“Bruno Mars is 100 percent a cultural appropriator,” Youtuber Sensei Aishitemasu states. “He is racially ambiguous. He is not black, at all, and he plays up his racial ambiguity to be able to do cross-genre and going into different places.”
“I don’t even think that Michael Jackson, now, in this day in age, would be able to get to the point that he got to previously,” she continued. “And a huge part of that is because people have realized that they prefer their black music and their black culture from a non-black face,” adding ”Bruno Mars got that Grammy because white people love him because she’s not black, period. The issue is: We want our black culture from non-black bodies. And Bruno Mars is like — bam, I’ll give it to you.”
This is not the first time that he has been accused of appropriating Black culture. Throughout 2017 there were several thinkpieces online debating the issue.
A writer for The Root came under fire from Mars fans when she posted a thread about him saying:
“I really need y’all to stop with this Bruno Mars praise and be more critical about the ways we understand appropriation. Bruno Mars does not identify as Black. Let’s get that clear at the outset. These claims that Bruno Mars is “bringing Funk back” are erasive to Black Funk artists who pioneered the tradition. FUNK. NEVER. LEFT. Yes, he gives “credit” to Funk artists on occasion. He also has a primarily white audience which has no memory or care for Black artists.”
Do you think he’s an appropriator? Is Bruno Mars the Iggy Azalea of Funk music?
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