Erykah Badu has always been an artist many of us admire for several reasons: her beautiful voice, her creativity, and her ability to think outside of the box. The latter reason is what has many people in an uproar at this time after reading an interview Badu did with Vulture.com’s David Marchese. In a nutshell, the two of them went at it because Badu had a pretty controversial outlook on Adolph Hitler, Bill Cosby, and others.
Badu Sees Good In Adolph Hitler, Here’s Why…
The Hitler topic came up when the interviewer, Marchese, asked Badu about comments she’d made in Palestine, showing support of Min. Louis Farrakhan 10 years ago, which caused some to accuse her of being Anti-Semetic:
Badu: “Journalists asked me, ‘Do you believe in Louis Farrakhan? Do you follow him?’ Sure I do. I’ll follow anyone who has positive aspects. He single-handedly changed half of the Nation of Islam to clean eating, clean living, caring for their families. He has flaws — like any man — but I’m not responsible for that. I said I’ve appreciated what he’s done for a lot of black Americans. I mean, I’m not Muslim, I’m not Christian, I’m not anything; I’m an observer who can see good things and bad things. If you say something good about someone, people think it means that you’ve chosen a side. But I don’t choose sides. I see all sides simultaneously.”
Badu continued:
“I’m not an anti-Semitic person. I don’t even know what anti-Semitic was before I was called it. I’m a humanist. I see good in everybody. I saw something good in Hitler.[…] Hitler was a wonderful painter.”
That’s when all hell broke loose and Marchese replied: “No, he wasn’t! And even if he was, what would his skill as a painter have to do with any ‘good’ in him?”
Badu replied back: “Okay, he was a terrible painter. Poor thing. He had a terrible childhood. That means that when I’m looking at my daughter, Mars. I could imagine her being in someone else’s home and being treated so poorly, and what that could spawn. I see things like that. I guess it’s just the Pisces in me.”
Marchese then acknowledged to Badu that he views her as levitating on a “higher moral plane” than him, but said the “route of ‘Hitler was a child once too'” is possibly encouraging “empathy” for the Nazi leader/mass murderer.
Badu: “Maybe so. It doesn’t test my limits — I can see this clearly. I don’t care if the whole group says something, I’m going to be honest. I know I don’t have the most popular opinion sometimes.”
Badu continued to explain her Hitler point, by speaking on the Confederate Flag issue.
Badu: “Why can’t I say what I’m saying? Because he did such terrible things? You asked me a question. I could’ve chosen not to answer.[…] I have a platform, and I would never want to hurt people. I would never do that. I would never even imagine doing that. I would never even want a group of white men who believe that the Confederate flag is worth saving to feel bad. That’s not how I operate.”
Badu’s View About Cosby
They then moved on to Bill Cosy and other celebs, who have recently made headlines for alleged sexual assault. Badu was asked her opinion on whether or not society should separate the art from the person:
Badu: “I don’t want to get scared into not thinking for myself. I weigh everything. Even what you just asked me, I would have to really think about it and know the facts in each of those situations before I made a judgment. Because I love Bill Cosby, and I love what he’s done for the world. But if he’s sick, why would I be angry with him? The people who got hurt, I feel so bad for them. I want them to feel better, too. But sick people do evil things; hurt people hurt people. I know I could be crucified for saying that, because I’m supposed to be on the purple team or the green team. I’m not trying to rebel against what everybody’s saying, but maybe I want to measure it. Somebody will call me and ask me to come to a march because such and such got shot. In that situation I want to know what really happened. I’m not going to jump up and go march just because I’m green and the person who got shot is green. The rush to get mad doesn’t make sense to me.”
Even though I don’t agree with everything Badu stated, I must admit that she still made a few good points within her explanation of why she chooses to be an individual thinker, instead of part of a ‘group think.’ Overall, do you think Badu should, or should not be getting bashed over her comments? Hit us up on Facebook ILOSM fam’ and let us know how y’all feel about this one.
