The Echo prize went to Kollegah and Farid Bang, whose lyrics include claims that their bodies are “more defined than Auschwitz prisoners,” which they say is not anti-Semitic. The upshot: “The BVMI group initially defended its decision, saying the award recognises sales, not quality, but its chief Florian Druecke told the RND newspaper chain the Echo prize would be revamped in light of the protests and that the association rejected all forms of antisemitism, xenophobia, sexism, homophobia and the glorification of violence.”
Tag: 04.16.18
Author Junot Díaz Reveals In Essay His Childhood Rape
“More than being Dominican, more than being an immigrant, more, even, than being of African descent, my rape defined me. I spent more energy running from it than I did living. … And always I was afraid – afraid that the rape had ‘ruined’ me; afraid that I would be ‘found out’; afraid afraid afraid. ‘Real’ Dominican men, after all, aren’t raped. And if I wasn’t a ‘real’ Dominican man I wasn’t anything. The rape excluded me from manhood, from love, from everything.”