cicadas in a trenchcoat

ART COMMISSIONS: OPEN

Sorry if I randomly follow you after you’ve liked a post or something. I’m kind of nosy.

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I will die on this hill. The song is catchy and it’s fine to like it but it is still objectively racist. Mind you, I am white but it doesn’t take a genius to see that it is borderline minstrelsy. Like… the face paint? The bulging eyes? The overlined lips? And not just the music video: the broken english, the accent, this might be a stretch but the bananas specifically and their association with monkeys. Even some of the theories comparing the bananas to drugs rub me the wrong way (even if that was intended). The fact that it was 2005 does not make an excuse it. I’m not saying that makes the band members necessarily racist people (with the obvious exception of Joe) but the song 100% is.

For those of you who don’t know if you live in the US or are a citizen and you have a disability that makes it difficult to read, It is relatively simple to get free audio or braille books, even if you don’t have a diagnosis. It’s an organization run through the library of congress. You only have to fill out a couple of forms and get someone to sign off on it, which could be anyone from a doctor to a librarian.

Link to the website where you can get more info/apply

Having a psychotic disorder does not make you a pedophile. Having a psychotic disorder does not make you a groomer. It does not make you inappropriately interact with children. By implying that the reason Joe did what he did was because of his mental health issues, not only does it give him undeserved sympathy for things that he did wrong, but it further works to demonize people with these already demonized disorders. He can have schizophrenia and be a child groomer, and those things can be unrelated.