Sean Lennon slammed “morality policing” in a meandering Twitter tirade on Sunday night.
The son of Beatle John Lennon and Japanese-born artist Yoko Ono wrote that “when I was young ppl used to say racist s–t about Asians around me all the time and then be like ‘Oh sorry! But you’re not reeeally Asian so…’ and I think they sincerely thought that would make me feel better.”
Lennon explained that he grew up in an era of “zero political correctness” and, apparently has come to believe the concept has “failed” to lead to a better society and even made “matters worse by creating bigger unforeseen problems.
“‘The road to hell is paved w good intentions,’ he wrote, quoting Samuel Johnson. “We’ve been trying this kind of morality policing for a while now & I would posit things are arguably getting worse. Race relations seem to be in the middle of a ‘two steps back’ moment.”
The 44-year-old musician, whose mother was the target of horrendous anti-Asian venom over the years, went onto explain that his DMs have “never been more filled with bizarre WWII-era bulls–t (like chink and jap, or whatever).”
He continued: “I am very sad that I feel like I have to say the following but here goes: Asians are not the problem. Blacks are not the problem. Jews are not the problem. And yes, Whites are not the problem either. No race or culture is ‘the problem,” he theorized.
Rather, the Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger musician argued that there is an “EQUAL distribution of s–tty ppl and good ppl in EVERY human population. Most are good, some aren’t great, and a very small number are clinical sociopaths you absolutely need to avoid.
“When I grew up New York truly felt like a melting pot,” Lennon, who grew up on the Upper West Side in the Dakota Building, wrote. “It wasn’t perfect, but ppl did not self-segregate along tribal lines to the degree that I am seeing today. There is something wrong with the strategy and direction we have chosen, in academia, in politics, and elsewhere.”
Lennon believes that we “should check our strategy if we are not getting the results we intended. I don’t know what the solution is, but I suspect that over-sensitizing ppl to arbitrary characteristics like skin colour may be doing more harm than good.
“I don’t often talk about race, especially my own, because I feel attention is like water in a garden: whatever you give it to will grow,” he added before noting he hoped his missive doesn’t ignite some kind of “melt down.”
“Okay that’s it,” he signed off. “Peace and Love to all. I mean it.”