Morrissey is a racist

Not enough of a racist to be prevented from headlining festivals in California, apparently:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EQhSWKMVUAAXNof?format=jpg&name=large

That looks like one of those classic rock festivals with an average of 1.2 original members per band. In the UK they put them on at out-of-season holiday camps. Do Americans not generally know about his attitudes?

As far as I can tell, most of them are blissfully unaware of his bigotry or are vaguely aware of some incident that may or may not have occurred a decade ago. Speaking as someone with no interest whatsoever in his solo career but who mostly enjoys The Smiths' classic albums, I had no idea how bad it was before reading about it on ILM.

P4k have reported on his racism, and - checks - continues to mention it, even in a short write-up about a new song or album being released. Good on them. Him wearing a 'fuck the graun' shirt while on tour in America will not make waves there as it does over here probably. Still, if you're the person who buys tickets to a Morrissey show in 2020, it's hard to imagine you don't by now know he's a racist piece of shit.

Yeah, nü-p4k has done a good job on this front. And I assume this:

if you're the person who buys tickets to a Morrissey show in 2020, it's hard to imagine you don't by now know he's a racist piece of shit

…is sadly otm.

I am very much a separate art from artist person, but his racism has ruined basically all his solo work for me. I used to love him too.

tbf this racist cunt has never wanted his art separated from his persona

having Morrissey and the Graun on the right and left of the cultural theater of war is a perfect illustration of how meaningless a culture war is when both sides completely suck shite.

xp yeah that’s my point, it’s very personal in a way that some people’s art isn’t

Do Americans not generally know about his attitudes?

It's almost as if racism only exists if it's in an American context.

Idk I think Americans would understand the comments about Chinese people and all his anti-black stuff.

Proof of the pudding.

Fandom notwithstanding, Morrissey is a nonentity in North America.

Fandom notwithstanding, Morrissey is a nonentity everywhere.

There it is.

I saved time and money by hating him from the get-go

That's quite a line-up, particularly JAY ASTON'S GENE LOVES JEZEBEL.

you wouldn't want to get the wrong Gene Loves Jezebel

Aside from Morrissey and Christian Death, I would be very into this lineup

...ah OK, I thought it was a misprint; didn't realise GLJ had a Jay Aston as well as Buck's Fizz.

David Van Day's Gene Loves Jezebel.
All that's missing from that line-up is Balaam & The Angel, I wonder if they're chartering a flight to bring them all out from the UK? Piloted by Buster Bloodvessel, maybe.

looks like another rockin' day at Dignity Health Sports Park

i know it's payday for them and i don't really understand how these things work but it is disappointing to see a lot of those people appearing on the same bill as morrissey. like 40 years ago the beat were playing gigs for rock against racism, now they're sharing a stage with this turnip. can't imagine they're particularly happy about that though tbh

Green Day in the Graun the other day about their Moz collab:

“I wasn’t aware until the song came out,” says Armstrong. “We do the song, and he was very lovely, and then the song comes out and a lot of Brits were like: what the hell are you doing? I really did not have a clue … ” Bewitched by the singer’s status as an 80s indie godhead, he simply failed in his due diligence. Cool pipes up, giggling: “Hey, we’ve all got our Ted Nugents, right?” – a reference to the US rocker and gun enthusiast.

By the way, this isn't solely an American thing, he could just as easily play a festival in the UK, doubtful if he'd top the bill though.

But I don't want any Ted Nugents

Ted Nugents should be hunted to extinction

Sucks about all the other bands turning a blind eye to this. I'm sure at least 95% of them know.

If you loved the Smiths and liked a couple of Morrissey albums in high school, that doesn’t mean you kept up with all his occasional racist lyrics, let alone his decades of public racism and racism-adjacent posturing. This is probably the situation for 90+% of younger bands that ostensibly revere him.

tbh you lost me with "liked a couple of Morrissey albums in high school"

*climbs off of "I've been calling Morrissey a racist since 1988" hobby horse*

plz can someone explain exactly how big Bad Manners are in the US? and also why?

DJP OTM. This hasn't been a secret.

the answer to both nickb's qs is surely ska

lol why i am posting abt buster bloodvessel instead of cornelius cardew doing the very detailed and deadlined work i'm being inadequately paid for

special brew
i love you
gonna write abt
cornelius cardew

I assume everyone is aware that this is in Los Angeles, where Morrissey has a massive latino following that doesn't care about his racist antics in the UK press. Combine that with the smaller audience of LA Gen X goths that are likely go for the nostalgia value, this is a perfectly understandable bill.

a massive latino following that doesn't care about his racist antics in the UK press

Have never heard of this (am neither British nor American fwiw).

Why wouldn't they care at all?

there's a p4k article about it

https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/does-the-mexican-american-community-still-love-morrissey-despite-everything/

Thx.

So it mostly boils down to 'we know, but we love his music more than we hate his racism'. Fair enough.

(lol @ at the automated suggestion that I read related article 'Is Lana Del Rey the American Morrissey?')

I think it's a simple as the fact that his racism hasn't been directed at the latino community tbh. And the other UK-centric stuff reads like inside baseball to non-UKers (ie, who is the Guardian? The UKIP? etc.)

i don't know, i think the quote "everyone prefers their own race" is pretty universally understandable

kind of funny that grasping some v. basic points about british politics is a bridge too far when ~95% of morrissey's cultural reference points are totally "uk centric inside baseball"

like how many people in the us know or care about reggie kray or whatever?

there was an American movie about the Krays

i guess the basic thing with morrissey music is feeling sad about yourself, not feeling sad for other people.

Yeah no I made this point earlier and I don’t think an American needs to know anything about British politics to think that

- calling Chinese people “a subspecies”
- repeatedly moaning about the UK “losing its culture”/ too many foreigns not speaking English on the street
- “Reggae, for example, is to me the most racist music in the entire world. It's an absolute total glorification of black supremacy... There is a line when defense of one's race becomes an attack on another race and, because of black history and oppression, we realise quite clearly that there has to be a very strong defence. But I think it becomes very extreme sometimes."
"But, ultimately, I don't have very cast iron opinions on black music other than black modern music which I detest. I detest Stevie Wonder. I think Diana Ross is awful. I hate all those records in the Top 40 - Janet Jackson, Whitney Houston. I think they're vile in the extreme. In essence this music doesn't say anything whatsoever."

Any of these or similar themes are not immediately understood by an American for what they are? That’s not niche. Not knowing about it, ok, but if you know and think it’s “inside baseball” idk

”Britain’s a terribly negative place. And it hammers people down and it pulls you back and it prevents you. Also, with the issue of immigration, it’s very difficult because, although I don’t have anything against people from other countries, the higher the influx into England, the more the British identity disappears. So the price is enormous. If you travel to Germany, it’s still absolutely Germany. If you travel to Sweden, it still has a Swedish identity. But travel to England and you have no idea where you are.”