Kesha did not only use the racist Gypsy slur when she sang how she wants to be someone’s “little blue eyed Gypsy” in her new song “Hunt You Down” and also in “Woman” (intro: at 0:08), she also used my Romani ethnicity in a fetishizing and even sexualizing manner further fueling the fetishism and hypersexualization of the Romani woman who’s already viewed as nothing but an oversexual, promiscuous temptress. Yet her songs are still called “the Feminist anthems of the year” without a single word being said about her less than subtle anti-Romani racism and fetishism.
Stop trying to excuse this and write it off as nothing but Romani “overreacting”. Anti-Romani racism always gets overlooked and rarely ever called out. People have grown so comfortable to it that Anti-Romani has even been deemed an “acceptable form of racism” among many European people and scholars.
Stop trying to say you are going to this “slide” because of what Kesha has been through either. What she has suffered through is scary and horrible, yes, but it is in no way or form related to her racism and fetishism and it is not an excuse for her racist and fetishistic anti-Romani behaviour (this isn’t the first time she has done this since she once faked Romani heritage, calling herself a “thieving Hungarian Gypsy”)
You can feel bad for what Kesha has been through but still acknowledge her racism and fetishism. Don’t defend her and as a result allow her to once again continue with this behavior.
Published
A Middleground 