racism

We’ve lost our boy

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This post has been a long time coming.

If you have known me in real life, or even virtually over the past decade, you will probably have come to associate me with Morrissey.

Since I was a young person growing up in an Australian seaside town that they forgot to close down, Morrissey was a pillar of strength, artistry, and justice in my life.

I struggled through personal upheavals and a tumultuous few decades, all the while using the crutch of Morrissey’s art to prop me up. I found support in his words, using his songs to craft a soundtrack of my life.

As I explored my vegetarian and then vegan concerns, I became even more emotionally linked to Morrissey. I was finding ways to become an advocate for animal welfare just as Morrissey was doing on a global stage.

Songs I would listen to when feeling sad were Morrissey songs. When I was happy? Morrissey. I had different Morrissey mix tapes for different activities. Songs for dancing alone, songs for drinking with friends, songs I would send to men I fancied, and songs that I might want played at my funeral. All Morrissey.

I really believed that I would go to my grave listening to Morrissey. My devotion was unwavering.

But here we are in 2018.

I don’t need to recap all of the problematic things Morrissey has said over recent years. Even if for some reason you don’t find them problematic, you are still aware of them. They are reported widely and because they make great clickbait, we are inundated by headlines such as Morrissey reignites racism row by calling Chinese a ‘subspecies’.

My love for Morrissey was so unwavering that it took years of these questionable statements before reality seeped into my brain and my heart in a way that I couldn’t ignore. I’m ashamed on a profound level that I purchased music and concert tickets from an artist who was becoming known for promoting bigoted views.

A few years ago it stopped. I had to stop.

No matter how much Morrissey was responsible for giving my tormented adolescence and my tortured extended adolescence a framework to help me survive, I could no longer idolise or even enjoy the music being released when it was bookended with interviews in which the artist would sing the praises of anti-Islamic, anti-immigrant politicians and political groups.

The final nail in my Morrissey coffin was delivered today in a frankly vulgar interview published by a website called Morrissey Central.

You can read the full interview here but horrific highlights include:

  • Morrissey ridiculing the Mayor of London’s accent and declaring, because of the way he speaks, civilisation is over
  • Morrissey making the claim that Hitler was politically Left Wing
  • Morrissey expressing concern that far-right, anti-Islam political group For Britain does not get fair representation in UK media
  • Morrissey stating that all acid attacks are by non-white people and the perpetrators of these crimes are somehow protected because of their minority status

These statements are not something to be ignored or swept aside. They are the language of right wing propaganda. It is not simply a case of disagreeing with a few of Morrissey’s key talking points. I wholeheartedly reject his support of far-right politicians who stand on a platform of division, Islamaphobia, and the promotion of a pure Britain.

In a conversation with a Morrissey fan on Twitter today, I was told by the fan that she was able to put Morrissey’s views aside. She claimed that he has a right to free speech and she would never be cruel about someone’s personal views by speaking up against them.

This is a nothing short of a perverse example of hiding behind privilege.

It is our duty as compassionate humans to speak out against all forms of racist and bigoted language, especially the promotion of far-right political parties that are focussed on bigoted public policy.

Morrissey saved my life with his music, but you have got to be fucking joking if you think that means I am going to sit around and not say anything about his outrageous statements laced with the language of the far-right.

People who perpetuate racism by using hateful language need to be held accountable, not celebrated. Morrissey’s dedication to saving animals does not give him a free pass when it comes to the promotion of For Britain. His cultural legacy does not make space for him to perpetuate dangerous ideas without serious and determined critique.

His support of this party is abhorrent, troubling, and extremely problematic.

A few weeks ago, Morrissey played a gig just a few miles from my apartment here in Mexico City. I didn’t go. I was offered a free ticket by a friend and I still didn’t go.

What sort of person am I if I cannot stand by my convictions? What sort of human am I if I make excuses to see an artist who repeatedly presents as the mouth piece for far-right Britain?

Saying goodbye to a childhood hero is difficult. I still occasionally listen to old Smiths and Morrissey songs but unless he has a radical shift in the language he uses and the bigoted views he promotes, I will never buy another musical release or concert ticket until the day I die.

Now, who can help me pick out a new funeral song?

Extra: I do not know that Morrissey is personally racist and I am not declaring him to be racist. I am stating that I will not support an artist who uses language associated with far-right politicians that, in my mind, is dripping with racially-charged and bigoted overtones. I will also continue to speak up against people who use such language.

Despair

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I once wrote a blog post for my buddy JL in which I explained how mainstream media and advertising made me feel like an outsider as I grew up in Australia.

You can read that original post here, but the main message was that the perpetuation of eating animal flesh as normal was inextricably woven into other hegemonic themes such as sexual identity, male virility and body perfection. The media worked to make me feel like a failure or not the best ‘man’ I could be. That’s right, the name Fat Gay Vegan was created as a counter to these negative and damaging forces.

Fast forward four years since I penned that post and how have things changed in Australia?

Well, watch this recent television advert and spot how many ways I (or anybody) could be offended.

Many of my readers are of course vegan so the attempt to portray the vegan as the non-sporty person, cowering on the floor on their own, will be the part of the advert that confronts on first watch. I’m not sure how to begin unpacking the scene where the military use a flamethrower to set the vegan’s coffee table on fire. Is that violence as a comedic response to someone saying they don’t eat animals? I’m struggling to see the humour.

The vegan is also the only person not ‘Australian’ enough to be considered worthy of being airlifted back for the national celebration. That’s some straight up bullshit.

OK, so we have the vegan-shaming out of the way. Let me get some other things off my chest.

The most excruciatingly offensive and upsetting part of this advert is the appropriation of Indigenous terms and language to promote Australia Day.

For those of you who don’t know, Australia Day is ‘celebrated’ each year on January 26. The date remembers the 1788 arrival of the First Fleet of British ships at Port Jackson in what is modern day Sydney. This marked the beginning of the systemic brutalisation of the Indigenous people of the landmass that came to be known as Australia.

Not sure what I mean by brutalisation?

European forces took ‘ownership’ of an already populated land by poisoning, shooting, hanging, starving and massacring Aboriginal people who resisted (and many who didn’t). Women and children were raped and killed. Families were torn apart in the belief that Aboriginal children would never have a good life (or possibly as a deliberate genocide tool to force the ‘dying out’ of Aborigines). This forced removal of children from families came to be commonly referred to as The Stolen Generations and it is estimated that approximately 100,000 Aboriginal children were separated from their family unit. This happened officially until c. 1970.

So how does this all fit into the lamb advert you watched above?

The campaign to bring Australians back ‘home’ so they don’t miss out on eating dead animals on Australia Day is jokingly referred to as Operation Boomerang. Yes, that’s correct. A celebration of the arrival of murderous invaders that immeasurably altered the lives of generations of Indigenous people has been given the Indigenous name of a hunting and ceremonial weapon. A boomerang returns to the thrower, just like these Australian are returning home to eat lamb. Get it?!

Many Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians refer to Australia Day as Invasion Day and this ad campaign makes a mockery of the Aboriginal experience. It has completely disregarded Aboriginal perspectives, apart from stealing a term to serve its own message.

How many other ways can I take offence by watching this advert?

Let’s see:

  • to my eye, every Australian being ‘boomeranged’ back for Australia Day presents as white.
  • there are no overweight people being brought ‘home’.
  • sport is woven into the entire theme and the explicit link between eating meat, maleness and being Australian is undeniable. No women sportspeople were involved, because sexism is rampant in Australian culture and the contributions of women in sport is seen as negligible.
  • the advert is racist in it’s portrayal of Japanese people as business experts wrapped up in ceremony. Did you see that goofy, white Australian ‘bloke’ not able to get his head around their kooky custom of bowing? He didn’t know when to stop! LOL. Quick, get him some lamb to eat.
  • the militarisation of national identity is complete in this advert. The army/special ops are seen as enforcers of a narrow view of Australian identity. They will ‘rescue’ you if you are a white, sporty, lamb-eating man with a fit body… or a women who fits these characteristics but doesn’t rock the boat too much.

I often talk about the way in which multiple prejudices work together to perpetuate domineering and dominating forces.

This advert is almost comical in its outrageous attempt to paint a picture of what being Australian means. The advertisers are using anti-veganism, body shaming, racism/white-dominance, nationalism, sexism and military worship in order to sell a product that is violent at its core.

This is why we as vegans need to resist and challenge all forms of oppression. They are all connected and it is common for them to be used in tandem to perpetuate animal suffering, dominance, and privilege.

Extra note: it is somewhat heartening to learn that this advert has rapidly become the most complained about advert in the history of modern Australia.