Kanye West, the king of unwarranted controversy, embroidered the Confederate flag, a racist symbol for many, onto several items in his line of merchandise for his current Yeezus tour. The star, who's gotten mixed reviews for his budding sense of fashion, received criticisms, but was nonetheless seen photographed wearing a jacket with the flag sewn onto its shoulder just a week ago. Kanye's decision to "reclaim" the flag, follows the effort of other celebrities, such as John Leguizamo, who has attempted to reappropriate a term or an artifact to morph the way it's received.

The act of re-appropriating or re-contextualizing, the process by which a group reclaims a term or an artifact that disparages that group and then uses it in a different context, is not something new. The need or natural desire to alter labels that have been applied or to disfigure an image that has been assembled is logical. For example, The "Jump Jim Crow" was a dance done in black face to humiliate blacks, but originated when a white man witnessed a black man making fun of the way whites danced, and he adopted the dance, repeating the dance for audiences with black shoe polish on his face.

The re-appropriation of the Confederate flag, itself, has been attempted time and time again. And, West isn't nearly the first rapper to attempt to "take back" the flag, and to make it his own. Lil Jon made a big splash when he appeared in music videos, draping the flag like a cape, and having two burn on opposite sides of the screen, more than ten years ago in 2001. And, Ludacris, Andre 3000 and Pastor Troy made similar efforts with the flags, utilizing them and claiming them in equivalent ways.

Los Angeles radio station, 97.1 AMP, welcomed West for an interview on Monday, Nov. 4; and West's newly favored symbol, the outdated Civil War flag representative of the southern states, was addressed by the megastar.  

"React how you want. Any energy is good energy. You know, the Confederate flag represented slavery in a way - that's my abstract take on what I know about it. So I made the song 'New Slaves.' So I took the Confederate flag and made it my flag. It's my flag. Now what are you going to do?" West proclaimed, according to People.

Though attempts to reclaim the flag have yet to be successful, re-appropriation has been succeeded before. It's happened with racial epithets: the N-word in the African-American community, Guido in the Italian Community, and Gringo among Anglo-Americans. The key for the transformation of an undermining, racist term is for it to be handled as a tool of empowerment, voided of any previous connotations, and utilized by the offended party. Though, use outside of the community can still be seen as vicious or hateful.

Comedian and actor John Leguizamo attempted to do the same for the Latino community with his comedic play, entitled "Spic-O-Rama," which earned him rave reviews and awards. The term 'pochos' was once used as a derogatory term toward Mexican, but with the development of satiric magazine Pocho, and comedy troupe of the same name, they were able to reclaim the old slur.