Latinos Lash Out At Lady Gaga’s Lyrics
Here’s how it breaks down. Lady Gaga recently released the lyrics of her upcoming single “Born This Way” and some of the lyrics were found to be offensive to Latinos and Asians in particular. Here are the lyrics in question:
Don’t be a drag, just be a queen
Whether you’re broke or evergreen
You’re black, white, beige, chola descent
You’re Lebanese, you’re orient
Of course the offensive lyrics were “chola descent” and “orient,” two choice phrases that don’t really refer to any actual groups — I’ve met people who call themselves cholas/os but I didn’t know one could be of that “descent” — and I thought “orient” went out of vogue along with “negro” a long time ago as an offensive term.
I’m not really sure how I feel about this, since I really haven’t thought about it, but I can definitely see why it’s so offensive. Some of our commentators have accused me of “making everything about race,” but I would challenge those people to explain to me how the entire history of this country ISN’T about race, given that we were founded fundamentally on taking away the rights of some people in favor of others, most specifically those of Native Americans and slaves from Africa.
So, I seriously doubt Lady Gaga was trying to be political here — she’s been very active in “gay issue” such as Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and has commented somewhat on Arizona’s SB 1070 — but she seems to me t0 mostly be the “I’m all about my music” type of celebrity/artist. What do you think, are these lyrics over the top?
[Photo Courtesy Lady Gaga Facebook]