Let's talk about the elephant in the room regarding this garbage album and the backlash it's received from the Black community.
It's plainly obvious to me that Jack Harlow feels entitled to be a culture vulture and make a dollar-store Soulquarians album largely due to the notion of Appalachian Exceptionalism. People keep claiming Jack Harlow is Jewish when he's actually an Irish-American from Appalachia (specifically, Kentucky). In academic discussions on whiteness in America, there exists a prevailing notion that mayo-white hillbillies from Appalachia (Kentucky, North Carolina, WV, Pennsylvania, etc.) aren't "really" white because they don't "really" benefit from white supremacy, and therefore should not be held to the same contempt as other whites. On the American left, there is even a romanticization of Appalachian culture that doesn't exist with other local cultures in the country.
There are several reasons given for this:
- Appalachia remains one of the poorest regions in America despite its historical coal wealth; Appalachians weren't able to acquire intergenerational wealth like other whites.
- Appalachia has a progressive history; WV broke off from Virginia due to anti-slavery, the Battle of Blair Mountain is the reason American workers were given the right to unionize, industrial workers there fought bosses, etc. This has largely caused anti-racists to go "soft" on the white people from the region.
- Appalachians claim they've been historically oppressed by flatlanders and can lay some claim to historical struggle.
Given all this, there is no doubt in my mind Jack Harlow does not view himself as being "truly white" and assumes he's entitled to mock and degrade Black culture because the rules that apply to other whites don't apply to him. It's identical to how the Irish insist they're not white because "muh six counties".