‘Bruno Mars 100 Per Cent Is A Cultural Appropriator, He Is Not Black At All’…Activist Accuse Bruno Mars of Cultural Appropriation

When activist Seren Sensei Aishitemasu said her thoughts on Thursday in a clip for The Grapevine, a web series that explores African-American issues, that Bruno Mars is appropriating black culture even though he is not black, the internet erupted.The accusation is that Bruno Mars has been adopting African-American musical styles and benefiting from it.The brouhaha started over the weekend when Seren said ‘Bruno Mars 100 per cent is a cultural appropriator. He is not black at all, and he plays up his racial ambiguity to cross genres.’‘Cultural appropriation’ is defined as ‘the act of taking or using things from a culture that is not your own, especially without showing that you understand or respect this culture’, according to the Cambridge Dictionary. She continues saying ‘What Bruno Mars does, is he takes pre-existing work and he just completely, word-for-word recreates it, extrapolates it,’ Aishitemasu explained. ‘He does not create it, he does not improve upon it, he does not make it better. He’s a karaoke singer, he’s a wedding singer, he’s the person you hire to do Michael Jackson and Prince covers. Yet Bruno Mars has an Album of the Year Grammy and Prince never won an Album of the Year Grammy,’ she added.Eleven-time Grammy winner Mars is half Filipino, one quarter Puerto Rican and a quarter Ashkenazi Jewish. The comments sparked a fierce debate on Twitter between those who agreed with Aishitemasu and others who leaped to defend Mars.Photo Credit: Getty

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