i think it's relevant.

i'm curious about how you define and recognize Black culture.

what does Black culture mean? or mean to you? what is it? what is it to you?

you say jazz is Black culture. how is jazz Black culture?

jazz is Black culture because _______________________.

no snark-- i'd like to know and understand how you'd fill in that blank. if you reply to this-- more than anything, i'd like you to answer your own sense of how/why jazz is Black culture.

>But this goes more to my general attitude toward language and
>culture in general. Its a constant morphing living breathing
>series of events and ideas that pop off under very complex and
>changing scenarios and continue to morph and evolve and spread
>and migrate.

*listening*

>I have ancestry of my own that I'm very proud of and that is
>connected to cultural things that I feel very close to.

that's a beautiful thing.

*listening*

>I still would be wrong to claim it for myself and tell others I
>created it and they can't get it. Its just not how culture
>works.

*listening*

as a Black woman, i don't reach the same conclusions.

perhaps this is ground where there is a cultural point of difference and not simply "how things work"--

i'm proud of my ancestry and feel connected to "cultural things", as well.

but i do claim my culture and "cultural things" as my own because someone gave it to me-- they passed it to me as a gift (often with the express and explicit hope that the gift would continue, grow, express).

it's mine.

i inherited it. in some instances, with specific wisdom, stories, and input from those who gave me the gift.

it's up to me to be a good steward. to remember those who gave the gift and to contribute to the continuation of the gift in a meaningful way that honors and remembers those who came before me and those who will live after me...people who i will *GIVE* "cultural things" to.

so to say it's MINE--*i* is WE. and we is *i*.

so YES-- if anyone can and can't say what is and isn't?--it's ME. US. the gift is mine/ours to do with what we will.

to even have to say that is mind blowing.

i get the undercurrent of azaelea banks' frustration.

if the gift is being exploited, misused, disrespected, misrepresented? YES Black people need to say so!!! they need to say so, no matter what race/culture/nationality the disrespect may occur. that's the decent thing to do. the respectful thing.

it keeps everybody honest.

Black people, consciously and unconsciously, have SHARED their GIFTS with the world.

i think it's great that you feel connected to Black culture and art forms-- that you engage and participate. of course, you don't need my permission to do that. nor do i want you to ask or think you should have to seek permission from me or any other Black person. NO BLACK PERSON, at least not one that i've encountered (grant it, i don't know all Black people etc) wants or is asking specific non-Blacks or groups of non-Blacks to do or be anything other than who or what they are when encountering and submerging themselves in Black culture.

the idea that cultural STEWARDSHIP is harmful is unfortunate.

for me?

if anyone wants to engage Black culture go for it.

but YES i WILL say something when the culture is represented or misunderstood in crazy or problematic ways.

mindblowing to me as well, that those who profess interest in the culture would be defensive about stewardship or requests that one, indeed, DOES represent the actual culture. but that's too much like right.

note: people have done whatever they wanted and pushed a lot of provocative creative and expressive boundaries (Black and otherwise) in ways that DO represent and engage in conversation with Black culture.

> If a Frankie Scambolini from down the block grew
>up eating mostly tacos and beef teriyaki, never took to
>Italian food like his black friend Bobby who loves ziti, then
>the truth would be Frankie's culture is tacos and teriyaki and
>Bobby's is ziti.

i disagree.

>It doesn't matter what their grandparents ate,

from my cultural perspective as a Black woman, it DOES matter.

>because the future defines a culture by what people actually DID

i don't understand what you mean.

nor do i think it's true that the future defines a culture by what a people may have actually done.

if so, i think the difficult political and racial climate in the states wouldn't be so strident and heated. for starters, there would be justice.