Many of my fellow Mexicano/Chicano peers that have much respect and hold Morrissey in high regard. One of them is L.A. Weekly’s Ask A Mexican writer Gustavo Arrellano. In his excellent article written back in 2002 by about Morrissey and his Mexican following, Arrellano asked then doctorate candidate Colin Snowsel why he thought why Morrissey and Mexicanos were so closely connected.“Morrissey was, in short, providing to lower- and middle-class Mexican-Americans the same dual utopian message that he had once provided a decade earlier to predominately Anglo fans in the United Kingdom," he writes. And what did he offer Anglos? "Escape from the injustices of a social order that confines them to the margin, but escape also from the limited identity options entrenched in peripheral, working- and middle-class culture."
It was disheartening in reading that at the end of last year. Morrissey was in the news for his comments made about immigration to NME magazine. In the article it suggests that one of the reasons that he no longer lives in England is due to immigration.
“ With the issue of immigration, it’s very difficult because, although I don’t have anything against people from other countries, the higher the influx into England the more the British identity disappears.”
Seems quite odd for someone who resides in Los Angeles, one of the most diverse cities in the world and with a large following of Non-Anglos to say something like that. Morrissey supporters are quick to mention that he is a life long liberal and defender and lover of people all over the world. In his rebuttal to the NME, Morrissey states that, “Racism is beyond common sense and I believe it has no place in our society.”
Also in his defense, Morrissey explains,
“Conor (NME Editor Conor McNicholas) would be repulsed by my vast collection of world cinema films, by my adoration of James Baldwin, my love of Middle Eastern tunings, Kazem al-Saher, Lior Ashkenazi, Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, and he would be repulsed to recall a quote as printed in his magazine in or around August of this year wherein I said that my ambition was to play concerts in Iran.”
In response to Conor’s article, NME writer Tim Jonze wrote,
"it's Conor's view that Morrissey thinks black people are OK ... but he wouldn't want one living next door to him."
This is not the first time Morrissey has gotten heat about racist/anti-immigrant stances. His song, Bengali In Platforms, released back in 1987, offended many and caused and outrage with the line,
“That life is hard enough when you belong here.”
Morrissey has explained in the past that Bengali In Platforms is a song about not losing one’s own cultural identity in assimilating into dominant society.
In part two of this series, we will get opinions from L.A. area Chicano artists who are fans of Morrissey on the subject of his music, his views on life and whether they feel if Morrissey is a racist.
Here's the thing, Mozzer's parents were immigrants. Mozzer's an immigrant too since he moved to L.A. and Italy. I mean, what kind of dumbass racist would move to the most ethnically diverse city in the galaxy (and possibly universe)? These are facts that can't be lost on him since he's not retarded. But Morrissey has always liked saying stuff that gets him in trouble because it calls people to actually think about issues rather than hide behind the accepted P.C. cliches that provide shortcuts to thinking for closet bigots. It also keeps people talking about him. "Is he racist? Gay? Celibate?" Who else has had these questions asked so consistently for 30 years?
I don't think it's racist to express disillusion with the changing character of one's homeland. It's just natural nostalgia to want to turn the clock back to the way things were when you grew up. I have no desire to go back to my home because it has changed from woods and meadows to mile after mile of tract housing... because of immigration. And the beloved-England of Morrissey's youth is gone too, from the sounds of it. Cockney is a quickly dying accent becoming replaced by the "jafakin" spoken by garage-listening charvers dressed like Eminem, Chicken Tikka Masala is England's national dish, British rock music is in its death throes- something only listened to by badly-coifed Anglophiles in the U.S. Effectively, the sun has set on Morrissey's mid-century England of grainy black and white photos with smoking factories and "Carry On" movies.
The NME writer, like so many British critics, is just tripping over himself to show how "down" he is, I suspect. Somalis, Pakistanis and Indians have been moving to England in large numbers for the last 20 years. Why does the writer make the choice to single out black immigrants when he writes "Morrissey thinks black people are OK ... but he wouldn't want one living next door to him." My guess is because replacing "black" with "asian" wouldn't get people fired up to the same degree in Conor's eyes because he himself finds Africans scarier than Asians.
And not that racists can't fetishize other races but from the guys Morrissey goes out with I'd say he's not _too_ averse to non-Caucasians.