I understood Bowie’s “China Girl” as anti-imperialist and anti-White man.
“A-rab” may be offensive, but it’s a long way from the “n-word.”
“The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” was an attempt at a Southern populist anthem. Not everybody will love it or approve of it, but if Joan Baez could sing it, it’s probably not racist in any serious sense.
The comments on “Right Here, Right Now” are asinine. A white singer writes a song inspired by two Black artists he doesn’t wholly agree with, and he’s a racist? No, that’s a conversation, and not a conversation about race, either (the world didn’t “wake up from history,” but that’s another story).
“Your Squaw Is on the Warpath” by Loretta Lynn? Offensive? You can find thousands of songs from the 19th and early 20th century that are more offensive. You can’t even print the titles in “Reader’s Digest.” As with the list of “racist movies” posted earlier to day, the writer just reveals how little he really knows.
“Turning Japanese”? Think of it as a complement to all the songs about how horrible Western civilization is. People are as scared of the world turning into Tokyo as they are of it turning into Los Angeles or New York City.
“Island Girl” by [Bernie Taupin and] Elton John? Yeah, that is pretty racist. “Jamaica Jerk-Off” probably is, too. The point of rock music back then was to be offensive.
Yeah, he was really reaching on that one.