aspects of a culture that’s not their own.” By that definition, Burns tells a story of rampant cultural appropriation. “Country Music” makes clear that Celtic, African, Mexican, German, Polish, Native American, Caribbean and many other ethnic traditions have contributed to country music. Those who borrowed from the music of other cultures did not ask for permission. They just copied and adapted what they heard because they liked it.

Read the entire column and please let me know what you think.