This story comes via Gawker, and it’s slightly complicated because there’s some back-and-forth and some history to it. Basically, British singer and former Smiths front-man Morrissey is a racist douche. What’s interesting is that he has no plans to apologize for being a racist douche, or for his sketchy history of racist comments, and that his fans probably still love him.

So, in an interview with this weekend’s Guardian Magazine (UK), Morrissey began talking about animal rights (he’s a big animal rights guy), and how pissed he was that China still has a pretty terrible animal rights record. This is part of what he said:

Morrissey, a vegetarian and animal rights advocate who last year abandoned the stage at the Coachella festival in California because of the smell of cooking meat, described the treatment of animals in China as “absolutely horrific”, referring to recent news stories about animals in Chinese circuses and zoos. He told interviewer Simon Armitage: “Did you see the thing on the news about their treatment of animals and animal welfare? Absolutely horrific. You can’t help but feel that the Chinese are a subspecies.”

[From The Guardian]

That’s right, a “subspecies.” This is not Morrissey’s first brush with race-tingled comments:

In 1992 NME Magazine accused Morrissey of “flirting with disaster” and racist imagery after wrapping himself in the union flag while on stage in Finsbury Park, north London.

In the same year, the singer, now 51, was quoted in Q Magazine stating that he did not want to be “horrible or pessimistic” but he didn’t “really think, for instance, black people and white people will ever really get on or like each other. I don’t really think they ever will.” While in 1994 he told Select magazine that the National Front should be given a clear voice or platform in order for them to be “less of a threat”.

The war of words with NME continued in 2007 after Morrissey, who lived in Rome at the time, was quoted in an interview with the magazine apparently criticising levels of immigration after being asked if he would ever consider moving back to England. “With the issue of immigration, it’s very difficult because, although I don’t have anything against people from other countries, the higher the influx into England the more the British identity disappears,” he said. “If you walk through Knightsbridge on any bland day of the week you won’t hear an English accent. You’ll hear every accent under the sun apart from the British accent.”

At another point in the interview he stated: “England is a memory now. The gates are flooded and anybody can have access to England and join in.”

[From The Guardian]

During those past incidents, Morrissey apologized or revamped his comments, claiming he was misunderstood or misquoted, or that he didn’t really mean anything. In 2008, he even donated about $40,000 to Love Music Hate Racism as a way to apologize for the comments about England. That organization, LMHR, is now bashing Morrissey for the “subspecies” comment.

A spokesman for Love Music Hate Racism, which received a donation of £28,000 from the singer in 2008 after his apparently anti-immigration comments made in music magazine NME convulsed the media, said it would be unable to accept support from Morrissey again if he did not rescind or dispute today’s comments.

“It really is just crude racism,” said Martin Smith. “When you start using language like ‘subspecies’, you are entering into dark and murky water. I don’t think we would, or could, ask him to come back after that.”

[From The Guardian]

And Morrissey doesn’t seem to be in a mood to retract the “subspecies” comment either. The interviewer notes that “I thought at the time it was a dangerous thing to say into a tape recorder. He must have known it would make waves, he’s not daft. But he’s provocative and theatrical, and it was one of dozens of dramatic pronouncements. I’m not an apologist for that kind of remark, and couldn’t ignore it. But clearly, when it comes to animal rights and animal welfare, he’s absolutely unshakable in his beliefs. In his view, if you treat an animal badly, you are less than human. I think that was his point.”

And Morrissey offered this statement in the wake of The Guardian’s interview: “If anyone has seen the horrific and unwatchable footage of the Chinese cat and dog trade – animals skinned alive – then they could not possibly argue in favour of China as a caring nation. There are no animal protection laws in China and this results in the worst animal abuse and cruelty on the planet. It is indefensible.”

Of course, Morrissey also had some other lovely things to say. On “people” he says, “They are problems.” On being a lonely prig, he says, “We’re all lonely, but I’d rather be lonely by myself than with a long list of duties and obligations. I think that’s why people kill themselves, really. Or at least that’s why they think, ‘Thank heaven for death.’” And on the subject of cats, he says, “Yes. Cats. I’ve had lots of cats. But also many bereavements.”

Just to be clear, and offer my own opinion: I think Morrissey’s comments are reprehensible, and the fact that he’s sticking by them is even worse. If his point was to raise awareness about the lack of animal rights in China, he failed. Morrissey and his racism are now the topic. While I understand the anger he feels as an animal rights activist, referring to one billion Chinese people as a “subspecies” is f-cking horrible, and reminiscent of ye olde racist arguments that there is a genetic/evolutionary argument to be made to defend one’s racism. Now, I prefer animals to people as well, but I don’t care enough to break up my dislike of people based into “subspecies” and “not that deplorable, also: white.”

Morrissey performing in Ireland and California in 2009. Credit: WENN.

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