So instead of choosing an ad or a show to analyze for cultural appreciation/appropriation, I decided to choose the 2003 movie, Malibu's Most Wanted. The way this story goes is the main character, B-Rad, is the son of a politician running for governor and his dad wants him to stop acting as a part of the "Urban," and hip hop culture, because it is messing with his campaign. The character of B-Rad mocks cultural appropriation in society using stereotyping and assimilation. B-Rad is from Malibu, a very nice part of southern California, and was raised around money and lived a life without financial struggle. Although this is the case, he still tries to present himself like hes part of the hip hop culture and even went up to his black house keeper and "Our people." You could see throughout the movie, B-Rad will try and force struggles upon himself and even dress the way rappers did in the early 2000's. The character of B-Rad uses assimilation when committing cultural appropriation by only taking certain parts of the Hip Hop culture and using it to make himself feel better and cooler than other people. He treats the culture like a gift shop, only taking the clothing and language but maintains the Malibu lifestyle and still would never have to worry about money. The character also stereotypes rappers by presenting this image of baggy clothes and bandannas with big jewelry on while talking with a slang dialect. Its hard to say if hes really appreciating the culture because in the movie, some other characters put him through a lot of different things like taking him to the ghetto, to see if he would change his act, and he wouldn't. As a matter of fact he stayed in that personality and insisted that, that was his true personality. There is a thin line between appropriation and appreciation and where this character stands, is 100% up to the reader. Personally, I believe the film had an agenda of exposing people who really do this in real life. The movie did not receive any real backlash because this "poser" figure has been in our society for decades. The movie knew exactly what it was doing.
Great post! For me, it's hard to say whether or not a Jamie Kennedy vehicle can be as astute or self-aware on appropriation as you say, but I haven't seen the film. I suspect there are many early 2000s movies like this one that are less sensitive with cultural appropriation because they weren't aware of it. It also may still be happening. Here is the trailer for Night School https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaNs468a59c watch for the principal.
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