In early 2022 the actress Awkwafina posted a statement after years of being accused of cultural appropriation. The statement pleased everyone. End of video.

Oh sorry, wrong universe. People hated it. Especially the ones who didn't read it.

In particular Awkwafina has been accused of using a blaccent, which is a stereotypical black-style of talk done by non-black people.

So did Awkwafina culturally appropriate? Let's investigate.

Some people say she was doing a blaccent in her early comedy hip hop, but it's just rapping. There are plenty of respected white rappers who've done a version of the black voice. Why is this comedy so problematic?

She's not making fun of hip hop, she’s making fun of herself. The gag is I'm a dork trying to pretend I'm not. Lots of people have done this joke.

Some say she spoke with a blaccent in interviews until she did a classy movie then she ditched it. But well, that didn’t actually happen.

This really seems to be about just two moments.

Awkwafina arguably does a blaccent in one scene in a movie people forgot as soon as the credits rolled, Oceans 8.

But to me, this seems decently specific. It's not how black people talk, it's how fast taking street hustlers talk. And she only speaks like this in this scene while hustling and doesn't do it in the rest of the movie.

And Awkwafina does a blaccent for about 5 seconds in the movie Crazy Rich Asians.

She does not do a blaccent in the rest of the movie.

I'm guessing the people who were most excited about this did not watch the movie, which, I'll admit – smart.

And I would agree that this moment is a misfire and probably regrettable – but that's comedy. Everybody throws up some bricks.

These two moments don't seem that representative of what Awkwafina has done overall. And much more importantly, I think she does this black style of voice because she's been influenced by black culture and loves it.

This campaign against Awkwafina seems like punching down, it seems like bullying. A single, quirky, moderately successful actress is no threat to the behemoth that is black pop culture. And this is a weird kind of justice where in the name of racial enlightenment people are trying to cancel one of the only Asian actresses you've heard of.

It really feels like the idea of cultural appropriation is straining to find worthy enemies. It feels like at this point it's devouring itself.

Cultural appropriation is not a bad idea. It's an idea that has done what it needed to do and it is now time for it to leave. It is time to bid farewell to cultural appropriation.

Hi, middle aged white man here and I'm going to talk about cultural appropriation and I just think it's gonna go super.

It's a beautiful day on Amity Island Beach! The water is warm and calm and sharkless and I am gonna jump right in.

Cultural appropriation. Why me? My turf over the last decade plus has been who owns ideas and culture, I've thought a lot about this topic, and I think I have earth-shattering insights that will alter the course of history.

Also, nobody else is saying this, so I guess I'm the guy.

What is Cultural Appropriation? Cultural Appropriation is the inappropriate or unacknowledged copying of one culture or identity by members of another culture or identity, typically a dominant one." (Paraphrase of Wiki and Oxford definitions)

Emmanuel Acho (ah-cho) puts it this way.

It’s doing none of the work yourself and taking as much of the credit as the world will give you. It’s not knowing or caring what kind of struggle went into someone else’s creation but using it to get yourself a passing grade—or a few thousand Instagram likes. Emmanuel Acho, Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man

Okay. What does this look like? Let's get the absolute worst out of the way first. Forgive me, this next short bit is offensive.

The most horrible historic example of cultural appropriation is blackface. This is the most stark example and everybody would agree that no human being should ever be doing this. But thankfully, it seems like the era of blackface is in the past — mostly — and to be caught doing it is a giant catastrophe.

(Justin Trudeau had three black- and brownface scandals during his 2021 election campaign.)

Blackface is the really, really, really hideous one and it's in a category of its own.

But most of the recent examples of cultural appropriation are not so serious, not so stark, and range from clearly wrong to completely ridiculous.

Let's take a little time here to cover these events. We'll start with the bad and then are gonna pretty quickly lighten up.

Rachel Dolezal is the meme shorthand for cultural appropriation. She's a white woman who identifies as black and was pretending to be black. Somewhere in America there's a tanning salon owner who loves this lady. Dolezal has become symbolic of the strange, vampiric relationship between white liberal culture and black culture.

Some sports teams changed their names in recent years, and this seems good. They shouldn't be using racial imagery as mascots. Hey Atlanta, just a pick a frickin’ animal and go with it.

Some black music fans claim k-pop does a lot of cultural appropriation. Adeola Ash has a video about that. I don't know much about K-pop but I don't think you need to in order to see that it is frequently very derivative of black culture and predictably clumsy. I mean, what are we looking at right now? I believe the hype on this and if k-pop fans wanna educate us all, the comments are there.

I'm now going to talk about blackfishing, blaccent and white people dancin' like black people. Breathe everybody, calm down, I'm not gonna do anything crazy.

Lots of claims of cultural appropriation are about black style, vernacular, and dance, all of which are enormously influential.

There’s Blackfishing, where celebrities & pop stars, mostly women, adopt a style that makes them appear black-ish.

There’s Blaccent, as we saw with Awkwafina. Gay white men do this a lot for some reason.

And dances from black creators are often copied without attribution by white influencers. People claimed Addison Ray did this on the Tonight Show, but they really should blame the producers of the show. Black creators did a kind of strike about this issue.

Many black people say these styles receive adulation when done by white people but discrimination when done by blacks, and that white people use these styles to get clout and then chuck 'em after that.

Now. I’m not dumb enough to wade into these particular waters but I would like to offer some context and some caution.

These are all issues that arise from the incredible and unprecedented success of African-American culture, which is hugely influential worldwide.

And this influence has inspired all sorts of different artists to do their own thing with these ideas.

You can even hear this inspiration in indie rock.

The influence of black culture also creates a lot of imitation. (This is the thing people don’t like but it’s important that people do it.)

Influence and imitation are linked, they are bound together like potato salad and raisins. I believe if you suppress the imitation, you can also suppress the influence. Too much shaming over appropriation could literally make black artists poorer.

That's all I gotta say. Let that marinate and on we go.

Similar to blackfishing, there is also Asianfishing, which is when non-Asian people use eye make-up, wardrobe and affect to appear Asian, often doing a submissive, child-like stereotype. There are good points here. But I will repeat : this happens because Asian culture is popular and influential. That is what's driving it, they like this stuff.

Also, this was happening during a huge spike in hate crimes against Asian-Americans.

The Kardashian/Jenner clan have repeatedly stepped in the cultural appropriation poo poo, over hair a few times, over Japanese culture, over Indian culture, over blackfishing, and over using Black Lives Matter imagery to sell sugar water.

Fashion is a common realm for appropriation controversies. Halloween parties in particular has proven an excellent opportunity to permanently humiliate yourself. In high fashion, Gucci put Sikh turbans on white models. Marc Jacobs and Comme des Garçons did shows with white models in dreadlocks.

Whether white people should even wear dreadlocks or not is an ongoing debate. And I'd like to resolve this right now. Black people, they're all yours, enjoy.

There have been a few Whitewashing controversies, this is when white actors are cast as non-white characters. Not good, but seems like there's way way more of the opposite of this.

And pop divas like Miley Cyrus, Nicki Minaj, Gwen Stefani, Selena Gomez, Beyoncé, and Katy Perry have all been accused of appropriating. Avril Lavgine was accused of appropriation I guess because she likes Japanese stuff I think.

You may have noticed that these examples are getting a tad trivial at this point. And it gets worse.

Here is an actual story in the Washington Post about Jamie Oliver's Punchy Jerk Rice and how -- I don't know, it's impossible to care about this.

Some video game reviewers claimed the video game Horizon Forbidden West appropriates native American culture. Do any actual native American people care? If so, please comment below.

Adele caused a weirdly large stir by celebrating a Jamaican event in Jamaican attire, including what are called bantu knots. Seems like she's just joining in a local celebration. Who cares?

Billie Eilish has been accused of appropriation for her look. To me, this is a very clear example of being influenced by a culture and doing your own thing with it. It's not derivative. It's hers.

This young woman liked this Asian dress, wore it to prom and felt the internet's wrath. She was a teenager, it's her prom. This is cruel behavior.

Olivia Rodrigo, who was also a teenager, was accused of appropriating black vernacular but How are young people supposed to know the difference between black culture and pop culture? Pop culture is black culture.

We are scraping the bottom of the barrel at this point but looking back at most of this list, I'll just say it: I don't think there are many grave sins here. There are certainly some bad decisions, but they are either forgivable or they're just not that big a deal.

What I see in most – not ALL -- of these examples is affection, even if it’s sometimes shallow or clumsy, I see people copying stuff because they like it. And at the end of the day, it seems like that should be our bottom line.

Most of the stuff I've mentioned thus far is about style of some sort. They're mostly fleeting, temporary expressions. But the more interesting cases are ones where there's a deeper and more committed effort to communicate.

American Dirt is a novel by a white woman about Mexican migrants. I've not read this book and you can't make me. It was popular, the author sold it for seven figures, it was an Oprah pick, but then everything exploded into a huge cultural appropriation scandal. One of the main criticisms was a book by a Latino author should have gotten this much support from the publishing industry.

But did any of these authors write a trashy thriller that moms will buy at the airport? The book is a pulpy page-turner that got the story of migrants to a mainstream audience. Author Sandra Cisnero said:

"...it's going to change the minds that, perhaps, I can't change." Sandra Cisnero

Eminem has been accused of cultural appropriation because of his popularity. Rap is a black creation and yet, Eminem is the best selling artist. But I will point out: he’s also the only white person in these ranks. And like Billie Eilish, he was doing his was own thing. Seem like this is how it’s done.

But the biggest and most important celebrity accused of cultural appropriation remains Elvis Presley. And I want to dig into this a bit because this story shows us the surprising benefits of what could be called appropriation and it shows us how hard it is to untangle black and white music.

Elvis Presley was the first giant rock'n'roll star and one of the biggest celebrities of the twentieth century. But Elvis Presley is widely considered the white guy who stole black music, rock'n'roll, and got all the credit. After all, he is The King of Rock'n'roll.

There is truth to this. Presley got really rich and famous by performing a black style of music. But Elvis wasn't just copying black music. He was doing his version of it. He was doing black music with a white feel, a country music feel.

As for The King of Rock n Roll thing, this is not some official title. and if we want to declare a new king, we don't need a revolution we can just do it.

I would nominate Chuck Berry. But! Chuck Berry, like Elvis, played music that was both black and white, but flipped. Elvis played black music with a white music flair. Chuck Berry played white music with a black music flair.

Chuck Berry’s first song Maybelline started out as a cover of this.

People listening on the radio thought Elvis was black and Chuck Berry was white.

So Chuck Berry, a black man, is I think the actual King of Rock n Roll, but he played music that was actually pretty white.

American music is hybrid music. The author Ralph Ellison put it this way.

....in this country things are always all shook up, so that people are constantly moving around and rubbing off on one another culturally. Ralph Ellison 1978

There are no purebreds in the kennel of American culture. It's all mutts.

We tend to think in what's called zero sum. If I win, you lose. If you get more of the pie, that means I get less.

But this is not true in culture. When a culture grows, the pie gets bigger for everybody. So even if you have a smaller slice, it's worth much much much more.

Elvis Presley indisputably made the pie bigger, even though he also took the biggest slice. Little Richard said: "He was an integrator, Elvis was a blessing. They wouldn't let black music through. He opened the door for black music."

Integrators can enrich artists from other cultures by helping them cross over. But far more importantly, integrators bring people together.

Hardcore racists in the fifties despised Elvis Presley because they knew he was integrative. They knew he undermined belief in segregation.

I don’t think Elvis Presley was trying to integrate. He just played music that he emotionally connected with, and that's it.

That's what’s so cool. When you connect with the humanity of the another culture and do your version of it, you show others how to connect.

And integrators don’t have to be from the more powerful culture.

Fast forward 30 years and Michael Jackson Was the next major integrator. He merged black music with rock and musicals and horror movies and mainstream American pop. He crossed-over black music to the mainstream and became the only pop star to equal Elvis's fame.

Fast forward another 30, and Awkwafina, in her own smaller way, is an integrator too. She was crossing-over her Asian-American experience to a broad audience through the popular form of hip hop.

Asian-Americans have just recently become a real presence in pop culture. People like Ken Jeong and Awkwafina and Randall Park and Ali Wong and Sandra Oh and Jimmy Yang are all connecting to wide audiences by doing American pop culture with a twist.

Now some people watching I'm sure at this point are saying, no no no, we have a way to do all this.

But this idea, to me, is way too passive. It says look but don't touch, consume but don’t create. It sucks the life out of creativity by making it too polite.

There is an element of exploitation to all creativity. To appropriate is to take without permission. That's creativity.

You don't ask others if you can do it. You just do it. Who would you ask anyway?

It's okay to take if you do it the right way. More on that in a bit.

Arguments over cultural appropriation seem to naturally gravitate towards petty squabbling because who owns what and who is entitled to copy from whom is a mind-boggling labyrinth.

And for anyone who thinks you'll always be the good guy in these battles, you won't. The author Kosoko Jackon was really into accusing others of cultural appropriation, then wrote a fictional book, then canceled its publication because, yeah, cultural appropriation.

This war will never end, it will forever be all against all, and sooner or later, you’re next.

So that's all bad, but there's a much worse possibility.

I fear the message that gets received by regular people who don't nerd out on this stuff, who have other things to do – so everybody – I fear the message they receive is: just stick to your own. It's the safest.

What is the lesson from Awkwafina? Firstly, steer clear of black vernacular if you're not black. Secondly, steer clear of any vernacular that's not yours.

What is the lesson from American Dirt? Don't tell stories about Mexican migrants if you're not one. And don't tell stories about any tribe if you're not a member.

It must be said: there is a segregationist aspect to the concept of cultural appropriation. What you can or can't do is determined by what group you're in. Obviously at some point this idea can go too far. Welcome to Too Far.

I am not saying that the boundaries that separate cultures should just be ignored. They deserve respect... but not too much. These shouldn't be walls. And anybody who cares enough to trespass should do it.

The cultural appropriation debates have taught us some things. These lessons are easy to learn. There are just three things you need to do.

1. Always credit. This is just good behavior generally.

2. Be extra careful when your intent is primarily commercial or attention-seeking. If the top goal is to make money or get views, you will be held to a higher standard because you are potentially capitalizing on another community. So do more research, engage with these communities, and just be more careful. Companies should be held to the highest standard of all.

3. If you love it, it's not appropriation This is the big one. By loving what you copy, you will understand it and you will respect it. If you love it, people will feel your respect coming through. If you get everything else wrong, this one can save you.

I believe Awkwafina gets this right. And it's the reason this stain on her career should hopefully fade away.

To find out more about the importance of copying and how to do it right, watch my series Everything is a Remix.

Let me close with a quick story.

Another thing people say about Elvis is that he ripped off the song "Hound Dog" from Big Mama Thornton. But again, things are not what they appear. The song is actually not hers. "Hound Dog" was written by two Jewish guys from LA who were doing their own unique take on black music.

Leiber and Stoller collaborated with all kinds of artists. One of them was Ben E. King and in one of the songs they wrote together, you can see the full range of cultural influences that merge into a song.

The melody is King's but it's inspired by an old gospel song. The chord progression dates back to seventeenth century Europe. (Johann Sebastian Bach). The arrangement is American pop. There's Latin American percussion. There's a lyric from a Bible verse. The string arrangement is classical. Leiber & Stoller write the distinct bassline. And King sings it in a mixture of gospel and pop.

Black, white, North American, South American, European, gospel, pop, and scripture all play their part.

The naïve dream of earlier generations was harmony. And it's still the best dream.