Elvis, Eminem legitimately borrowing

So much for the melting pot. This Tuesday, opinions editor Rose Afriyie wrote a column to… So much for the melting pot. This Tuesday, opinions editor Rose Afriyie wrote a column to commemorate Martin Luther King Jr. Day. In it, she said that white people using the “n-word” and musical artists like Eminem and Elvis, “usurp black culture” and labeled them cultural robbers. Obviously, I respect a legitimate point of view from an intelligent individual such as Rose. Still, I must disagree with some of the characterizations she made about white people.

First and foremost, it is important to examine what “cultural robbery” is. As an anthropology major, I can officially say that “cultural robbery” doesn’t exist. Whenever different cultures interact in any meaningful way, they will exchange ideas and concepts. It has always been this way, throughout history. When the Spanish came to the New World, the Native Americans got the horse and the Spanish got corn. And syphilis, but I won’t go into that here.

So were Elvis and Eminem, white artists who became successful after borrowing from black culture, really just exploiting black people? Maybe a closer look at their lives would help us to make a more fair judgment.

Elvis Presley, growing up in the South, frequently visited gospel churches, which are traditionally viewed as part of black culture. Some of Elvis’ greatest hits are gospel albums of his, and he is quoted as saying that “I know practically every religious song that’s been written.” Indeed, right before his death, his album titles sound more like selections from the Book of Psalms than like something the king of rock ‘n’ roll would dream up: How Great Thou Art in 1967, and He Touched Me in 1968. It sounds to me like gospel music was a big part of Elvis’ life.

As far as Eminem goes, Rose insinuates that even though “he may have experienced some of the poverty that many black rappers” experience, it was still exploitation on his part. Eminem spent much of his early life in inner-city Detroit, living in mainly black neighborhoods. Was it black culture or urban culture he was stealing from – and was he even stealing? Dr. Dre, a famous black rapper, was integral in Eminem’s rise to fame.

Now if I, a white, Jewish suburban kid began rapping about inner-city situations because I know that it would make money, that might be exploitation. But nobody questions Eminem’s experiences. He is singing about his own life, his own culture. Does he violate the “inherent blackness of hip-hop music”? Dr. Dre doesn’t think so.

It is useless and inflammatory to begin identifying what “black culture” or “white culture” is. Is there anything at all that is purely white or black culture anymore? I know black kids who live in the suburbs, and I know white kids who live in inner-city neighborhoods. Both act like products of their environment. People adapt, and it becomes a part of who they are. Black culture is not limited to inner cities just as white culture is not only found out in the suburbs.

We should be praising artists like Eminem and Elvis, who are and were living and breathing examples of integration.

Integration, of course, is the ultimate dream of Martin Luther King. When he said that he wanted black children and white children to hold hands, he didn’t only mean hold hands, he meant interact. We must recognize today that there is still much work to be done in integrating white people and black people, and Hispanic people and Asian people and everyone else. But we should be celebrating the successful examples of integration that we do have.

We should be celebrating that in Oakland you can eat Italian, Chinese, Indian, Middle-Eastern and Mexican food. Integration and diversity result in things like new foods, new music and new cultures. Maybe Elvis and Eminem are part of this new culture.

We should celebrate integration. When we begin trying to resegregate black or white culture, and when we single out examples of integration and call it “cultural robbery,” we begin a terrible regression. Martin Luther King Jr. saw the future in the 1960s, and it was integration, in every sense of the word.

E-mail Sam Morey at smorey88@hotmail.com.