Move over Janet... or... let's get politically correcter!

CBS Apologizes for OutKast's Grammy Performance

Friday, February 13, 2004

ALBUQUERQUE — CBS apologized Friday to American Indians angered by OutKast's Grammy Awards performance, which featured feathers and war paint.

"We are very sorry if anyone was offended," said Nancy Carr, a CBS spokeswoman in Los Angeles.

As the final act of Sunday's Grammy telecast, OutKast's Andre "3000" Benjamin and several dancers swirled wildly around a green teepee as he sang "Hey Ya!" Costumes included war paint, feathers and fringe.

OutKast's hip-hoppy jive won three trophies: best urban-alternative performance for "Hey Ya!" and best rap album and overall album of the year for "Speakerboxxx/The Love Below."

"I like OutKast. I like their music," said Tom Bee, an Albuquerque record producer and musician, who was nominated for the Native American music Grammy. "But I thought the show was not correct. It was degrading."

The San Francisco-based Native American Cultural Center called for a boycott of CBS; OutKast; Arista, their record company; and the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, which sponsors the Grammys.

The center also has filed a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission and said it posted documents online explaining "why this broadcast was racist and why the companies involved need to take responsibility for their commercialization of Native American culture."

The Web site also urged viewers to "Turn Off CBS," and for each boycotter to ask 10 friends to do likewise.

In New York, a woman who answered the phone Friday at Arista Records' publicity office said OutKast had no immediate comment.

George Toya of the Jemez Pueblo powwow group Black Eagle, who was in the audience at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, said he was initially happy when he heard the chant that opened OutKast's performance. He thought he was about to see an American Indian group perform.

"It was a Navajo song that I recognized, and I got a little excited," said Toya, who was at the ceremony with other members of Black Eagle to pick up a Grammy for best Native American music album for "Flying Free."

But the drumming was actually the intro to "Hey Ya!"

Toya said he couldn't believe it.

"I told my wife who was sitting beside me, `Somebody is going to be (angry) about this,"' he said.

American Indians across the country were angered by what they said was a performance disrespectful to their culture and a perpetuation of tomahawk-and-teepee stereotypes.

The Oneida Nation criticized the performance on Tuesday.

Indianz.com launched an online petition calling for an apology from Andre. By Wednesday night, there were 2,500 signatures.

Bee was particularly angered that the dancers who accompanied Andre wore feathers, a sacred symbol for American Indians.

fuckin ridiculous..the red man is tripping.. this looks like just the beginning of more P.C. action by shook corporations

You have to be kidding me... that is a joke, right?

I wish all these whinning pee-pee pants people, from the Natives listed above, the Congress men and women, the religious rights activists to the 250,000 watchers that complained to CBS would spend their energy doing something for the good of the country, and not for themselves.

Who the fuck cares? I vote we have Dave Chapelle move his show to

target native americans now. That would go over so well!

I'm starting to hate this country, hey-ya-ya-ya

But did they show Andre's nipple?!

^haha

yeah people take things way to searious nowa days.

damn wagon-burners, always gettin pissed off about something...

sure, everyone has a right to be offended. but who the fuck at cbs thought that letting them dance around a teepee in war paint and feathers was a good idea? "i can't imagine how anyone could be offended by this, it's so wholesome!" fucking idiots.

Originally posted by Smart

OutKast's hip-hoppy jive

And thus, a new genre of music was born.

Originally posted by Joker

You have to be kidding me... that is a joke, right?

 

I wish all these whinning pee-pee pants people, from the Natives listed above, the Congress men and women, the religious rights activists to the 250,000 watchers that complained to CBS would spend their energy doing something for the good of the country, and not for themselves.

oh my god pee-pee pants???

bwuahahahahahahaha

yeah this shit is sickening me.

these beuracratic faggots are all trying to start racial atrophy between the classes, thats all ths shit is.

if i came out with my band, and we had black guys with spears dancing around, no matter how 'authentic' it might have been... shit, even if i plucked the spear chuckers right out of fuckng zimbabwee, people would be pissed, and IMO, rightfully so.

you can't just take peoples cultures and make a mockery of it. which, even if that isnt how it was intended, that's what it did. if the song was about the plight of native american people, ok fine, but its not, it's about instamatic endorsements and catchy radio jingles.

i do think its very opportunistic for them to be jumping all over this, but at the same time, what kind of fucking psychotic hypocricy exists in the minds of people who thinks the showing of breasts is tantamount to satanic child porn, but thinks its perfectly acceptable to abuse an already beaten to shit people?

it's the same debate thats been going on in sports.... cleveland indians? washington red skins? if we had the san antion black skins, or the florida jungle warriors, people would see it for exactly what it is, antiquated racist ignorance that gets completely overlooked becaue native americans have absolutely ZERO voice in society. if we had the 'illinois azteks' or the 'new jersey slant eyes', would that not be racist?

on a personal level, i'm not PC at all, im all about making fun of every single person you can (including yourself), but from a sociological perspective, that is 100% devoid of comic intent, or good natured jabbing, it's pretty fucked up. i can totally understand why these cats would be pissed, they've been murdered, raped, pillaged, and sequestered in tiny little poverty stricken enclaves around the country, and then to add insult to injury, we have multi billion dollar companies mocking them (even if unintentionally, since im sure no one sits around thinking 'boy, we're sure showing those injuns!').

i'd be pissed too. native americans are the ONLY group we ever do this too so blatently, because no one gives a fuck about them. blacks scream 'racism' every time they get a parking ticket. jew's cry anti-semeticsm everytime someone choses to NOT circumcise their child, but it's cool to make fake indian chants to root on a sports team?

if you had a 70,000 people all mocking hebrew, or making stereotypical 'oinga boinga punjab' african sounds, motherfuckers would be hearing about it.

it's not about this incident, outkast is probably one of the most repsectable groups you will ever find in hip hop, it's about the social mindset that thinks its cool to make fun of them, just cause they never complain about it.

seeks/ofay watcher

Wow. Good points, seeking.

yea, that shit is pretty tasteless.

FUCKING INDIANS! :hatred:

I just can't see it as anything to be pissed about... My great grandmother was full blooded Oglala Souix and they got basically fucked hard by white people historically. I have some pretty strong emotions surrounding that whole thing, for example, I fucking HATE RATM for getting over on the backs of AIM, I see it only as a profiteering expedition...

This, however... I see it in the same light as Jim Belushi trying to rap (SO many times) on SNL... it was bad and it was stupid, but it wasn't racist.

Also, upon issues of this sort, I think the world has 2 minds. In one sense there is an urge to preserve the legend and never forget the way people were treated in the past. There is also a huge wave of people that want to squash all references to the past, as if by banning language and images you can somehow ressurect a 'past' that never was. It's that second group of people that I see as being as misguided as the KKK.

Most of that shit, whatever race, is related to being 'savage' or 'subhuman' and I think everyone of every race should say HELL YEAH! That's where we started and WE FUCKING SURVIVED since the stone age... We should all also be able to see how far we've progressed... Everyone (racewise) has geniuses at the table.... though the Native Americans, perhaps, are under represented.

Sometimes people do tasteless things without realizing it... don't hate, educate.