IP protects Black cultural expression

These themes of his work — uplifting Black entertainers, helping them own their power through statements that are sometimes political — make Knight’s own quest to copyright-protect his work as a Black artist something of a political act itself. “Copyright ownership is essential for Black creators to ensure authentic representation and to protect cultural output,” says Terrica Carrington, vp legal policy and copyright counsel at the Copyright Alliance. And on a cultural level, it could be paradigm-shifting. “There is this notion throughout much of the Black community that the law can only be used as a tool to exploit people, and there’s this notion that copyright is inherently racist and biased,” says Howard University’s Mtima. “And that’s just not true. A lot of the law is not targeted in any particular way; people get confused with discriminatory practices in certain industries. JaQuel is demonstrating, ‘Well, if the law is inherently against me, how is it that I’m able to use it to my advantage?’ ”