“A new low for pop culture’s exploitation of Nazi symbolism.” That’s how the Anti-Defamation League’s director, Abraham Foxman, described Nicki Minaj’s new lyric video for her song “Only.” The animated clip features red banners and soldiers with armbands adorned with a logo that isn’t a swastika but may as well be one given the video’s obvious reference to the Third Reich.
Minaj injected into her art a symbol that will likely forever evoke the worst of humankind’s capabilities, and we should all be outraged—not alongside Foxman but at Foxman and similar critics.
In fact, I’m outraged that people are outraged.
Minaj is an artist. She made a provocative video. With any art, subjectivity inevitably guides appreciation or lack thereof. Personally, I hate the song, and the video is a snooze (to be fair, though, it’s just a lyric video). But when Foxman claims that Minaj is exploiting Nazi iconography…he’s actually right. But he’s wrong to criticize.
For starters, it’s clear that Minaj is not intentionally trying to harm anyone. Secondly, art has no boundaries, nor should it. Which isn’t to say that an artist who created purposefully anti-Semitic, racist, sexist, or homophobic work wouldn’t offend me, but that’s not the case here. Minaj merely appropriated taboo signs. I think some of the best (or at least my favorite) art trades in “forbidden” territory.
If only Minaj herself agreed with me. In response to the criticism, she tweeted, “The artist who made the video for ‘Only’ was influenced by a cartoon on Cartoon Network called ‘Metalocalypse’ & Sin City.”
She added: “Both the producer, & person in charge of over seeing the lyric video (one of my best friends & videographer: A. Loucas), happen to be Jewish.”
She should’ve known better than to use the “some-of-my-best-friends-are-black” defense. Regardless, she concluded, “I didn’t come up w/the concept, but I’m very sorry & take full responsibility if it has offended anyone. I’d never condone Nazism in my art.”
(The mess of typos above is hers, not mine!)
So when Foxman claims that the video’s Nazi imagery “is deeply disturbing and offensive to Jews and all those who can recall the sacrifices Americans and many others had to make as a result of Hitler’s Nazi juggernaut,” I don’t disagree with him so much as think that such symbols are mere reminders of past atrocities.
The video’s director, Jeffrey Osborne, apparently agrees with me. He issued his own statement:
“First, I’m not apologizing for my work, nor will I dodge the immediate question. The flags, armbands, and gas mask (and perhaps my use of symmetry?) are all representative of Nazism…I think it’s actually important to remind younger generations of atrocities that occurred in the past as a way to prevent them from happening in the future. And the most effective way of connecting with people today is through social media and pop culture. So if my work is misinterpreted because it’s not a sappy tearjerker, sorry I’m not sorry.”
Exactly.
You can comment below to let me know how misguided, stupid, idiotic, or crazy I am for championing freedom of expression, but perhaps we can agree on this: Individuals and companies can often avoid fiascos like this by soliciting opinions from a diverse group of friends, colleagues, employees, etc. Had Minaj and her team consulted with a more—
—who are we kidding? The video got publicity. I think Minaj accomplished her mission. But she also accomplished something else: Decades after the end of WWII, we are still discussing its horrors. That’s a good thing.
