The son of late Beatles frontman John Lennon and artist Yoko Ono has criticised ‘PC Culture’ for “over sensitizing people to arbitrary characteristics like skin color” in a series of tweets.
Sean Lennon spoke passionately about his own experience growing up as a Japanese-American when there was “zero political correctness”.
In the tweets, Lennon stated that although political correctness has good intentions, it is “not working” and the US is in a ‘‘two-steps back moment” when it comes to race relations.
Lennon went on to discuss his time growing up in New York, describing the time as feeling like a ‘melting pot’ and how he saw political correctness being invented.
(Image: Michael Ostuni/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)
He tweeted: “It wasn’t perfect, but ppl did not self segregate along tribal lines to the degree that I am seeing today.
“There is something wrong with the strategy and direction we have chosen, in academia, in politics, and elsewhere.”
He continued: “’I am simply saying we should check our strategy if we are not getting the results we intended. I don’t know what the solution is, but I suspect that over sensitizing ppl to arbitrary characteristics like skin colour may be doing more harm than good.”
During his life, Lennon has lived in many cities and countries and says in his experience that their are equal numbers of bad and good people in every population.
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It is not clear what prompted Lennon to speak out about PC culture, but in the tweets, he mentions how his DMs have been filled with “WWII era bulls**t” in reference to his race.
He also recalls how when he was young, people around him use to racist terms about Asians but respond with “you’re not really Asian’.
He said: “We’ve been trying this kind of morality policing for awhile now & I would posit things are arguably getting worse. Race relations seem to be in the middle of a ‘two steps back’ moment.
“I say this not only because it seems clear from news events and statistics that race relations in this country are particularly terrible, but also because my DMs have never been more filled with bizarre WWII era bullshit (like ch**k and j*p, or whatever).
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“I am very sad that I feel like I have to say the following but here goes: Asians are not the problem. Blacks are not the problem. Jews are not the problem. And yes, Whites are not the problem either. No race or culture is ‘the problem’.”
Lennon followed in his parents’ footsteps and became a musician as a member of bands including the Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger, Cibo Matto, the Claypool Lennon Delirium and his parents’ group the Plastic Ono Band.
He also released two solo albums: Into the Sun in 1998 and Friendly Fire in 2006.
Lennon ended the series of tweets with: “I don’t often talk about race, especially my own, because I feel attention is like water in a garden: whatever you give it to will grow.
“I pray this thread does not ignite some kind of melt down (if it does I’ll just delete because I have no more energy for that kind of thing atm).
“Okay that’s it. Peace and Love to all. I mean it. And one more thing…just remember who benefits from the ‘divide and conquer’ paradigm. It ain’t us that’s for sure.”
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
