Bruno Mars has become a center of an online debate after he was accused of making music that culturally appropriated black culture, but thanks to his huge fan following, his die heart fans came in his defense.
The fierce online debate started after writer Seren Sensei’s comments made in a video for Youtube’s The Grapevine went viral.
She said on the famous roundtable web-series, which covers politics, entertainment, and identity from the perspective of the black millennial, “Bruno Mars 100 percent is a cultural appropriator.” She went on to say, “He is not black, at all, and he plays up his racial ambiguity to cross genres.”
The 32-year-old Mars was born in Honolulu, his Filipino parents are half Ashkenazi Jewish and half Puerto Rican.
She referred the fact that the Oscar-winning musician creates that would fit into traditional black genres such as hip-hop, soul, funk, and R&B.
She said, “Bruno Mars has an Album of the Year Grammy and Prince never won an Album of the Year Grammy.” She added, “The issue is we want our black culture from non-black bodies.”
However, there were many Twitter users who agreed with Sensei’s opinion, Mars’ fans argued that the label given by Sensei wasn’t true for the “Finesse” singer.
One social media user wrote, “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.”
One Twitter user wrote, “Bruno Mars is definitely a talented and successful artist who is influenced by funk music, New Jack Swing, and the Black artists who came before him. I just wish the music industry would also sign & promote more Black artists singing Black music because they deserve success too.”
“Its okay to acknowledge that Bruno Mars’ racial ambiguity allows him to capitalize on white americas desire to enjoy black art without embracing black people. And still like his music,” another added.
