LIVE FROM KGN,JAMAICA: THE AFFLICTED YARD..MEDIA TERRORISM IN A TERRORIST-UNFRIENDLY WORLD

See specifically Whitey Digital – A True Story About An Unbelievable Loser.

and this response.

Chilling call to murder as music attacks gays

“But songs are not the only place where homophobia is blatant. At a state level, article 76 of the nation’s offences against the person act criminalises the ‘abominable crime of buggery’ with up to 10 years imprisonment, while article 79 punishes any act of physical intimacy between men in public or private with up to two years in jail and the possibility of hard labour.”

“Few can agree on the source of such homophobia. But most agree the church plays a crucial role. ‘Evangelical Christianity is very strong, and there is a prudishness and hypocrisy that comes with that,’ said a representative of J-FLAG. ‘They ignore the part that says don’t have sex out of wedlock and focus on gays.'”

Beenie Man concert axed over homophobia fears

“Chief Inspector Clive Driscoll, head of the racial and violent crime taskforce for the Metropolitan police, met Beenie Man on his arrival in London after being contacted by Outrage!, the gay rights group.

‘The advice of the Crown Prosecution Service is that it doesn’t believe, on the evidence of the lyrics presented to them, that offences have been committed,’ said Mr Driscoll.

‘However, it did point out that our duty [as police officers] is to protect people. As a result of that, I spoke to Beenie Man asking him not to sing lyrics which were homophobic or promoted violence. He was extremely reasonable.’

Mr Driscoll said he did not offer any advice to Ocean, merely alerting the club to the OutRage! concerns.”

Selective quoting, but my concern here is to highlight some of the complexities of the issue.

There can be no argument that extreme homophobia is the norm in Jamaica. There is also no argument that there are at least 3 main sources of this homophobia:

1) Church
2) State
3) Dancehall

My concern is that there seems to be no attempt to target the first two, who clearly have more power and resources than individual dancehall artists such as Beenie Man.

In the 80s and 90s when the christian right were targetting NWA, the Dead Kennedys and Ozzie Osbourne, the liberal anti-censorship mob were at pains to mention that, although not agreeing with the lyrical sentiments, the actual words that the artists were using did not, in themselves, magically coerce people into committing obscene acts.

But now, it seems, they do. It is particularly worrying that Beenie Man seems to have agreed not to use homophobic language but was still banned by the venue anyway – what sort of message does that send out?

I don’t like homophobia one bit, as people who have read this blog and met me will know, and I think a stand has to be made.

But the stand has to be more imaginative than calling for a ban.

If homosexuality is seen in JA as being part of western babylonian corruption, then banning artists like Beenie only confirms that they are at the forefront of speaking out against this corruption – and have been attacked by babylon when they try to speak “the truth”. Adding this to dancehall’s obsession with the glamour of crime and outlaw status makes the whole episode look very appealing.

The difficulty on an activist level, is that representatives of the Jamaican state and church are not as visible in the UK as visiting dancehall artists. They are also much more difficult to influence, as they are not bothered about ticket sales, etc.

But getting Beenie Man or TOK to shut up about battymen when they visit the UK will not have any effect on the views of the 96% of Jamaicans who who want homosexuality to remain illegal, or the climate of fear on the island.