Grammy-award winning rap artist Macklemore has come under heavy criticism over a stage costume he wore on Saturday that looked suspiciously like a common but offensive caricature of Jewish people. The concert was performed on Friday, but the uproar really took flight on Monday with many denouncing his odd denial of the intent of the costume:
So @macklemore does Jewish-face and performs a song called "Thrift Shop". Totally not offensive right?
Check out @macklemore performing “Thrift Shop” as a stereotypical Jewish man. So much for same love, eh? pic.twitter.com/yZ19QmxIV0
— Ian de Borja (@idb1204) May 19, 2014
Macklemore is a dedicated & open-minded culture warrior. Here he is dressed up as a Jewish slur (h/t @hunterschwarz): pic.twitter.com/lZP8oiylHr
— T. Becket Adams (@BecketAdams) May 19, 2014
https://twitter.com/jdude988/status/468440110867173379
Macklemore is dead wrong. Those same images have been used in propaganda to support the killing of Jewish people. Ugh.
— Charlene Carruthers (@CharleneCac) May 18, 2014
Don’t be upset by Macklemore's Jewish minstrel show. He "got hella good Jewish homies.” pic.twitter.com/HnuP7ZhZVA
— T. Becket Adams (@BecketAdams) May 19, 2014
that's Macklemore on the right as a Jewish caricature pic.twitter.com/e7a0s6D7jC
— Ayesha A. Siddiqi (@pushinghoops) May 18, 2014
macklemore dressed up as a jew with a big fake plastic nose and did his song about bein cheap and i'm not even kiddin pic.twitter.com/jGXOJogtR2
— Ryan Curran (@_RyanCurran_) May 19, 2014
in macklemore's defense everything he knows about the jewish people he learned from repeated viewings of "borat"
— nice_mustard (@nice_mustard) May 19, 2014
After getting the torrent of backlash, the rapper denied that his costume had anything to do with Jewish stereotypes:
A fake witches nose, wig, and beard = random costume. Not my idea of a stereotype of anybody.
— Macklemore (@macklemore) May 19, 2014
Yeah, I dunno. it looks very suspiciously like the kind of caricature that anti-Semites like to toss around to dehumanize Jews:
Maybe it’s just a huge misunderstanding. Yeah, that’s it.