Just to reiterate what i already said, i never thought that Aaron was a culture thief. I was just trying to make it seem strange to call em a culture thief without calling us all culture thieves.

>I don't know, I am wondering
>if perhaps a 'culture thief'
>is someone who attempts to
>assimilate themself into someone else's
>culture and the expense of
>that culture and the denial
>of their own.
>
Okay. The word 'thief' is misleading here. Like putting American Indians on reservations is literally stealing their culture. But not by your definition. I don't want to jump to conclusions, but it looks like you're trying to adjust the definition to fit Eminem.

But you do have a good point. You could say that Eminem is doing that. Now the discussion is not whether or not he stole something, but (1) Is he trying to assimilate into black culture? (2) If so, is it damaging black culture, and if so how? and (3) Is he denying his own (white) culture?

I think the answers are

1) Well, he sort of already has simply by being a hip hop star, whether it was his intention or not.

2) I don't think he is directly damaging black culture or wants to. Yes, white society is and always has been more receptive to a white man doing a black art form well, than to black artists who've been doing it well for years. This has a history of stealing culture. That's why rock and roll, blues and jazz are all so white today, so i see where you come from with this.

But does this mean that he should stop making the music he loves? Should he try to sell less records? Should he 'rap like a white dude'? i think he already does, but that's Should he give some percentage of his profits to needy black artists?

If you want to point fingers at people who are detrimental to black culture, go after Master P, Juvenile, effin Janet Jackson. Better yet: Go after the record corporations and the political/economic system that keeps blacks poor disempowered police targets.

3) I don't think he denies his own culture. He talks about his own life all the time. How he hates his mother, can't deal with women, wants to kill himself, etc. He exaggerates it, but from what i can tell, he's in full acceptance of what he is: white trash.


>
>Above all we must remember that
>Aaron is an artist. Through
>his medium he talks about
>and expresses issues that he
>feels are important and I
>think that this is the
>most important thing in life.
>In reading the strip we
>can see that Aarons reference
>and positioning in life is
>that of a Black mans.
>If his primary concerns and
>expressions were that of an
>Asian person, then I think
>one would have the right
>to call him a culture
>thief. But they so very
>obviously are not.

that's exactly what i'm saying about Eminem. His viewpoint is that of a disturbed white boy from a trailer park. If his expressions were those of a black person then i think you could call him a wannabe... not a culture thief, just a wannabe... but they are so very obviously not.

>But the question remains
>as to whether or not
>Eminem is white or is
>he undercover?

You mean like some Milli Vanilli ish? I doubt it, but that would be pretty funny. We need a new Milli Vanilli to make fun of.

But I'm going to take your words (below) and substitue 'Eminem' for 'Aaron', 'hip hop' for 'animation', 'white' for 'black', and 'black' for 'japanese'

>Yes Eminem is very obviously influenced
>by black hip hop, but he
>is an artist and art
>has no limitations in terms
>of inspiration. But his message
>is that of a white
>man in Amerikkka today. SO
>culture theif, no effing way,
>inspired, yes!

And it works just fine except that Eminem doesn't really have a message. I could have done it to your entire post and it still would have worked.


"I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal labotamy." -- a psychotic drunkard