Snoop Dogg barred from Australia
April 26, 2007 at 10:30 pm (APEC 2007, Operation Talisman Sabre, global capital, immigration, media, military, popular culture, race and racism, the state)
Just as I was lamenting the irrelevance of my blog to my mostly-American audience…
Immigration minister Kevin Andrews denied Snoop Dogg a travel visa to enter the country to perform at the MTV Awards ceremony. While I’m no fan of the guy and I’ve sheltered myself so successfuly from the vicissitudes of pop culture that I couldn’t even name a song of his, I still think this has to do with race.
In a situation where we have the American military coming into Australia for training exercises in less than a month’s time, and Bush himself coming to town later this year (while the whole goddamn city is being shut down for him, BTW), I think some “drug and gun offences” look pretty fucking trivial.
It’s this whole drive to individualise moral culpability and evade the issue of power that’s really outrageous about this. While a high-profile black American rapper whose audience is mostly white, whose wealth is built upon a skewed portrayal of black men, which again benefits wealthy white Americans (and was indeed constructed to do so) is made out to be personally degenerate for embodying elements of a culture that has both been socially engineered and lambasted, the whole fucking country is getting ready to hold an orgy in celebration of war and capitalism.
I know who I’d rather bar from the country and it’s not the rapper.
EDIT: Now the PM is comparing his behaviour to Holocaust denial and making comments about his “background”.
Kyle de Beausset said,
April 26, 2007 at 11:49 pm
I wasn’t able to find your contact info but I enjoy your blog and I was wondering if you would be interested in a link exchange with Immigration Orange. Email me at beausset at fas dot harvard dot edu if you’re interested. I hope this comment finds you well.
Buria q said,
April 28, 2007 at 5:33 pm
“While a high-profile black American rapper whose audience is mostly white, whose wealth is built upon a skewed portrayal of black men, which again benefits wealthy white Americans (and was indeed constructed to do so) is made out to be personally degenerate for embodying elements of a culture that has both been socially engineered and lambasted, the whole fucking country is getting ready to hold an orgy in celebration of war and capitalism.
I know who I’d rather bar from the country and it’s not the rapper.”
Good stuff, fire_fly. I followed the link from your comment at Sepia Mutiny, which never ceases to disappoint me. That site is awash with simplistic arguments every time I check.
Fire Fly said,
April 28, 2007 at 5:49 pm
Buria, I’m also really disappointed with SM, but generally I stay away from the comments. This time, however, I really had to speak up.
Apologising for molestation on the grounds that the response to it was overhyped? Unacceptable.
Fire Fly said,
April 28, 2007 at 5:58 pm
Kyle,
I keep my contact info fairly private because I dislike spam! Comments, however, are okay if you want to get in touch with me.
I have checked out your blog but I must regretfully decline your offer of a link exchange. Firstly, I only link to blogs and sites I read regularly and am already familiar with. Secondly, I want to keep my blog on-topic with Australian issues to do with race and gender. While I don’t think your blog is completely unrelated, the fact that it’s not already on my reading list makes it less germane and familiar. I’m also really busy and I’ve decided that anything new I add to my blogroll has to be super-relevant (i.e. Australian, feminist, anti-racist).
Best of luck, though.
If you’re looking for more blogs to add, might I suggest The Unapologetic Mexican and Women of Color blog? Both write about race and immigration issues from a US Latin@ perspective, and they’re both very popular. I’m sure they’d find your blog most relevant too.