This Japanese Band Dressed Up As Explorers Conquering Ape Natives And Caused A Huge Controversy
In the video, the band members, dressed up as historical characters such Christopher Columbus, travel to an island and teach what appears to be native people dressed like apes how to play the piano and ride a horse.
Japanese rock-pop band, Mrs. Green Apple, dressed up as explorers who traveled to an island and conquered native people dressed like apes for the music video of their latest song, “Columbus” and caused a huge controversy.
The song, which was released on Wednesday, June 12, was taken down a day after being released, following criticism.
In the video, the band members, dressed up as historical characters such as the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus, travel to an island and teach what appears to be native people dressed like apes how to play the piano and ride a horse.
People said the music video misrepresented Columbus, who is not only known for discovering America but also the destruction of Indigenous communities.
Viewers said that moments in the video such as the apes pulling carriages, evoked the slave labor used throughout the colonial era.
“These depictions reinforce Western centrism that European civilization believes that it has absolute superiority over other delayed worlds,” one person wrote online.
“Didn't the agency or record company see this and think it was crazy? Why did this project even get approved in the first place? Was there no one involved who had studied world history even a little?,” another person wrote on X.
On Thursday, the band published a statement apologizing for the “uncomfortable” video and said they “never wanted to make it discriminatory content or to affirm the tragic history”.
“Regarding the appearance of apes, we felt a concern from the beginning that there was a chance of appearing discriminatory, but there was no intention of making a parallel between the apes and people. We merely wanted to portray people from different centuries, who held a home party,” the band wrote in the statement.
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