Talk:Rock Against Racism

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Contents 1 Possible ambiguity 2 Inflammatory and prejudice 3 Alleged racist comments 4 What actually are these things, anyway? 5 Context

[edit] Possible ambiguity

The article currently says Rock Against Racism was organised in 1976 by the Anti-Nazi League, but the Anti-Nazi League article says that the league wasn't even formed until 1977. There is a discrepancy in the dates. Can someone figure this out? -- FirstPrinciples 04:57, Jan 24, 2005 (UTC)

_Yes, this is a political article, posted for political reasons. The truth is clearly irrelevant.

[edit] Inflammatory and prejudice

This article is conveyed in such a manner that it leaves the reader with the thought that Eric Clapton and David Bowie were promoting acts of racial hate crimes in 1976. When a more factual account of events is that they expressed nationalistic views and some agreement with the views of Enoch Powell. Nationalism isn't a synonym for racism, it's a sense of conservative immigration control. Not seggregation, but cultural preservation. And it's not limited to any one ethnicity or culture.

Also, albeit less crucial, I think calling someone's views "rhetoric" isn't objective. The inferred meaning of the word has become rather derogatory. And its use is questionable for something like an encyclopedia.

In my opinion the article as it is constitutes a defamation of character of those two artists. If an unobjective point of view is to be conveyed in the article, the opposite side of the pole should also be presented. With something such as "though some find that it was an opportunistic affair of scarcely known artists wanting to profit off the media circus involving these comments made by David Bowie and Eric Clapton". Though I think that would be even more inflammatory and improper. And objectivity would be a better policy.

Beyond these points I find myself too unfamiliar with the "Rock against racism" event to make an edit.

[edit] Alleged racist comments

I still think we should include the word allegedly before racist. <guilt> I haven't read the comments they made </guilt>, but they'd have to contain some pretty strong stuff to qualify as uncontestably racist. And again, I haven't read them, so if somebody presents them and they DO contain these characteristics, I'll probably oblige. --Theaterfreak64 23:19, August 5, 2005 (UTC)

David Bowie's remarks werw quite strong indeed, info taken from the Wiki article: "At around this time, Bowie became embroiled in a controversy caused by his comments to Playboy magazine apparently praising Hitler, and his statement to the effect that "Britain could benefit from a fascist leader". This was accompanied by some theatrics involving an open-top vintage Mercedes and a Nazi salute staged outside Victoria Station. The incident, along with some similarly controversial racist remarks by Eric Clapton, were some of the catalysts behind the Rock Against Racism movement. Later, Bowie retracted his comments, excusing himself by claiming his judgement had been affected by substance abuse." Eric Clapton's remarks, in comparision, seemed more like ignorant rambling, (this was discussed in a television show I saw yesterday), where he said something similar to "A foreigner pinched my wife in the ass, yesterday. No I'm really supporting Enoch Powell. He's the only one telling it like it really is." Ok, this is from the Eric Clapton page: "In 1976, Clapton was the centre of controversy, and accusations of racism, when he spoke out against increasing immigration, during a concert in Birmingham. Clapton said that England had "become overcrowded", and implored the crowd to vote for Enoch Powell to stop Britain becoming "a black colony". These comments (along with equally ill-advised comments by David Bowie) led to the creation of the Rock Against Racism movement in the UK.

Despite the damage to his career and reputation caused, Clapton has always steadfastly refused to distance himself from the remarks and denied there was any contradiction between his political views and his career based on an essentially black musical form. At about this time, his name appeared on albums distributed in Japan as Eric Crapton[1], though this is probably a case of Engrish rather than innuendo." David Bowie's stunts might possibly be better classified as fascist, though, but apart from that, I'd think these comments are strong enough to classify...

[edit] What actually are these things, anyway?

The article needs to explain, I think, how a concert can be, or purport to be, "against the rise of racism". Were the concerts it mentions benefits? It needs to say. If they were, where did the money go? TheScotch (talk) 09:52, 25 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Context

This article needs some context for Americans and such. It used to be perfectly legal for Neo-Nazi parties like the National Front and the British Movement to go on TV with campaign ads (not at all like US campaign ads) during general elections. I remember as a kid watching Enoch Powell on the BBC with a Nazi flag to his left and a Union Jack to his right. There was a great deal of disaffection (to say the least) in the UK at the time. Record unemployment and Thatcherism had the Working Class down and the National Front etc. were actually getting seats in Parliament by blaming everything on the immigrants from the Commonwealth. Blah blah. --Piepie (talk) 12:23, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

I'm certain Powell never appeared next to a 'Nazi flag' (he did after all voluntary join the army in the war against Nazism in 1939) and the NF never won any seats in Parliament.--Johnbull (talk) 04:56, 28 February 2008 (UTC)