@Cosmik I think it goes without saying that we are all racist at an unconscious level. It is inbuilt into the worldviews that we all share and that inform our interactions from soon after the moment we become socially aware. I'm not talking just about "white people" here, I mean that racial prejudice is built into and permeates the psychology of everyone in our society.
If you doubt this, take a look at the various psychological studies done on unconscious racial bias.
The important question is how aware we are of our prejudices, how careful we are to not allow them to bubble to the surface in our actions in a way that is disrespectful or exploitative.
Of course, nobody can be perfect all the time, and unfortunately some (many, if we look only at the USA) of the more rabid anti-cultural appropriation voices do not recognise this, do not see the nuance, and lack the empathy and the willingness to consider how other people might think and feel.
But that doesn't make every single accusation of cultural appropriation wrong. It shouldn't stop us looking critically at ourselves and others and thinking about whether we are acting respectfully and doing our best not to exploit. I'm certainly happy to look back on my actions and judge them from time to time as wrong. I think more thoughtful artists like Byrne and Eno probably do too.
I think it's important that those making these accusations, however, do so in a thoughtful and respectful way. I'd consider the articles you posted on Bush and Eno/Byrne to be in the ballpark in this respect (I'm still really struggling to see the "paroxysms of confected rage" you keep mentioning in those pieces).
Question: a few years ago I showed a child that if they played just the black notes on a piano keyboard in the right way it could sound like instant oriental music. Was there anything wrong in this?
(That's something I discovered for myself when I was an innocent child...)
Absolutely nothing wrong with this.
I refer back to the quote from the Byrne/Eno article to explain why:
"In my conversations with musicologists over the years on these issues the lines are drawn along solely economic grounds. The artists and record companies of the first world have the resources to defend their rights, the poor do not... Borrowing, reference, and collage are fair play among equals, but perhaps
deeply questionable [worth thinking about] between rich and poor.... Also depth and quality of thought in using material not self-generated is important. At best you have a respectful integration of cultures and method leading to valuable new material. At worst you have tourism and exploitation. To make that judgement involves taking each case separately..."
). Do I unconsciously participate in racist attitudes that are socially normalised? Quite possibly. For all we know, Kate Bush, David Byrne, Sting, et alia may have similar perspectives on their work.
