Music

“Suck My Dick”: Stormzy Responds To Angry Conservatives Who Can’t Accept Racism Is Real

Stormzy said the UK is "definitely" racist, and conservative media went into a full meltdown.

by Jared Richards  23 December 2019
stormzy responds to criticism around his comments that the UK has racists in it

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Stormzy is currently being lambasted by UK conservative media for calling the UK “definitely” racist, after several outlets aggregated his comments without context.

In an interview with Italian publication La Repubblica, Stormzy — who just released his acclaimed second album, Heavy Is The Head — was asked whether he thought Britain remained a racist country. “Definitely, 100 percent,” he said. “It’s like: ‘Oh no, we’re not racist’. But there’s a lot of racism in the country.

“The difficult thing with the UK is, as you said, in Italy it’s a clear problem, whereas trying to explain that Britain is a racist country is the most difficult thing ever. They think: ‘No, it’s not. Stormzy you’re successful. Look at London, there’s loads of black people…’ It’s a more difficult case to fight.”

Stormzy argued that recently elected UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s own comments on immigrants and Black people had emboldened racism in the country. “Before, people had to hide their racism,” he said. “If you felt something bad about about black people, about Muslims, you had to shut up. Now these people have the confidence to come out in public to say everything. This is scary to me, that scares the shit out of me.”

This isn’t exactly surprising. Heavy Is The Head‘s hit ‘Vossi Bop’ features the line “Fuck the government, and fuck Boris,” and Stormzy has long been vocal against the Tory government, actively campaigning for Labour in the recent election.

But the comments blew up over the past few days after they were aggregated by conservative-leaning UK outlets like The Independent, The Evening Standard and ITV, whose headlines made it appear like he called “100 percent” of the UK racist. Figures like Katie Hopkins and Telegraph columnist Allison Pearson ran with it online, as did legions of conservatives.

Stormzy himself responded to the pile-on, saying the publications can “suck his dick” for “intentionally spinning [his] words for some clickbait”. In response, ITV amended their original headline and deleted their original post of the article to Twitter, apologising to Stormzy directly via a statement on Twitter.

For many, it’s too little, too late, with many pointing out the controversy, if anything, proves Stormzy’s point that people hate being called racist more than they hate racism. It’s also a wilful misrepresentation of Stormzy’s comments.

Stormzy, long outspoken on the UK’s class and racial divides, has been criticised by right-wing figures for his entire career. It’s clear this is a way to silence him and others.

As BBC Radio’s Roushan Alam points out, if one of the UK’s most celebrated and popular rappers is struggling “to get points about racism across to the mainstream with their platforms, imagine for a second how difficult it is for everyone else”.

The day after British outlets first reported on Stormzy’s comments, a Tottenham v Chelsea football match was stopped due to abuse and objects thrown from the crowd at Chelsea players Antonio Rüdiger and Kepa Arrizabalaga. PA announcements told the crowds “racist behaviour is interfering with the game”. Looks like he might have a point.

In brighter Stormzy news, the rapper was recently interviewed by a third-grade class at his old school. It’s incredibly cute.