Comments on: Brighton gay group welcomes Banton gig cancellation

By: Jon

Jon — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 10:21:00 +0000

Adam Jordan says above: "we must not judge this artist based on one song that he wrote in his youth". I don't. I judge him on the fact that he still preforms it regularly, has consistently refused to apologise for it, and still performs other songs with equally vile sentiments. How does 'youthful ignorance' explain that?And describing opposition to this inciter of murder and violence against gay people as 'hate' really is laughable. I suggest Mr. Jordan buys a dictionary and looks up the definition of the word. Maybe he'll realise then that it describes the bigoted rantings of his hero Mr.Banton far better that the (mostly) reasonably-expressed concerns of the targets of his appalling bigotry.

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By: Adam Jordan

Adam Jordan — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 23:42:00 +0000

After hearing about the concerns being voiced by local LGBT groups regarding the upcoming performance of Jamaican super-star Buju Banton, I felt it was important to reach out to make sure that people were fully educated about this issue. Buju has been portrayed as an artist who has espoused violence, hatred and negativity his entire career – which is absolutely not true. You may be under pressure by these activists because they say that by allowing him to perform you are also endorsing hate and violence. I myself grew up in the Bay Area and am an activist for justice, equality, free speech and freedom from violence and understand your concern. I have also lived in the Caribbean and have a unique and well-rounded knowledge of these issues. I want to make sure you know all the facts before you jump to conclusions or make hasty decisions.Many people want the Buju Banton show cancelled. When you read the hate mails and the articles on the Internet, I can see how people would come to this conclusion. But just as ignorance existed in Jamaica when a 15-year-old Buju Banton wrote the song “Boom Bye Bye” that is the source of these arguments, so does ignorance of the full story of Buju exist today. Firstly, to understand the background of the song it should be noted that Jamaica only became independent from Colonial rule in the 60's and that colonial laws still exist today making it illegal for anyone in Jamaica to partake in homosexual relationships and that Christianity manifests itself in all forms of the society's culture. On top of this, Jamaica has the third highest murder rate in the world as ranked by the UN. One can clearly see how a misled 15 year boy growing up in a poverty stricken neighborhood riddled with violence can create a song such as “Boom Bye Bye” with it’s violent words. Does this make it right? No! It does not. Violence or the suggestion of violence or hate crimes of any kind are unacceptable regardless of culture.Indeed a young Buju Banton wrote the incendiary anti-gay song "Boom Bye Bye" back when he was a mere 15 years old, along with many other "gangster" themed songs. However, we must not judge this artist based on one song that he wrote in his youth. We must instead look at what he has done since then. “Boom Bye Bye” was released in 1992 over 14 years ago. Since then Buju Banton converted from his Rude Boy (gangster) ways and became a devout Rasta within the Rastafarian religion and community.Most importantly, Buju Banton was one of eight reggae artists who were initially party to a truce that was negotiated by members of Outrage, a gay rights group in the U.K. Outrage agreed to suspend its campaign against these artist when the managers and relevant record companies agreed that the performers would refrain from using the offensive songs and that no new such songs would be written, performed or recorded. Buju has adhered to that agreement and made a conscious effort to bridge the gap between all people.

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By: paul

paul — Fri, 07 Jul 2006 20:24:00 +0000

Those two morons that they asked about the music would feel different if it was a white rock band singing about killing and burning black people.Music shouldn't be censor, I agree to an extent. But singing about murdering people is a little differnt to Voguing or dancing in the moonlight!!!

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By: Angie Rowland-Stuart

Angie Rowland-Stuart — Tue, 04 Jul 2006 21:57:00 +0000

What the hell has British Imperialism got to do with this FFS? This creep and his mates incite hatred and urge people do murder people from the LGBT community. I didn't hear too many black people moaning when the Anti Fascist League marched and stopped scum like the BNP stirring up hatred. Short memories some folk seem to have. S'pose that's convenient though, when you want to wave the British Imperialist card because some people object to being targets of muppets like Banton. Mind you, that's one thing he's got in common with the BNP, funny that, innit.

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By: Luke Mann

Luke Mann — Wed, 03 May 2006 14:29:00 +0000

Personally if Jamaica as a nation wants to remain a privative gutter state, i.e. remain a failure, than so be it. All I ask is that if they choose to be like this, then we should refuse any future Jamaican citizens any rights to move here via asylum or for immigration except in the case that they are gay/lesbian, transgender etc, that would show them up and have more of an impact on a country like Jamaica than us…don't forget, it's just a small nation with not not a lot to it's name, unlike Britain…

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By: Tamiann Johnson

Tamiann Johnson — Mon, 01 May 2006 21:48:00 +0000

OK I am a 23 Year old female Jamaian I live in Jamaica and this is all crap you people have been talking about our country, I mean when the British used to "Colonize" us in the Name of Jesus, who were you guys fooling? and when Danielle Steele writes all these "Love Stories" does what she writes mean that is what she would do in her "Real"/ "Everyday" happenings.Stop the crap, I know a lecturer of mine whose boyfriend was in London for school and he went missing and his body was found on the traintrack, what the hell happened there? I am pissed about that why hasn't SCOTLAND YARD found out about that?

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By: Jenny

Jenny — Sat, 29 Apr 2006 09:23:00 +0000

It's the BBC, should we expect anything different? But then again, maybe we should ban documentaries about Hitler, or even slap a ban on George W. Bush being interviewed in the papers? The BBC is state controlled, and therefore doesn't actually give a monkeys about us.

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