"The Lion Sleeps Tonight" is the creation of African tribal singers, who earned little, if anything, from their music. Big Mama Thornton never reached the celebrity of Elvis, and The Blues Brothers, somehow, made famous in the 1970s a song which had been a black hit in the 1960s, but which did not make Sam and Dave wealthy. Many of us know the difference between appropriation and appreciation and we can easily point out examples. I would have appreciated your essay more if you had performed what is an essential element of opinion pieces and made some reference to counter examples.