I hope that everyone who canceled Nahko is happy.
I hope that every one of you who came out with your torches and pitchforks, with your fiery words and anger and projection, is pleased with how you acted.
We were presented with a situation, as a community. An opportunity to talk about something important, something that needed desperately to be addressed. We had the chance to enter into a deep space of shadow work, of facing our collective trauma, asking where it came from, naming it, and healing together. We could have done that.
We chose instead to fight.
Sides were chosen. Factions were created. Lines were drawn in the sand. Lovers and friends became enemies. An entire movement was shattered.
And now? Now what do we have?
Now we have an idol that’s been put on a pedestal even more fortified than before, surrounded by a battalion of people ready to defend him to the death. An idol barely even connected to the person it represents.
We had the opportunity to get to know Nahko as a human being. To engage in conversation as a community. To let him step down from the golden pillar and stop treating him like anything more than what he is, which is just some guy whose art form happens to be one that speaks to people. Just some guy.
It could have been your brother, or your best friend who stood accused. What would you have done then? Would you have denounced him publicly? Or would you have sat him down and said, hey man. We need to talk about this. Let’s grow and heal and make things right, and make sure this shit never happens again.
We had the chance, as a collective, to take this learning experience a step further and take steps towards prevention, towards compassion, towards sustainable community and brighter futures. But we didn’t. We chose crusades of righteousness. We chose anger.
And now, it’s starting over. And to every person who spent their time and energy spitting venomous words, your words mean nothing now. They will be forgotten.
He’ll start touring again. He’ll be more careful with what he says and does. The steadfast fans have forgiven. The loiterers will forget. And the rest will never even know.
And the others who find themselves in similar situations, whether they be artists or visionaries or just some guy, maybe they’ll think twice about their actions. Maybe, just maybe. But they won’t do it for the wellbeing of women. They won’t be motivated by understanding and care. No, they’ll tread lightly for fear of being caught. Of being attacked by an angry mob.
Call me crazy, but that, to me, doesn’t sound like a positive outcome.
May we all learn from this. And when it happens again, with another person that we put on a pedestal, with another golden buddha who we held in an image of perfection, who we believed could do no wrong. When it happens again, that somebody gets hurt, and our messiah turns out to be just some guy. Just some guy, dealing with his own human bullshit, who learned most of what he knew from people unwilling to look him in the eye. Just some guy, who’s been fetishized and stalked and hated and loved and obsessed over. When it happens again, I hope we’ll be ready to do it right, and to sit down with hands folded in our laps, weapons left outside the door, and ask each other in earnest: What happened?
And what have we been brought here to learn?
I’m disappointed, fam. Disappointed in myself, disappointed in us. Let’s do better next time.
