“Dear Ed Sheeran, fence-sitting is so last century: musicians can no longer opt out of politics”, writes Zoe Williams in the Guardian.
Macklemore, both onstage and in his own statement, has rebuffed the argument that voicing support for Palestinians and criticising Israel and its actions in Gaza and the West Bank is antisemitic. (In 2014, he apologised for a costume he wore on stage, which critics said was antisemitic, saying: “I respect all cultures and all people.”)
So musicians “can’t” opt out of politics, but political opinion journalists opting out of either stating their own opinion as to whether Macklemore’s grotesque “Jewface” costume shown in this BBC article from 2014 might be a teensy-weensy bit anti-semitic, or of linking to a picture of it so that readers can decide for themselves, is just fine, apparently.
Macklemore should be free to throw Nazi salutes while prancing in his fake black beard and prosthetic hooked nose. He should be free to insult the general public’s intelligence and flatter his own public’s bigotry by saying with a smirk that he had no idea that anyone might think he was caricaturing a Jew. Zoe Williams should be free to pretend that she didn’t see the pictures in that BBC article despite having taken her “which critics said was antisemitic” line straight from it. And I’m free to say that for Zoe Williams, who was once longlisted for the Orwell Prize, to write an article demanding that Ed Sheeran take a side while averting her own eyes from blatant racism and concealing it from her readers makes her a worthy successor to Squealer.
For anyone who wishes to understand the Middle East since 1900, this book The Cauldron by Simon Sebag Montefiore, appears to be a comprehensive history. I have added it to my Tsundoku pile.
Suppose, Ms Williams, that Sheeran had publicly picked a side?
Israel’s side?
Suppose he finished a performance and then yelled at the audience: ‘GO ISRAEL! DEATH TO HAMAS! NUKE GAZA NOW! FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA, ISRAEL MUST BE JIHADIST-FREE!’
Why do I strongly suspect you would not subsequently be praising him for getting off the fence and choosing a side?
The 2014 costume, false nose and all, was clearly intended to sneer at Jews.
Fair enough, he can sneer at anyone he wants to (as Natalie correctly says) – and everyone can sneer right back at him.
As for his claims of “genocide” – it is the forces of Islam who wish to wipe out the Jews, not the Jews who wish to wipe out the Muslims – so the charge is inverted. As for “Gaza” – the population of the place has exploded over the years.
Still “Macklemore” can test his theory about lovely Muslims – he should go to Gaza and go around singing his pro homosexual act songs.
As the Gentleman was being stoned to death, or falling through the air after being thrown from a roof top, he might change his opinion of the population.
Until a few days ago, when this thing blew up into landing page newsfeed, I had never heard of this Macklemore gentleman, and I have missed nothing, it seems. Any pretence that his 2014 ‘persona’ was not anti-semitic is, as lawyers might put it, ‘beyond reasonable argument.’
Anyone doing the barest due diligence on the matter would have seen the issue coming, he was up to this long before it was mainstream for ‘popular culture’. So how on Earth did he get the gig in the first place?
As for The Guardian, for at least the last 92 years it has been beyond contempt.
Mr Ed – agreed on all points.
And “Macklemore” has the right to hate-and-mock Jews – or any other group of people, for example black people – although I suspect the Guardian would not approve of that.
However, “Macklemore” has no right to demand that a Jewish businessman employ him – pay him money, for demanding that seven million Jews should be wiped out “from the river to the sea”.