Japanese band pulls 'Columbus' video after slavery backlash ( www.bbc.com )

A Japanese rock band has pulled the music video for its new song "Columbus" after drawing flak for scenes that depicted Christopher Columbus with ape-like men. 

The video shows three historical figures teaching the ape-like beings to do various things, like how to ride on horses and play musical instruments. 

The video swiftly sparked a backlash after it was released on Wednesday - it was removed just a day later. 

The band, Mrs Green Apple, apologised on Thursday, saying the video "contains expressions that lack understanding of historical and cultural backgrounds".

Kalkaline ,
@Kalkaline@leminal.space avatar

How do people not know these things are insulting and racist?

TranscendentalEmpire ,

Japan is still a fairly insular nation, especially in regards to the topic of history. During the Meiji restoration they basically rewrote their own history, which also kinda requires you to ignore or reshape everyone else's history to suit your perspective. As a result, I doubt world history is very well covered in their public education.

ksynwa ,
@ksynwa@lemmygrad.ml avatar

"We were concerned from the beginning that [the apes] might be seen as discriminatory expression, but we had no intention of likening apes to humans.

That sounds like "we are sorry for insulting apes" lmao

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