It seems partly to be about musical appropriation - so probably does belong above the line. But a lot of it is about matters of appearance and matters of cultural significance, the misuse (usually merely through ignorance) of culturally significant symbols.

I have started to canvass the issues with my G/F (who is Yoruba).

To my mind it is odd that there are a bunch of twerps like the racist historian who object to the fact, as he put it, that the English are becoming black. What he really meant was that England was seeing some increase in behaviour similar to that of certain sections of Jamaican urban ghettoes.

Then of course there are people like me who object to the Americanisation of English culture, seeing it as a form of colonialism - while I always liked the Rolling Stones.

The current objections, I think, are in part merely as petty as the childish accusation of "copycat". But in part they are more serious. Not only does much cultural appropriation undermine the cultural identities of those systematically exploited in the past (and now and so exploited again) but it risks corrupting the meaning of aspects of historically rooted cultural behaviour. Tribal tattoos that represent important rites of passage in societies are stolen for mere decoration - and their meanings may be lost. Mind you I don't suppose that the cultural ivory anklets worn by some African women to indicate that they have successfully borne ten children will become as popular.

But on the other hand traditional-minded Afrikans have much for which to thank the African diaspora. For example a considerable amount of the learning of traditional Afrikan belief systems has returned to Africa from the diaspora - albeit in some cases modified and given a syncretic form.

To my mind more important is that African-Americans must surely be free to reflect the cultural symbols of their ancestors (even if I will never enthuse about animal sacrifice in African belief systems). With what cultural history should they associate if not that?

At the moment I am not clear whether I approve or disapprove in general - but I am clear that if one wishes to reference a set of cultural beliefs one should be careful not to distort them, and know what one is doing. This seems to me sometimes to get lost.