Bruno Mars is at the center of an online debate this week after the "Uptown Funk" singer has been accused of appropriating black culture through his music.
On Thursday, March 8, The Grapevine on YouTube published a new episode discussing Mars' recent win at the 2018 Grammy Awards and his music, which is infused with R&B, funk, soul, reggae, and hip-hop. The web series regularly discuss issues plaguing the black community.
A clip of the conversation landed on Twitter this week and sparked an even bigger debate. By Friday morning, "Bruno Mars" was trending on Twitter with over 50,000 users sharing their thoughts about the issue.
"Bruno Mars 100 percent is a cultural appropriator," said writer and activist Seren Sensei on the web series on Thursday. "He is not black, at all, and he plays up his racial ambiguity to cross genre."
Mars was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii, to a Filipino mother and a half-Puerto Rican, half-Ashkenazi Jewish father.
"What Bruno Mars does, is he takes pre-existing work and he just completely, word-for-word recreates it, extrapolates it," Sensei continued.
The "Finesse" singer's win at the Grammys this year has been rather controversial. Fellow artists such as Justin Vernon of Bon Iver criticized his triumph over Childish Gambino and Kendrick Lamar.
In Bruno Mars' Defense
Mars is still a hot topic as of this writing, and many are defending the 32-year-old singer. His fans have argued that the Grammy-winning artist has repeatedly recognized the influence of the black community to the music industry and his own music.
How's Bruno Mars a culture vulture when he's acknowledged his privilege and given proper credit to black artist. Ontop of that he's nonproblematic and makes great music. Why do y'all want everyone to be a bad guy? — ℭhris¹³⁸ (@MrChristopherX) March 9, 2018
In 2016, Bruno Mars stood up against police brutality targeting African-Americans in America pic.twitter.com/tVPx0L60yU — BrunoMarsNewsFacts (@brunomarsnewsfa) March 9, 2018
Just want to join in the convo and stand up for my friend @BrunoMars!#callingallmylovlies #chunky #versaceonthefloor #finesse #24kmagic pic.twitter.com/v2xHF9GPB8 — Charlie Wilson (@ImCharlieWilson) March 9, 2018
Except Bruno Mars credits the originators, which is a core issue with cultural appropriation. He's not taking black culture away from black people a la Elvis Presley, he's performing in that space whilst contributing to and crediting the black community. It's not the same thing. https://t.co/xDNSUrzJU1 — YouTube : Shogun FC (@AshElNegro) March 9, 2018
Some say that Mars' new sound is cultural appreciation, not appropriation.
How's Bruno Mars a culture vulture when he's acknowledged his privilege and given proper credit to black artist. Ontop of that he's nonproblematic and makes great music. Why do y'all want everyone to be a bad guy? — ℭhris¹³⁸ (@MrChristopherX) March 9, 2018
Twitter users also pointed out that some other artists deserve to be criticized too for appropriating black culture through their music.
Y'all deadass come after Bruno Mars for cultural appropriation when Lil Pump & Tekashi 69 still dropping the n word like nobodies business smfh I'm disgusted — ʲᵉᵃⁿ (@Kid_The_Creator) March 9, 2018
i just want to know how yall are literally hating on bruno mars.... the man that RAISED US ALL with nonstop bops. his last album was 9 songs of pure magic, not a single filler. yall want to hate on him but support lil pump, tekaka six thousand, and xxtyrannosaurus. im TIRED. — dani (@IMACTUALLYUGLY) March 10, 2018
We need to keep talking about cultural appropriation. There's a lot of culture vultures out there but @BrunoMars isn't one of them. — Cousin Carl (@carlcheryAM) March 10, 2018
yall crying abour Bruno Mars Lil Pump Etc etc all these culture vultures but yall give the biggest one (Drake) a pass FOH — lade (@justlade9) March 9, 2018
When I think of cultural appropriators, Miley Cyrus, Justin Timberlake & Iggy Azalea come to mind, not Bruno Mars. — Hyacinth. (@PhalindaJaxn) March 9, 2018
Others, however, think that the debate should not even exist because there are more important issues that need to be discussed.
The President of the United States is race baiting from the Oval Office, paying porn stars hush money, and being investigated for treason, and people are hating on Bruno Mars?! Please consider doing something more productive like registering to vote out the complicit GOP in 2018. — Ryan Knight #BlueWave2018 (@ProudResister) March 9, 2018
The fact that Bruno Mars being accused of cultural misappropriation is trending higher than the #Yountville hostage situation tells you all you need to know about the Twitter generation. — Vin Tanner (@SurburbanCowboy) March 9, 2018
Seren Sensei Responds To The Twitter Backlash
Despite the backlash she has received from the Twitter community, Sensei is standing by what she said about the singer. In a statement to Newsweek, she said she is glad that she got people talking about the issue.
"It's important to have the conversation outside of the usual dichotomies of Black/White racism because non-Black persons of color can also practice anti-Black racism," she said. "We need to address what that means."
Mars has not issued his own statement regarding the issue as of this writing.
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