Cultural Appropriation? Bring it on!

There are very few pieces of music that can top the sublime 2^nd movement of the New World Symphony by Czech composer Dvořák. You know the one – it accompanies an early 20^th-century lad delivering Hovis loaves up one of the steepest residential streets in England (Dorset) but the music is played by the Ashington Colliery Brass Band (Northumberland) and the voice-over is pure Yorkshire.

Yes the music is heavenly; the street-scene transports you back to the civilised days before cheap flights, sweat pants and ‘Influencers’, and the old man reminds you of your grandfather, whatever accent he had.

But it could be construed as bad – evil, in fact – according to the guidelines (sorry, straitjackets) mandated by the miserable, soul-destroying, soul-destroyed, vindictive, insecure, ignorant, politically-opportunistic wazzocks few, who would probably have the advert and the music banned. ‘Cancelled’, I think the term is.

Why?

Because the music is about the New World (as in post-Mayflower America), composed by a Czech, influenced by Native Americans (i.e. pre-Mayflower), and accompanies a TV advert set in the south of England embellished by two areas of the north.

That makes it vulnerable to accusations of ‘cultural appropriation’, defined as “the unacknowledged or inappropriate adoption of the customs, practices, ideas, etc. of one people or society by members of another and typically more dominant people or society.”

Such a concept runs into trouble before it’s left the starting blocks of the blockheads who contrived it. I mean, how do you determine what is a “more dominant people or society”? In this ad, we have the northern accent and northern band culturally appropriated for the more dominant southern setting. However, that’s assuming the north-south divide back then was the same as it is today. Parts of the north used to be pretty dominant in the economy, when the rural south was haemorrhaging wealth, influence and workforce to the urban centres and indeed to the New World itself – my Somerset-ancestors’ families amongst them. (Don’t you dare claim that I am privileged just because I’m white British.) So maybe the more dominant urban north was culturally appropriating the south. And is Northumberland appropriating Yorkshire or the other way round? They might both be north but there are cultural differences. Growing up, I supported Leeds and my grandfather followed Newcastle. Boy, did we have some verbal fisticuffs!

Less flippantly, Dvořák drew on Native American music for his symphony. That’s bad according to the glass-half-empty brigade. But from a glass-half-full perspective, the ‘appropriation’ is a compliment to the artistry of that indigenous population. Further, it helps to keep their culture and story alive, a bit like Vaughan Williams’ saving English folk songs from obscurity. True the Europe of Dvořák was and is more dominant than Native America, but by appropriating the persecuted people’s music, he was helping to level the playing field, one crotchet at a time.

The aspect of the Hovis Ad that made it such a hit in the ’70s and beloved to this day, was the subliminal message of hard work, family and community. Surely this message, drawing on cultures from here, there and everywhere, is what is important. It’s this universal, positive, joyous, feel-good message that unites us, which is what the woke don’t like. They’re all for negativity, sadness, angst and division.

Another example of cultural appropriation is my own recipe for a curried roast vegetable supper. Here am I, white British, using vegetables, e.g. potatoes, and spices introduced from dominated cultures, and labelling the dish with a culturally appropriated name (“curry”) that is not culturally authentic. I once served it to an Asian Indian who laughed her socks off, teased me like crazy, and opened another bottle of beer, thus cementing a wonderful friendship.

Cultural appropriation? Need more if it.

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