Florence + The Machine 21 November, 2011

According to some crackpots (YouTube commenters) there are references to the Illuminati and Satan worshipping in this clip. Really?

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Florence and The Machine
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grattan

grattan said on the 23rd Nov, 2011

WTF?

From [URL="http://www.racialicious.com/2011/11/22/no-light-no-light-white-supremacy-all-dressed-up-in-a-pop-video-is-still-white-supremacy/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Racialicious+%28Racialicious+-+the+intersection+of+race+and+pop+culture%29"]racialicious:

It's actually slightly astounding how much racist imagery they managed to pack into just four minutes and 15 seconds.

You can watch the video for yourself to get your own interpretation, but if you can't watch it for whatever reason here's a brief summary: Welch, a thin white red-haired British woman, is the focal point, but at various points, we see what seems to be an Asian man in blackface, misreprentations of the voodoo religion (which of course inflicts harm on the poor white woman). The overall plot of the video seems to be of a white woman pursued by 'darkness' represented by the aforementioned man in blackface, who ends up falling into 'whiteness' represented by a choir of young white boys in a church. Oh yes, that old trope. Black = evil, white = good. Echoes of British religious imperialism and its violent history of colonization abound. You get the picture.

this isn’t the first time Welch has been criticized for being “culturally insensitive,” to put it mildly. Her other music videos could hardly be excused as perfect, either.

A quick look at “Dog Days Are Over” (which has over 20 million views on Youtube) features a mishmash of unidentified Othered cultures in the background, such as women in head scarves banging on drums, an all-black gospel choir with silver foreheads, and two blue women (yes, blue). The already very light-skinned Welch is painted an even whiter white, and is featured prominently in the foreground leading the masses of ambiguously ethnic backup dancers in a frenetic crescendo:

At the end of the video, they all explode into bursts of bright colours, leaving the “wild” Welch draped in a furry tattered garment, waving a flag.

What these music videos show is the amount of misrepresentations around race that many (white) artists are able to use, all under the guise of “art.” It happens in fashion photoshoots, music videos, films, books, etc on more occasions than one could possibly count. While it happens all the time, that does not make it any more defensible. And being a fan of an artist who makes a misstep and ends up creating something racist, intentionally or not, does not oblige you to running to their defense. Being a card-carrying fan of an artist or musician does not make them infallible.

Discussions about whether or not Welch is personally responsible for this racist music video have cropped up.

humanracin

humanracin said on the 23rd Nov, 2011

Who directed it, Edgar Rice Burroughs?

gumbuoy

gumbuoy said on the 23rd Nov, 2011



These guys are outraged,

http://images.apple.com/iphone/business/profiles/blueman-group/images/hero.jpg

or we think they are - they're not very good at communicating feelings.