Cultural appropriation is bullsh#t and anyone legitimately engaging that kind of pseudo-Maoist nonsense is terrible and should be ashamed of themselves.
My issue isn't with "cultural appropriation". It's that she's actively working to undermine the culture she's imitating.
I expect I will regret this, but please explain you reasoning.
Essentially, I believe that Iggy Azalea is different from all these other artists in that her version of appropriation (and her actions) work to undermine black culture, not uplift it. Elvis Presley, Amy Winehouse, Adele - hell, any white singer with an element of soul sets themselves apart by putting their own spin on it. You can hear their voices - even when they try to take on a black accent, and they're still relatively distinguishable. You can hear the Elvis in Elvis. You can hear the Adele in Adele. You can hear the Amy in Amy. You can't hear the Iggy in Iggy. You don't hear a blend of Aussie hip-hop and thumping Atlanta bass. You hear someone who has projected another image of themselves - an image that has been, and still is being oppressed by her race for centuries.
And even if you don't think there's anything wrong with that, there's clearly something wrong with her rapping in another accent, and then putting on her real Australian accent to dismiss this criticism of her as African-American rappers trying to "make it racial". The problem with Iggy Azalea isn't that she's a white-washed version of hip-hop. It's that she's whining about how people are making her race an issue when she's already made it one through her music.
The idea that
all white people are somehow collectively responsible for suppressing blacks and should therefore share in a common guilt is very alien to most non-Americans.
(btw would that guilt also include a Slovak, Ukrainian or others from countries with no part in the slave trade/colonialism?)
I think most outsiders to the special US racial dynamics/discourse would feel offended if someone racialized copying the most widely copied culture in the world - the African-American. US culture has become the cultural default option in the modern world - and there is a feeling it (and it's component parts) belongs to everyone and not solely to the creators. It is a price you pay for being so culturally dominant.
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