Pakistani-American Grammy winning singer Arooj Aftab has taken to Twitter to slam US based music magazine Down Beat for its racist review of her new album ‘Love In Exile’, released in March 2023. The ‘Mohabbat’ singer shared screenshots of the review written by the music critic John McDonough, who said the album had “Urdu chants” and then wrote “maybe music should not be a universal language.”
Aftab shared a clip of the review on her Instagram, criticising the critic as a “fossilised white man” who was allowed to publish his racist views.
“What’s monotonous is fossilized white men having platforms and safety to publish their racist views”
‘John Mcdonough’s unapologetic racial prejudice and Islamophobia is deeply troubling and quite frankly should get him fired @downbeat_mag I can’t believe this even went to print.”
The ‘Udheero Na’ singer further wrote:
“If you are having trouble understanding the outrage because you’ve never had to think about any of this before. He says he is ‘obliged’ for the ‘sake of diversity’ THAT IS INSANE. And he reduces what is a new contemporary jazz music album to CHANTING. Only because we are brown people and he does not believe we are allowed to exist in a contemporary music space. We are only meditation, yoga, chanting and Bollywood. And then he says music is not a universal language. I have never seen this many problematic words strung together so well in a short sentence.”
Vijay Iyer, an Indian-origin musician, who collaborated on the album with Aftab, lent his support to the Grammy winner by tweeting, “This is what passes for okay in jazz journalism. Love to my dear sis Arooj”.
Down Beat magazine responded to both Aftab and Iyer’s criticism by writing that Mcdonough didn’t like the album but the rest of the editors did which shouldn’t subject him to so much public humiliation:
“Three other DB reviewers LOVED this record, as do I. John McDonough doesn’t. OK. It doesn’t fit his definition of jazz — period — hence the term “diversity.” He has no other malice. No one should be cancelled for so little. — @frankalkyer, DB editor”
However, Aftab pointed out that intolerant and racist behavior should not be shrugged off as “having an opinion”.
“Frank, we appreciate all the love for this record, but these lines you printed are racist. To not like the record and offer criticism is one thing. But he wrapped it in race by pointing out “diversity,” wrote Aftab.
Social media users had also lent their support to Aftab, and criticised the magazine editors for publishing such racist views
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