Hall of Fame ousts Jann Wenner
The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame ousted Jann Wenner, founder of Rolling Stone Magazine, after he outed himself as both racist and misogynist.
When asked by Times reporter David Marchese why he did not include female artists or people of color on his list of rock legends, Wenner responded, “Insofar as the women, just none of them were as articulate enough on this intellectual level. …
Of Black artists — you know, Stevie Wonder, genius, right? I suppose when you use a word as broad as ‘masters,’ the fault is using that word. Maybe Marvin Gaye, or Curtis Mayfield? I mean, they just didn’t articulate at that level.’
(The Washington Post, September 17, 2023)
This is easy, folks. No fair-minded person thinks Bob Dylan is more intellectual and articulate than Stevie Wonder or Joni Mitchell. Frankly, Wenner’s remarks reek of latent racism and misogyny.
White allies are not always friends
Of course, Wenner’s paternalistic condescension is nothing new. After all, it once forced Frederick Douglass to end his friendship with abolitionist Lloyd Garrison over the same moral blindness.
The legacy of that latent racism and misogyny is why the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame wasted no time ousting Wenner from its board. And that speaks volumes, given that he’s the Hall’s most famous co-founder.
But Wenner’s paternalistic diss is like Gloria Steinem dissing Angela Davis as not articulate enough to belong in the pantheon of pioneering feminists. That maternalistic slight would incite similar outrage.
Yet, with all due respect to the mainstream media, what Wenner (77) said is only half the story. Incidentally, in dotage veritas? The rest of the story is what his remarks reveal about the souls of liberal White folks.
Wenner is showing why Blacks harbor suspicion that, lurking inside White liberals, is a racist yearning to speak like this.
And, yes, that suspicion extends to White liberal district attorneys in Blue States. Many of them live in safe, White neighborhoods. But they seem to think Blacks enjoy living among muggers, dope peddlers, and thieves. As if they want paroled criminals to continue menacing their neighborhoods.”
Unsurprisingly, Wenner has apologized:
I apologize wholeheartedly for those remarks. … The Masters is a collection of interviews I’ve done over the years that seemed to me to best represent an idea of rock ‘n’ roll’s impact on my world.
(The Hollywood Reporter, September 16, 2023)
Surprisingly, his sorry-not-sorry apology only reinforces what he said. In other words, to him, only White male artists best represent rock ‘n’ roll’s impact. It’s sad to see Wenner ending his career on this racist and misogynistic note.
The complicity of Black folks
Wenner’s remarks also reflect the insidious license politically compromised Black leaders have granted White liberals. That license has permitted white liberals to get away with all kinds of racist transgressions.
For example, that explains
- late Senator Teddy Kennedy infamously slurring a conservative judge as a Neanderthal,
- sitting Senator Sheldon Whitehouse rationalizing his membership at a Whites-only country club, or
- Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones managing his team as if it were a latter-day slave plantation.
Do better, White “friends”!
Meanwhile, Wenner seems to relish hugs from the very Black entertainers he disses. But iPINIONS calls on them to give him the ten-foot-pole treatment — complete with hairy eyeballs.
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