Respect detonates three core tenets of Critical Race Theory:
a) Whites are racist oppressors.
b) African-Americans are downtrodden victims of white bigotry.
c) Cultural appropriation is evil. Each race should horde its aesthetic and stylistic offerings among its own people. Whites, especially, must keep their greedy hands away from anything aesthetic that lacks European roots.
At some level, all culture involves appropriation.
The magic that Tuscan and Milanese chefs craft with pasta would not exist had Marco Polo not brought noodles from China to Italy in the late 13th Century.
John Coltrane, Maceo Parker, and Clarence Clemons are just a few of the black men who would have blown hard into their empty hands, had the saxophone not been invented in Belgium in 1846.
And black authors from the Harlem Renaissance’s Langston Hughes to Nobel laureate Toni Morrison would have attracted far fewer readers had they written in Yoruba rather than English — a language rooted in overwhelmingly white Great Britain.
Likewise, many of Respect’s musical numbers show blacks and whites using instruments, rhythms, and songs borrowed from each other’s backgrounds and then polished even further.
The gospel-music-tradition from which Aretha emerged had a major influence on rock music since its inception and on specific acts who dipped their buckets into that deep well.
The Doobie Brothers’ hit song “Jesus Is Just Alright” began as a 1966 gospel tune by Arthur Reid Reynolds of the Art Reynolds Singers.
The Byrds gave the tune a test flight in 1969. The Doobies’ 1972 cover added electric guitars and a Hammond B-3 to these two, lighter arrangements.
The result? A chart climber, an enduring classic-rock staple, and the source of lush royalty checks to “A. Reynolds,” whom the Doobie Brothers credited on the song’s label.
Similarly, Paul Simon himself wrote “Loves Me Like a Rock.” This 1973 song’s unmistakable gospel flavor sprang from the breathtaking, Sunday-choir vocals of the Dixie Hummingbirds, a black spiritual quartet launched in Greensville, South Carolina.
This song hit No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was a certified gold record — great news for Rhymin’ Simon and the Hummingbirds, both recognized on the old 45 RPM single.
What CRT proponents condemn as “cultural appropriation” is what normal humans praise as inspiration. And these are just two among millions of artworks in which black culture weaves into white culture, white culture blends into black culture, and beauty happens.
Aretha Franklin earned four platinum records, 14 gold records, and scored 20 No. 1 R&B singles among the 75 million units she sold. She won 18 Grammy Awards and was the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
In 1994, Aretha became the youngest person selected for the Kennedy Center Honors. In 2005, G.W. Bush bestowed upon Franklin the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America’s highest civilian honor.
