M.I.A’s “Born Free” x Our Two Cents
Sunday, May 9th, 2010
Over here at The Atlanta Dolls’ office we love a little controversy in the name of art. Needless to say when we heard that feathers were ruffled over M.I.A’s video for her latest single Born Free we wasted no time checking it out. Apparently this video was so vulgar that it has to be pulled down from Youtube. I thought this was America, you know where we have this thing called free speech, and apparently I missed the memo that stated it didn’t apply in this century. But I digress.
The video opens with a whole gang of red headed people in what looks like one of those corrections buses that hauls folks off to prison, and a whole slew of menacing looking soldiers. The next thing you know the soldiers storm into some decrepit looking apartment building, and open up a can of whoop ass on its unsuspecting residents. Despite going through the entire building kicking in doors and pistol whipping people, they only round up the individuals with red hair. Now that I have roughly summarized the plot I am going to explain the implications and message behind the so called “racist”, vulgar tone of this work.
First off this video tells the story of war. It tells the story of the oppression of minorities the world over. All this is an upfront look at the “US vs. THEM” syndrome that plagues society, and the human psyche. I believe people are offended, because most of the time we (human beings) co-sign this behavior if enough money, time and effort has been thrown behind the propaganda. If you don’t believe me you better google “Hitler” and “The War on Terrorism”.
I respect M.I.A for putting this video out there. I am sure she knew there would be a backlash from the people with feeble minds and tunnel vision. The bigger picture and message that comes with this video is clear. It’s them today, but it’s your ass tomorrow. Injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere. You can only reassure yourself for a little while that the ends justifies the means when it comes to taking human lives over such trivial matters as cultural or physical differences.
Or I am completely wrong and the underlying message is that this is Cartman’s (From Southpark) hate campaign against “Gingers” on steroids or that fat men having sex should be beaten.
- Tatum