Q&A: Explanation Regarding the Latest Column
Explanation Regarding the Latest Column
Question
Hi Michi,
In your latest column you wrote as follows: “It is my right to love or not love whomever I want, so long as I do not discriminate against them or cause them harm. And if I don’t like Moroccan or Mizrahi singers, is that racism? That is my taste.” End quote.
Isn’t not liking Moroccan singers because they are themselves Moroccan a kind of “racism”? If you explain it by saying that you do not like the singing or the style, then fine. But if a person broadly dislikes Mizrahi musicians because Mizrahi people just don’t sit well with him, isn’t that racism? A person who does not like soccer players because they are black, and has no other reason besides that, even though he does not discriminate against them in any way—none of that is racism?
Thanks in advance.
Answer
Why didn’t you raise this there?
I meant someone who doesn’t like Moroccan singers because of their singing, but on a racial basis. That is, he dislikes all Moroccans because there is something about Moroccan singing that he does not like.
But even if it is because of their origin and not because of their singing, I am still not sure there is anything objectionable here. You can call it racism in the semantic sense, but the important question is whether it is wrong. After all, that is what he feels, and feelings are neither moral nor immoral. Behavior is subject to my decision, and that is where I am judged.