Two weekends ago, Taylor Swift attended Katy Perry's party and posed with A.J. English, a Hollywood model who for some still not well explained reason happened to have a t-shirt on that sported a big, fat Swastika on it.
Taylor Swift and AJ English
While Taylor Swift's publicist has issued a "Swift didn't know what she was doing" statemwent and English has publicly appologized and said he's not a Nazi, Swift herself has not gave one statement explaining that she's sorry, shocked, or even actually cares that she was in a photo with a guy wearing a t-shirt with a Swatika!
Moreover, Internet reaction seems to be "Oh, she's just this cute girl who didn't know any better. It's ok."
Like heck it is. There's an old saying that if we don't pay attention to history, we're doomed to repeat it. I've come to the conclusion that we just don't seem to care at all about establishing standards of engagement that prove we've advanced beyond the hatred of yesterday.
If we had, there would be incredible pressure for Taylor Swift to say something, just as their has been for Kansas City Chiefs Running Back Larry Johnson, who was suspended by the team for homophobic comments.
Is it OK to let her go because she's 19, white, pretty, and blonde? How far do we allow this to go before we have another girl group like Prussian Blue, who compared themselves to the Olsen sisters but said "We're proud of being white, we want to keep being white. We want our people to stay white"?
Taylor Swift can go a long way toward righting a wrong just by submitting a statement. Why she's not done so is really surprising to me but maybe we're just becoming desensitized to hate because we're exposed to it so much online and on television that we're becoming too permissive.
We have a so-called Louisiana "judge" Keith Bardwell, who openly expresses his dislike for interracial marriage and is still (as of this writing) practicing in Tangipahoa Parish outside New Orleans. Sure, I'm all for free-speech, but I'm not for someone in a governmental, legal position using his power to carry out racism and deliver a racist message.
Then we have couch potato conservatives like Michelle Malkin speaking out against diversity - and she's Asian!
Think about this folks: here's a woman of color basically saying she likes that the GOP's mostly white rather than a gathering of different-looking kinds of people share the same ideas. In other words, the GOP should not work to have anyone of color in it.
Malkin's attacked Asian activists in the pages of the website VDARE, an online place noted for White Supremacists views.
By her silence, Swift runs the risk of being thrown into the same public perception box as Malkin. Well it's a risk because as I stated, quite a few people seem to want to give her a break without asking for a statement of apology or at least a freaking tweet!
I would think enough's, enough, but maybe I'm in the minority in more ways than one, , liberals are more wimps than I thought, and America in general's prone to make the same errors of racism as in the past. Whatever the case, that we don't as a society take a harder line against even the appearance of a Swastika in a photo of a major celebrity is shameful.
Shame on you, Taylor Swift. Shame on you. And to think I came to your defense in the Kanye West issue.
I'm almost sorry I did.
Educate yourself, sir.
ReplyDeleteA simple Google search will find background information, such as this:
The word swastika is derived from the Sanskrit word svastika (in Devanagari स्वस्तिक), meaning any lucky or auspicious object, and in particular a mark made on persons and things to denote good luck. The modern equivalent to the term would be a talisman. It is composed of su- (cognate with Greek ευ-, eu-), meaning "good, well" and asti, a verbal abstract to the root as "to be" (cognate with the Romance copula, coming ultimately from the Proto-Indo-European root *h1es-); svasti thus means "well-being." The suffix -ka either forms a diminutive or intensifies the verbal meaning, and svastika might thus be translated literally as "that which is associated with well-being," corresponding to "lucky charm" or "thing that is auspicious."[1] The word in this sense is first used in the Harivamsa. Monier-Williams notes that the shape of the symbol represents a monogram or interlacing of the letters of the word svasti written in Ashokan characters.[2]
The Hindu Sanskrit term has been in use in English since 1871, replacing gammadion (from Greek γαμμάδιον). Alternative historical English spellings of the Sanskrit word include suastika, swastica and svastica.
"Master" - what the hell is that comment?! I mean you've got to be kidding.
ReplyDeleteWell, of course you are!
yeah i just read the story you posted on the sfgate site and i came here to post pretty much what the guy above me posted.[ which is from wikipedia.]
ReplyDeletehow can you be so dismissive on factual information? you are the one that wrongly stated that the swastika was a symbol of hate and nazism. yes its true it is used in association with nazis but it is older than that and still used today in other connotations.
if taylor swift had said something racist or did something hateful i could understand your outrage but to be photographed with some hipster douche with a finger painted on symbol older than western civilization itself is something that should be noted as a PR risk because of ill informed people thinking it to be a message.
avril lavine has a pentagram tattoo on her wrist, would you demand an apology from her denouncing satanism? would you believe her to be a satanist or one to encourage satanism