rolling "Is This Racist?" thread

Ok actually this was based off a bill Clinton quote

I bet this chick is still kinda racist, but my apologies

Clinton can't be racist because he was the first black president.

^racist?

http://www.theroot.com/buzz/led-zepplin-front-man-spooked-black-music

Led Zepplin Front Man 'Spooked' by Black Music
By nsenga.burton
Created 09/22/2010 - 18:30

Robert Plant refers to black music as "spook music."

Fresh from the "We can't make this up file," Led Zepplin front man Robert Plant said that "spook music" is one of his favorite genres of music. When did he do this? On a recent appearance on The Today Show. While promoting his new album Band of Joy, Plant opened up about his influences. "[British people] didn't really have the musical knowledge as you guys have [in America]," said Plant. "So we tapped as much American 'spook music' as we could -- as much blues -- mixed it up and nobody liked it. But the feeling of freedom was fantastic." Take the needle off the record. The man whose work is clearly an appropriation of black culture, doesn't know that "spook music," is a derogatory term for black music? Wow. We won't mention the time period of when Led Zepplin ruled the airwaves. He should appropriate some more black culture and call himself "The Great Pretender," because that is what he appears to be.

^^^sounds highly unlikely, show me the clip

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wS5GHOkCCgY&feature=player_embedded#

massive facepalm

wth

maybe he just doesn't know, thinks its akin to ~spooky~......it's not a racial epithet in england

don't rly care either way but just saying

lol @ "thinks its akin to spooky" uh no he doesn't

think he was probably trying to make some point abt how the music was held in low esteem by whites who weren't him & jon bonham. like there's a bit of time travel going on. he might have said "race music".

classic interview response

in his defence, he didn't say spook music was his favorite genre. that actually is from the department of making it up.

um that quote is not in the clip

so again, show me the evidence or I'm gonna continue believing this is some kind of misquote/misinterpretation cuz I really have a hard time believing Page would knowingly and casually use a racial epithet

it's at 1:03 in the youtube

http://www.spookmusic.com/

Robert is a little older and a little more cosmopolitan than I am, I'm sure, but I am Britishes and have never heard the term 'spook music'.

I have never heard the phrase "spook music" in my life.

I have nfi what it even means.

"The music of spook - a unique mix of relaxed grooves, mystic spheres and a deep positive feeling of life. Oh yeah, racism too."

yeah having seen the video it's pretty clearly not a word-choice error

still, i guess he is talking historically and he is invoking some tired archetype while unaware that spook is simply a pejorative

doesn't ~look~ like he's trolling

ah I see it now - sorry

fuck I dunno what the hell he was thinking. bizarre.

we should have listened to Bill Magill :(

otoh yeah I have never heard the term "spook music" before in my life. "spook" okay yeah that's an archaic racial epithet but... wtf it's a total facepalm/headscratch moment.

I imagine a public apology will be forthcoming shortly lol

i was hoping he'd throw ~air tildes~ around it like "we played ~spook music~" as if to suggest that's what ~they~ called it

but no

Spook music:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4uxIo4t7xM

Spock music:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3B4lsvrzfZI

Sparks music:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBtj2ShktAU

wow u put in some work on this one man

just keepin it positive

yeah i mean at least link to ghostbox or s/thing for yr spook music

I don't think "that's what THEY called it" is going to be an effective strategy when using racially loaded terminology

right right, i was just imagining scenarios where this could be something other than an outright fuckup, but no, it's a fuckup

How has he been playing music for 40 years and no one told him that's offensive!

Robert Plant issues apology
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esZ15n6_5JY

maybe he doesn't throw it around all the time? xp

is he a known racist?

*logs on to nme.com*

hey everybody just real quick i'ma c'mon son.jpg myself xp

trouble before was if you wanted to say lz were racist, you'd either need to play up the tired ~appropriation~ thing, or the volkisch immigrant song angry white ppl stuff....and the two stories didn't quite fit, but this helps to link the threads

This is totally racist, but what the fuck is wrong with Australia/New Zealand? Like first the blackface gong show and now this?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/11/paul-henry-resigns-new-ze_n_757797.html

i'd love to laugh at antipodean racists, and i often do - my impersonation of an australian is to say "fucking lebos mate" - but tonight on american television a british man is going to be browned up playing a character called "Fa'ad", so maybe people in glass houses and all that.

wait waht

check out this hilarious gif of paul henry http://imgur.com/zjI7H.gif

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/ae/articles/2010/07/18/20100718plant0718.html#ixzz10Mrv4PVU

maybe Plant thought he coined some new term or something

http://i.imgur.com/WUCxQ.jpg

I got this salsa the other day, and on the side of it it says that, "not unlike a Latin lover," it will "satisfy even your most hedonistic desires."

My favorite "is it racist?" moment on TV is the Jeopardy clip where the Indian guy flubs some question where the answer is "New Delhi", and Trebek kind of deadpans to him, "hurts to miss that one...", it's so easy to find on Youtube, it's been making me laugh for years.