What atrocity will the culturally insensitive appropriators think of next? East Asian cellists? Swedish chess players? The Japanese putting on Shakespeare? Jews playing Christians’ Christian music, such as Mozart’s masses? Arriviste Jewish physicists using work done for centuries by Christians? Russian Jews writing about Anglo-American law? Indians writing computer programs, using languages and concepts pioneered by Americans and Europeans?I thought of another analogy: men who appropriate the appearance and stylings that originate among women. Steeped — as we are these days — in LGBT propaganda, no one seems willing to object to males presenting themselves as female (or females presenting themselves as males).
I'd like to hear the Salon author (a novelist named Randa Jarrar) engage with that variation on the appropriation/authenticity problem. Are we free to create our personal identity using elements that we see in others or are we stuck in our place of origin and offensive to the authentic possessors of that identity if we adopt their attributes as our own?
This additional analogy occurred to me as I was browsing the NYT this morning and saw an article about Alexander Iolas, who was Andy Warhol’s art dealer. I looked up Iolas in Warhol's diaries (which I keep in my Kindle), and found this item from April 21, 1980:
Iolas arrived and his contact that he never takes out of his eyes got lost in his eye and he had me look for it, but I couldn’t see it. Jackie Curtis came in in full drag and pink slippers and kept interrupting me to ask if he was interrupting anything. I told him no because actually he wasn’t. He didn’t eat anything because, he said, he was on a diet and had already had a half a pound of ham and three eggs that morning for breakfast. He wanted some Popisms so I gave them to him. He was on his way to a fashion show so he left. But then later he came back again. This time he was interrupting and he was drunk. But Kimiko and John Powers had come by and Kimiko loved Jackie and if you can believe it, she didn’t even realize it was a man. Jackie looked good, he’s lost weight. He said he wanted to take Brigid’s job, her typing job, and he said he’d be very good, that he’d just type in a corner. But oh, he talks right into your face. Jackie had a sequined shirt on and was wearing a bracelet he said I gave him but I don’t remember. Then he gave bracelets to Brigid and Kimiko to try to buy their affections.I Googled Jackie Curtis and got here:
"I am not a boy, not a girl, I am not gay, not straight, I am not a drag queen, not a transsexual - I am just me, Jackie." - Jackie Curtis
... Curtis wasn’t interested in passing or realness. Smeared make-up, ripped dresses, stubble, and louche — louche! — behavior. The late Warhol superstar was a first, and everyone from David Bowie to Courtney Love and Ke$ha ought to be paying him royalties....
So that's what brought me back to the can't-stand-white-belly-dancers analogies. What Curtis was doing with respect to women is, however, quite different from what white belly dancers are doing with respect to Middle Eastern belly dancers. And I could see 2 distinct types of appropriation: 1. Individualized appropriations of The Other that glory in the disconnect from the original/authentic version, and 2. Earnest imitations that seek only to emulate and copy, perhaps with great deference to the superiority of the original.
Type 1 risks getting accused of mockery. These are the appropriations that might be compared to blackface. But done well, Type 1 can get you more respect than the original. You might be a real artist doing appropriations of the Type 1 kind. Type 2 risks contempt. You're falling short. You don't belong here. And in the view of an Authentic Other who has feelings of inferiority, Type 2 appropriation can trigger envy: Someone who seems to begin in a superior position uses your attributes to seize even more favor in this world. But Type 2 imitation — done well — can inspire indulgence, empathy, and altruistic impulses toward inclusion. When is it done well? Perhaps you need to show sufficient humility or even victimhood.
What bugged Randa Jarrar about the white belly dancers was, I think, that those ladies seemed to feel that they look really beautiful, and they failed to subordinate themselves to the Authentic Other. And, of course, they were only operating at the Type 2 level. The Type 1 game was nowhere in sight.
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70 comments:
Salon hit the jackpot with this. I can't believe Volokh's talking about it now.
You know what pisses me off?
There's one, count 'em, one Inuit bagpiper and they already have like twenty words for bagpipes.
This is why we haven't been back to the moon and aren't going to Mars anytime soon.
Mind-numbing navel gazing.
And it is stupid expensive.
Althouse: ...no one seems willing to object to males presenting themselves as female (or females presenting themselves as males).
I'd like to hear the Salon author (a novelist named Randa Jarrar) engage with that variation on the appropriation/authenticity problem.
Frack. Nice play Ann. I totally missed that one.
I guess playing with Inga and Crack has made my mind go soft. Like a big fish camping in a little pound. Like "leet" xbox gamers spawnraping newbs. Like AnyTeam vs the Redskins. Like...
If the white belly dancers look good -- go for it and don't worry about those spoil sports who push identity politics. The same goes for men in women's clothes. If they can pull it off and look attractive more power to them.
Actually, Ann, I think Jarrar was doing the typical lefty power play. She elevates herself by accusing others of being immoral, setting herself up as the arbiter. It's an old trick, not particularly original and fairly repulsive. She probably hopes that members of the criticized population come crawling to her for permission and guidance about when and how it's permissible to "appropriate" the cultural markers that "her people" purport to "own."
"I'd like to hear the Salon author (a novelist named Randa Jarrar) engage with that variation on the appropriation/authenticity problem."
Why would anyone "like to hear" anything (let alone anything more) from Jarrar? Before her silly piece in Salon, no one was clamoring to hear from this lady. Indeed, except for whatever small circle she inhabits, no one had ever even heard of her. Surely, her Salon piece does not offer any reason to seek out more of her observations on life. And the crap-tacular observations on which that piece was based have now be thoroughly pounded and debunked.
She has used up her alloted 15 minutes of celebrity, and the conversation (such as it is) can safely move on.
I've thought about this and find it interesting. I definitely think that people ought to do what makes them feel comfortable. However, I am troubled by what appears to be gross stereotyping of "women" set forth by some trans men. An example, IMO, is the character "Unique" on Glee, who constantly plays what looks to me as an exaggerated to the point of minstrel version of the sassy black diva stereotype.
I feel like this should be somewhat shameful, yet, we're supposed to celebrate it.
There is actually some feminist pushback on the "men who want to be girls" idea, precisely over the "authenticity" trope.
I disagree. I think the best analogy I saw mentioned in rebutting her article's argument was asking if it's okay for Yo Yo Ma to travel the world playing the cello. I would like to hear her response to that. Not that we're going to get one.
The late Warhol superstar was a first, and everyone from David Bowie to Courtney Love and Ke$ha ought to be paying him royalties....
That would be rent-seeking behavior.
Great post.
Fellow commenters, notice how much better this is than "_____ are the real racists" arguments, like the one Instapundit made.
When you make those, you just reinforce the idea that "racism" should be a discussion-ender, while also managing to say exactly what a white supremacist would.
Literally all of Glenn's thinking about race is like that.
Had dinner the other night in Atlanta at the Imperial Fez a very upscale Moroccan restaurant. The belly dancer was African-American straight out of Decatur. So would her argument hold for African-American women too, or is it reserved for whites only?
Americans come from everywhere, and bring their cultures with them to share with us.
According to the article, it would be improper for anyone not of the specific Asian descent to practice kung fu, tai chi, jujitsu, wherever krav maga comes from, for blacks to fence with foils, epees, and/or sabres... The list goes on.
...and they failed to subordinate themselves to the Authentic Other.
This also rent-seeking, depending on how "subordinate" is construed.
EMD said...
This is why we haven't been back to the moon and aren't going to Mars anytime soon.
Mind-numbing navel gazing.
I mostly agree, but with Amazon going to drone dropoffs & Google's driverless cars, why send people there?
However, I am troubled by what appears to be gross stereotyping of "women" set forth by some trans men. An example, IMO, is the character "Unique" on Glee, who constantly plays what looks to me as an exaggerated to the point of minstrel version of the sassy black diva stereotype.
It may not be deliberate. When I was younger I always hit a strip club (Yellow Rose, Austin) mostly full of college coed types. New girl took me to one of the back rooms for a lap dance (I know, tmi).
Anyways, she wasn't a student or part of the local culture - military girlfriend/fiance. A few months after her man deployed and she started dancing for the extra cash. Since she was new and didn't know any better, she danced the way she thought "slutty" dancers did to get tips. It was way over the line, to the point where I had to stop her and get a regular dancer to mentor her a bit so she didn't get abused by some perv.
Anyways, main point is it may be the transgender's *assumptions* about how women act that creates the parody you described.
And the parody, yah, thats why most men get nauseated at the sight of them. Anti-eye-candy.
Diversity is our strength...
You know, unless we actually buy the argument. Then is appropriation.
Mentoring strippers is a job I've done, too, Fen. Purely, as you've said, for altruistic reasons.
Nice work if you can get it.
I'm betting the novels of Randa Jarrar are dreadful earnest mewling didactic agitprop.
I hope people realize that proper Muslim women don't belly dance for men outside of their immediate family. Doesn't go well with their burkas and hijabs.
In Islam belly dancing is reserved for slaves many of whom were white Europeans who were often slavs. That's why slavs are called slavs. White slaves were an especially valued commodity in Andalusia.
Some grievances are as self indulgent as gorging in a chocolate shop.
When you make those, you just reinforce the idea that "racism" should be a discussion-ender, while also managing to say exactly what a white supremacist would.
It's using sarcasm to point out the hypocrisy of what they are saying. People seem to have not thought through their own arguments, especially when applied to other arguments the same people are making, and this is beginning to show up especially when two or more groups that believe they are oppressed fight each other, of which this argument is a perfect example.
"Je ne suis pas et ne serais jamais une danseuse de ventre." ~Nadia Gamal
Incidentally, Randa Jarrar is a Palestinian American. She is using the lefty grievance industry to advance the cause of Islamic cultural supremacy. It is especially rich for a Muslim to claim that white belly dancers are cultural exploitative when it was the Muslims men who enslaved white women and forced them into belly dancing costumes and made them perform in the first place.
I wonder what kind of Islamic woman belly dances in front of men at her wedding in Saudia Arabia? I wonder what culture she might be appropriating when she does that? since it isn't her own Islamic culture. Or maybe it's OK to belly dance in front of men in Saudi Arabia if you wear a head scarf and some long sleeves while more typically dressed for belly dancing from the ribs down.
Then too I think that "Circassian" slaves were always considered the best belly dancers in the harem in the days of slavery in the Arab world. Circassian slaves were Georgians, Russians and other "white" women. Of course Saudia Arabia culturally appropriated anti-slavery laws of the Western type in the 1980's. Since then that sort of information - who the fairest belly-dancer of them all? isn't well known anymore.
At this point we're giving that bigot too much credit by even discussing her stupid article as if it were any different from a diatribe against black people for putting on airs and trying to vote and get non-menial jobs. Her mindless screed was click bait and really deserves no further discussion. And Salon has crossed the line from leftist opinion rag to racist haven.
I mostly agree, but with Amazon going to drone dropoffs & Google's driverless cars, why send people there?
It's not the moon or Mars per se, but the ambition to reach beyond ourselves.
It's lost.
Maybe it's good the intrepid spirit is not confined to a state program but is placed back into the hands of the people pioneers.
"What bugged Randa Jarrar about the white belly dancers was, I think, that those ladies seemed to feel that they look really beautiful, and they failed to subordinate themselves to the Authentic Other"
I'm calling shenanigans.
Is their an authority that I can go to certify that someone is an "Authentic Other?" I'm 1/8 Cherokee, but whiter than white bread. Do I get a say in what Indian tropes that whitey can "appropriate?"
What about the Asian kid happily doing African dance in that clip I posted a link to yesterday? Does he have to submit to the "Authentic Other" too?
What makes the "other" "Authentic" anyway? And why should I care?
I do agree that what bothered Jarrar was that the white women belly dancers felt that they were beautiful.
Which is obviously her problem. Not the "non-authentic" belly dancers.
"Why I can't stand white belly dancers."
Good. Then there's more for me.
What about multiracial people like me? Am I allowed to appropriate from myself? If so, then I can do kabuki, perform hip-hop, play the bagpipe or glockenspiel and do rain dances, right?
One of Japan's most successful themed resorts is Spa Resort Hawaiians, started in an effort to save the local economy after the coal mine shut down. The story is dramatized in the very cute movie Hula Girls.
Though this suggests a category 3, for these dancers are very professional and in no way inferior to the "original."
Speaking of superior dancing, Haruo Niyama and Sae Maeda placed first and second in this year's Prix de Lausanne, a competition for young ballet dancers.
But turn about is fair play, and infotainment shows in Japan love featuring foreigners who have embraced and even perfected some arcane aspect of Japanese culture.
EMD said...
It's not the moon or Mars per se, but the ambition to reach beyond ourselves.
Ain't that the truth.
We obsess over fat belly dancers and keep score on skin colors.
We elect people to office based on "cool" factor rather than leadership skills.
We think security is more important than liberty, and we teach our children to be risk averse.
I can sympathize with the woman in her frustration with white belly dancers. She identifies, proudly and happily, with her ethnic group, with her people (apparently, Arabs). One of the cultural rituals of her people, that make her people unique and special in her eyes, is belly dancing. They invented it, it's part of who they are. Then she goes to a restaurant (presumably a restaurant here in the West) and sees a white woman doing it and is irritated that this thing which is her culture's special thing is being aped by someone from another culture.
Imagine if you went to visit Saudi Arabia and you went to wherever belly dancers traditionally do their dancing, and you're all ready for this authentic Arab experience, and out comes a blond Scandinavian or an Eskimo or a Japanese transvestite dressed in belly dancer clothes and he/she starts doing the belly dancing. It would seem really inappropriate and unwelcome. I think even hardcore progressives agree that 3rd world peoples should be left alone to have their cultures and rituals untrampled by outsiders.
I think where this particular writer's ire is misplaced is that she is complaining about Westerners doing belly-dancing in venues in the West. She wants to be an Arab living in the West, in Western culture, but she wants to mark off territory inside the West as belonging to her and her Arabs, and within that territory the West should just f**k off.
That's where I'd say to her: go back to Arabia if you want authentic belly dancing. You're on my turf here, and we'll do what we f**king please and appropriate and copy what we want whether you like it or not.
Here's a subversive thought:
Suppose that culture A went around observing other cultures and, when it saw a good idea, tried to learn about it and even tweak it some, while culture B sought to exclude ideas and techniques from other cultures, and derided its members for "acting A" when they learned (sorry, appropriated) things form other cultures.
Which culture would you think would have to best chance at becoming dominant?
I wonder how much of this is driven by a backwards-rationalization from a kneejerk emotional response to seeing something one enjoys in a different form. The idea that "Everyone is conservative about what he knows best" could (maybe) excuse some of that instinctive response, and the rest could be the (faulty) Leftist identity politics arguments substituting for thought.
That's about as charitable as I can be to her viewpoint.
For the Left, principALs trump princiPLEs.
Are you (principal) a member of a Designated Victim Group?
If yes, one set of principles applies to you.
If not, a different set of principles applies.
Example: a Christian photographer refuses to photograph a gay wedding. This is bigotry, "Christian" is not a designated victim group.
A gay photographer refuses to photograph a traditional Christian wedding. This is approved, because "gay" is a designated victim group.
heyboom said...
"What about multiracial people like me? Am I allowed to appropriate from myself? If so, then I can do kabuki, perform hip-hop, play the bagpipe or glockenspiel and do rain dances, right?"
Whatever, dude.
This is America.
Knock yerself out.
Cultural expropriation has officially run amok! Japanese teen girl pop meets Death Metal in a "pitch-perfect execution of an absolutely insane concept."
http://www.dailydot.com/lol/babymetal-metal-japanese-pop/
Knock yerself out.
Microagression.
Oy! These appropriaters....
Palestine Rap Music by A.S.B (Arab Stick-Up Boyz)
A shave and a haircut...two-bits
It all started with women in pants. The death knell of Western culture.
Census to Count Arabs as White, Despite Write-In Campaign
New America Media ,Suzanne Manneh Posted: Mar 25, 2010
The Census Bureau says it doesn’t matter if Arab Americans write their race in on their Census questionnaire.
Even if they check the “other” box and write in “Arab,” as many community groups advocate, the Census will still count them as racially white.
“Anyone from Europe, North Africa or the Middle East [will be classified] as white,” said Roberto Ramirez, chief of the ethnicity and ancestry branch at the Census Bureau.
Ramirez said that will be the case no matter how many people write in “Arab,” because the Census Bureau is required by law to use racial categories determined by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and those categories do not include Arab.
Advocates for including Arab as a race say they will press on with their write-in campaign however. Census regulations provide that any organization can request its own special tabulation providing a formal count of write-ins.
“As with any write-in option, it is not comprehensive enough to be published as a ‘count,’ but it will provide us with important trends and estimates of the proportion of people of Arab ancestry who do not identify with the white race classification,” said Helen Samhan, the executive director of the Arab American Institute, which plans to order a special count.
“That is a start for working with the Census Bureau to research necessary changes in the way race and ethnicity are measured,” she added.
A spokesperson for the Office of Management and Budget told New America Media that current racial standards for the census will be reevaluated after the 2010 census, in time for the next one in 2020.
How Arabs Became White
Ironically, it was Arab Americans themselves who originally petitioned the government to be categorized as white. When the first wave of Arab immigrants arrived in the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, they struggled to be recognized as white so that they could gain citizenship and other rights, such as voting and owning land.
These immigrants, primarily Syrian and Lebanese Christians, “were facing exclusionary policy,” Samhan said. “It was basically a survival issue.”
The government has treated Arabs as white since 1915, when George S. Dow, a Syrian immigrant living in Jim Crow South Carolina, went to court after being deemed racially ineligable for citizenship based on a 1790 law limiting citizenship to "free white persons."
So there.
"MILWAUKEE (June 27, 2013) —
A saxophone player was assaulted outside the Summerfest grounds near Chicago St. on Wednesday, June 26th around 11 p.m.
26-year-old street performer Cassandra Struve became a target on opening night while she was playing an old jazz song.
“I was playing Minnie the Moocher, classic Blues Brothers song,” said Struve. ”A lady with a child in her hand came up to me, smacked me in my face and said ‘don’t play that.’”
Struve says three African American women confronted her and shouted that a white girl could not play the song.
After being hit, Struve says she was shocked and pushed the woman away, but was hit again.
“Her daughter came out of nowhere and punched me twice in the side of the face,” said Struve. “After she did that I was instantly upset. You know, I mean, I cried.”
As a long time resident of Japan I don't have any problem with non-Japanese trying to do kabuki, Noh, tea ceremony, flower arranging, etc.-- However, they all look pretty silly trying. On the other hand, white men trying to sound like they're black-- Eric Clapton, Stevie Winwood, Michael McDonald, the Righteous Brothers to name a few--do not strike me as necessarily pathetic.
Pogo is Dead said...
“I was playing Minnie the Moocher, classic Blues Brothers song,” said Struve.
Cab Calloway might object to this characterization.
Here is Randa Jarrar:
Click to view the mutt
Serious Jabba the Hut. You can't make these people up.
"Pogo is Dead said...
“I was playing Minnie the Moocher, classic Blues Brothers song,” said Struve."
An Obtuse Man replied: "Cab Calloway might object to this characterization."
You do know that MTM was sung by Cab Calloway in the movie The Blues Brothers, right?
Lou Reed on Jackie Curtis and sex roles:
Jackie is just speeding away
Thought she was James Dean for a day
Then I guess she had to crash
Valium would have helped that bash
She said, hey babe, take a walk on the wild side
I said, hey honey, take a walk on the wild side
And the colored girls say
Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo
etc.
This is like all the lefties that got their panties in a wad because Katy Perry wore a kimono so sing her song. They get offended on behalf of others, and don't seem to care if the others they're offended on behalf of are offended.
Lyssa said...
I've thought about this and find it interesting. I definitely think that people ought to do what makes them feel comfortable. However, I am troubled by what appears to be gross stereotyping of "women" set forth by some trans men. An example, IMO, is the character "Unique" on Glee, who constantly plays what looks to me as an exaggerated to the point of minstrel version of the sassy black diva stereotype.
I feel like this should be somewhat shameful, yet, we're supposed to celebrate it.
I totally agree with you. There are many trans men who do that, and many homosexual men who do the same without the dresses. They seem to be trying to behave as they imagine women do, but I've never seen a woman behave that way in real life.
Or as the President would spell it "Whit Blly Dancrs"
A bit off topic but it looks like we may be going back to space from next door to my house.
The former Roosevelt Roads Naval Station has one of the biggest runways in the Caribbean and the flight ops building is about 2 miles from my house.
Virgin Galactic just leased a bunch of hangars there.
I don't know which ones but some of the hangars are pretty good size. 2-3 747s at the same time size.
Good times. Good times.
John Henry
Also Lyssa, "Unique" is played by a guy named Alex. He was on the reality show they had for a couple of years to find someone to be on Glee, called the Glee Project. He didn't win, but got a place on the show anyway. He was just like this on the Glee Project, where he was, presumably, playing himself.
TosaGuy: You do know that MTM was sung by Cab Calloway in the movie The Blues Brothers, right?
You do know that Cab Calloway recorded "Minnie the Moocher" two decades before Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi were even born, right?
Should I object to a Palestinian, raised in Kuwait and Egypt writing in English?
"You do know that Cab Calloway recorded "Minnie the Moocher" two decades before Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi were even born, right?"
Most certainly. Your point?
...critique the Salon author's rejection of cultural appropriation
I'm not even going to read it--I don't approve of mud people appropriating the White Man's language.
...no one seems willing to object to males presenting themselves as female (or females presenting themselves as males
I am...everything started going to hell when women started voting and driving and wearing pants.
… reserved for slaves many of whom were white Europeans who were often slavs. That's why slavs are called slavs.
No, that's why slaves are called slaves.
What atrocity will the culturally insensitive appropriators think of next? East Asian cellists? Swedish chess players? The Japanese putting on Shakespeare?
Let's stop there and extend the analogy. I'm sure that Randa Jarrar will recognize the triple misappropriation of culture in having adult American living actors play the roles of Renaissance-era Italian teenagers written by a Stuart-era Englishman. Or what about ancient Romans, a mythical Danish prince, or Scottish regicides? Where will the injustices ever stop?
I'm also sure Randa Jarrar would agree that reading Shakespeare or any book about a different culture and a different era also misappropriates culture because the reader's imagination completes the author's crime.
You have to be taught to be that stupid.
@Rusty
Did I need to put a sarcasm tag on my comment? Wait, who invented sarcasm? Can I appropriate that?
Michael McNeil said...
"… reserved for slaves many of whom were white Europeans who were often slavs. That's why slavs are called slavs.
No, that's why slaves are called slaves."
One major source for white slaves for the Ottoman Empire and for Andalusia were Slavic people. That is why they are called Slavs.
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=slave
http://community.allhiphop.com/discussion/14181/the-massive-slave-trade-of-eastern-slavs-and-africans-compared
Likewise in Arabic black people are called Abed in Arabic.
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/life-style/art-and-culture/2014/02/27/New-online-campaign-urges-American-Muslims-to-drop-the-A-word-.html
It's difficult to believe that Muslim Palestinian women like Randa Jarrar would ever belly dance for anyone other than her husband or immediate family -- if ever. Before the Europeans managed to shut down the white slave trade, belly dancers in Muslim countries who entertained strangers were slaves. That was the costume assigned to the white women by their Muslim Masters. For Randa Jarrar to now trash white women who wear the outfit is cultural imperialism.
Randa Jarrar is just doing what they taught her to do in college. She had Professors who told her that this kind of soft-headed gabble is "analysis". She got A's for coming up with this kind of crap in her Poli-Sci class. And she is probably up to her authentic Arabian belly in debt as a result.
Imagine if you went to visit Saudi Arabia and you went to wherever belly dancers traditionally do their dancing, and you're all ready for this authentic Arab experience, and out comes a blond Scandinavian or an Eskimo or a Japanese transvestite dressed in belly dancer clothes and he/she starts doing the belly dancing
I'm an INTJ. I just want to know if the belly dancing is good.
“I was playing Minnie the Moocher, classic Blues Brothers song,” said Struve.
This kind of pisses me off, too. Not because a white man can't play a black man's song, but because if he's going to play it he should at least know enough about it to accredit it to the correct originator of the tune.
It's not "classic Blues Brothers song" it's "classic song that was in the Blues Brothers."
I could care less if the saxophonist is white, black, gay, Chinese or Venusian. Just have some damn knowledge about it.
Michael McNeil said...
"… reserved for slaves many of whom were white Europeans who were often slavs. That's why slavs are called slavs.
No, that's why slaves are called slaves."
Sorry Michael I was a little slow on the draw. Of course you are right. The word slave came from the name of the slavs not the other way around. My bad.
TosaGuy: Most certainly. Your point?
What was your point?
Cab Calloway wrote and recorded a song, had a huge hit with it, performed it countless times, including in several movies, and you don't think that he might object to it being characterized as "someone else's classic"? Just because the "someone else" in question happens to be the guys who made one of the movies in which he performed it?
I apologize if someone's already made this glaringly obvious point, but when did belly dancing become an art form? Granted it takes a degree of skill, but it's not exactly ballet.
What I cannot stand is when those brain dead leftie arabs fly on airplanes invented by white people. Why can't they stick to more traditional flying carpets or flying horses, which were used by Arabs for so long? Sarcasm off.
I wonder what she feels about "appropriating" the computer invented by Jewish engineers and publishing articles in newspapers invented by White people.
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