Press Interpreter

10/07/05 -- The Belgian Center for the Equality of Opportunities and the Fight against Racism has received twelve complaints by persons who feel offended or hurt by the song “Let’s get rid of America� by Raymond van het Groenewoud. After the Center contacted the singer and his management, van het Groenewoud was willing to post an explanatory open letter on his website.

The Center said that the incident is now closed. It will tell the twelve complainants, among them Senator Hugo Coveliers, that in the case against the associations affiliated with the Vlaams Belang [the Flemish far-right party, CR], the court of appeals held that harsh criticism is allowed, but that not everything can be divulged, not even under the guise of artistic freedom, and that the artist ultimately remains responsible for the content and form of his creations.

Op-ed by Raymond van het Groenewoud: “Payback time�

“To start with, the allegations are not clear to me. I do not see why any equal opportunities are implicated (it is not the draft of a statute, but a song). I do not see any expression of racism. I am myself a white man, and I criticize the policy of mostly white Americans, who pride themselves on belonging to the “most powerful nation in the world�, and who regularly scandalously abuse that power, which is precisely one of the human characteristics that cut through my soul.

I often get the question by people who are considered to belong to the far-right: “What do you think awaits you if you were to sing “Let’s get rid of the Moroccans?� [Moroccans being the largest ethnic minority in Belgium, CR] That question makes sense, since these people betray themselves by their very desires, but they take aim at second-class citizens, immigrants in our Flemish society, who fail to adjust to our falsely Promised Land. Quite some of those who posed the question are not afraid of reciprocating by making evil remarks, which is a reaction that surely makes me feel uncomfortable and cautious.

I nevertheless hope that I could still choose what I would like to address, and I am not taking aim at American immigrants (the song is not called Let’s get rid of the Americans), but at American policy, in the political, economic, cultural and military field. If such were unclear, I admit my deficiencies as a songwriter, but phrases such as “let’s get rid of America’s colonialism’, “this Anglo-Saxon pretension, arrogance�, “let’s get rid of these rappers and their eternal ‘fuck’�, “let’s get rid of imitating America�, “United Nations, bleating lambs, they are all vassals of the United States�, “let’s get rid of the imperialism of America, their pre-chewed toddler culture�, “these stupid machos, hey man, hey man, they’ve been playing cops for sixty years now�, “their chewing-gum-firmness, their shotguns�, make clear, in a childish-poetic fashion, what I want to say. Obviously, I use the term “America� as a symbol, because a continent does not harm anybody, nor do all Americans. It is about power, abuse of power (e.g., Clear Channel, CNN), indulging in power (the Terminator syndrome). It is also clear that this is a powerless song (“last of the Mohicans�, not without making fun of myself). In my view, it is a Don Quixote song, because I believe that most people have long since been ignorant of the extent to which we, Flemish vassals, are brainwashed by the Anglo-Saxons and Americans, including so-called alternative and intellectual people. Just try to make a sentence without an English expression. Okay, my mind is wandering.

On the at times gross and bold word choice: I would like to point out that, in so doing, I use a technique of abuse borrowed from an American cultural phenomenon, called the rap, a style in which, regrettably, brutalities and abuses abound – which takes a turn for the worse in songs by less talented songwriters. “Payback time�, I thought when collecting far-reaching statements (this is English!), such as “a burning stick in their ass.� Please do not take this literally, I would recommend, or is there something wrong with the person who feels offended, in the sense that he sees a long-suppressed desire suddenly materialize in a song text? Hoping I have served you with this explanatory note, I sign,

Raymond van het Groenewoud

[Full articles]

--Translated by Cedric Ryngaert

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