2y ago

Jann Wenner Removed from Rock & Roll HOF Board After Remarks on Black, Female Artists

www.tmz.com

Rolling Stone's founder is out from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's board of directors.

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The Q: "There are seven subjects in the new book; seven white guys. In the introduction, you acknowledge that performers of color and women performers are just not in your zeitgeist. Which to my mind is not plausible for Jann Wenner. Janis Joplin,
Janis Joplin was literally the exact counterexample that first jumped into my mind when I read the headline.
Joni Mitchell, Stevie Nicks, Stevie Wonder, the list keeps going ... What do you think is the deeper explanation for why you interviewed the subjects you interviewed and not other subjects?
Wenner's answer is telling. He says, "When I was referring to the zeitgeist, I was referring to Black performers, not to the female performers, OK? Just to get that accurate."
Oh wow. Did he get screwed through no fault of his own? That's a very straight answer, and I'm not at all a fan of this new thing where you can get your career fucked if you say "black" in any sentence and don't immediately follow it with "empowerment" or "voices."
The selection was not a deliberate selection. It was kind of intuitive over the years; it just fell together that way. The people had to meet a couple criteria, but it was just kind of my personal interest and love of them."
Yeah, that seems 100% reasonable to me.
"Insofar as the women, just none of them were as articulate enough on this intellectual level."
...
Jann you fucked yourself.
I take it all back. You're a creep for thinking this and a moron for saying it out loud to a reporter.
The reporter pushes back, incredulously asking if he really doesn't think Joni Mitchell was articulate enough to talk music on an intellectual level.
Wenner responded, "It’s not that they’re not creative geniuses. It’s not that they’re inarticulate, although, go have a deep conversation with Grace Slick or Janis Joplin. Please, be my guest.
STOP IT, STOP IT, THERE ARE PEOPLE THAT CARE ABOUT YOU, YOU DON'T HAVE TO DO THIS
- Relatable lol. I have been working on giving people the benefit of the doubt. Then I read his words. He really told on himself.
- I think he genuinely just doesn't see anything odd with any of his answers. Think about how different a world he comes from. I have a vaguely positive impression of Jann Wenner because of his association with the golden age Hunter-Thompson era of Rolling Stone and the genuinely good journalism that it still does today. But at the same time, the landscape of what's permissible behavior from a big white guy in charge has changed so much that we can lose track of how much of an asshole it used to be okay to be.
  My sister's worked in a male-dominated industry for basically her whole life, and now that I'm thinking about it the stories she tells have gradually been transitioning from stuff that's genuinely horrifying to now being simply upsetting and wrong. I think people who lived during that era are just starting to sound like everyone's segregation-era grandparents did back in the 90s. I mean, for a lot of his adult life, women basically did live under a segregation system. In one way it's a good sign for how much progress has been made. Not to excuse him for being an asshole - I'm just saying that it kind of makes sense that the system didn't filter him out back then, in the way that it would today if he didn't learn to keep quiet about what he thought about these things.
- Janis Joplin was literally the exact counterexample that first jumped into my mind when I read the headline.
  Mine was Aretha Franklin. Black, a woman, and a better singer than almost anyone who ever sang rock music.
When did ppl start forgetting that saying nothing is always an option?
- When I'm doubt, shut the fuck up. This applies to just about everything.
Sorry, Jann, you aren't orange enough to get away with being that terrible.
For anyone who for obvious reasons doesn’t want a TMZ article (it was all I saw at the time), here’s an AP article on it.
I thought it was already widely known that he's a piece of shit.
- It was. Rich people just don't hold other rich people to account until their association brings them negative publicity and potentially reduces their incomes. It's all good times and easily dismissed when you're partying with the rockstars though.
  I wish a lot more of the people who are employed by pieces of shit like this would leak information to the tabloid media. Maybe the demographics of those at the top of the social hierarchy might start reflecting the demographics of the rest of us if they get enough public shaming.
- Well, it is now.

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