LORRIE GOLDSTEIN writes:
 So-called “cultural appropriation” is really about censorship.
Without it, Shakespeare doesn’t write The Merchant of Venice, Joseph Conrad doesn’t write Heart of Darkness, John Howard Griffin doesn’t write Black Like Me and Gord Downie doesn’t write The Secret Path.
So is the fact that through the appropriation of black music and musicians like Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry, B.B. King, Howlin’ Wolf and many others, white artists like Elvis Presley, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and many others popularized black music.
That led to the blues, Motown, R&B, rap and hip hop breaking into mainstream culture, which in turn made global superstars out of Beyonce, Drake, Sean “Diddy” Combs, Rihanna and for that matter, Eminem
All art is derivative, either “appropriated” from what came before, or as a rebellion to what came before. That’s how art evolves.
http://www.torontosun.com/2017/05/17/forget-cultural-appropriation----its-about-censorship