Is is cultural appropriation for Audra McDonald or Kathleen Battle to sing Opera? Living Colour to play metal music? Teena Marie to sing and rap in Square Biz? Darius Rucker to sing country? Tower Of Power to play funk? Eminem to be one of the greatest rappers of all time? What about a Hasidic Jew being a reggae star?

Oh, the college left.

They will make up the dumbest things. Mansplaining, cultural appropriation, safe spaces, trigger warnings…the list goes on and on.

I recently had a long email chat with a vegan activist who is part of an organization that harasses people and businesses here in Berkeley. Their group tries to get people to stop being cruel in any way to any animal. It was a lively discussion but due to my use of the Socratic Method and ability to reason, this person eventually lashed out in anger and used the tried and true tactic of name calling when their arguments fell flat.

It happens every time I engage with people like them. Berkeley is the perfect place to see these people face to face and see how they really are utopian idealists. They don’t live in the real world.

I suggest a few things to people who think like the ultra-liberal-left; step off that college campus and live with the rest of humanity. Live a few years by yourself and pay a few bills in your own. Tell me how many safe spaces there are when you walk down a street by yourself. Womansplain to me how it isn’t incredibly sexist and demeaning when you demand men need to be taught how NOT to rape. Where are your trigger warnings before the 6 o’clock local news?

Oh, and I better not catch you rapping at all if you are white…unless you can rap like Eminem or Teena Marie.

 

I haven’t watched MTV’s annual Video Music Awards since Bill Clinton was president. I was wearing a plastic choker and Alanis Morissette won for “Ironic.” But I wish I had tuned in this Sunday night. The award show was a veritable orgy — not of sex, but of cultural appropriation.

 

Three Cheers for Cultural Appropriation
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/30/opinion/cultural-appropriation.html