For as long as there's an argument to be had, I will argue that it's every person's inalienable right to mock, insult and imitate whomever they want. Those rights are constantly under attack, and it's our responsibility to defend them. I will fight for anyone's freedom to perform a crude and, shall we say, 'offensive' impersonation of an African American rapper. Of course those parodists might be booed off stage, mocked or ignored.
That's the risk you take. Iggy Azalea is enjoying her freedom, and not suffering any consequences, despite the spectacularly crass way in which she goes about it.
I'm more surprised than anything else. Our culture has an insatiable outrage fetish, and I'm baffled that it hasn't plucked this low-hanging fruit.
Azalea's imitation isn't irreverent. She's very sincere about her intentions to rap. She isn't trying to mock anyone, so her clumsy simulacrum of a black hip hop artist is only funny accidentally.
I wouldn't for a second argue that rap Music should be considered off limits to whites. The suggestion that only one race or nation can own an artistic form is tribalist and just untrue. Anyone who cares to, can go ahead and make rap music, but I can't help but feel that Azalea doesn't agree with me on that. She seems convinced that unless she actually makes herself sound like a black rapper, her lyrics are worth nothing.
The result is the vocal equivalent of blackface. Every exaggerated "dis" and "dat" ought to make anyone cringe. As would a phrase like "You went from nuttin' to suttin'." She raps about her efforts to "Work mah Sheeeyuht". If that's a quest for authenticity, she's deaf to the irony of it.
I remember Tony Blair's similarly ridiculous tendency to drop his 'T's and 'H's when speaking to working-class voters.
And when George Osborne stands in front of factory workers, looking deeply uncomfortable in a high-visibility jacket and hardhat, he gives an awkward speech about "Briddish workers" and the "Briddish economy". What Azalea, Osborne, Blair et al. would do well, is to learn that when everyone knows who you are and where you come from, you can't fool anyone.
