Sean Ono Lennon, the son of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, has shared a lengthy Twitter thread on political correctness and how he believes it has negatively impacted “culture”.
Lennon took to Twitter yesterday (May 24) to share his experiences growing up with a Japanese mother.
“When I was young ppl used to say racist shit 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,” he wrote.
“I’m not exactly sure why I brought that up but I think it’s because I want to say that I grew up in a time when there was zero political correctness.”
He went on to explain how he believes political correctness and “morality policing” is “arguably” making things worse.
“Race relations seem to be in the middle of a ‘two steps back’ moment,” he wrote, citing current events as well as racist direct messages he has been receiving.
I have lived in many cities and countries and I can say from experience that there is an EQUAL distribution of shitty 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.
— Sean Ono Lennon (@seanonolennon) May 23, 2021
“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,” he wrote.
“And yes, Whites are not the problem either. No race or culture is ‘the problem.
“I have lived in many cities and countries and I can say from experience that there is an EQUAL distribution of shitty ppl and good ppl in EVERY human population.”
Lennon clarified that he’s not blaming political correctness for “all of the bad things we are seeing in culture today”, but he did write, “I am simply saying 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 know very well that the idea of being ‘colour blind’ is out of fashion, that MLK’s vision of character over skin colour is considered to be naive. But that vision surely made our society better. I’m not sure the modern vision of ‘race consciousness’ is making things better.
— Sean Ono Lennon (@seanonolennon) May 23, 2021
“I know very well that the idea of being ‘colour blind’ is out of fashion, that MLK’s vision of character over skin colour is considered to be naive,” he continued.
“But that vision surely made our society better. I’m not sure the modern vision of ‘race consciousness’ is making things better.”
Before signing off, Lennon concluded his thread with, “just remember who benefits from the ‘divide and conquer’ paradigm. It ain’t us that’s for sure.”
Last month, Sean Ono Lennon was a special guest on an episode of Tim’s Twitter Listening Party, which showcased John Lennon’s debut solo album, ‘John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band’, alongside the sharing of the first-ever performance of ‘Give Peace A Chance’
In 2020, Temples shared their track ‘Paraphernalia’ which was produced Ono Lennon. The followning month, Ono Lennon said that he thought his father rejecting an MBE in protest of the Vietnam War and Britain’s involvement in the Biafra conflict was “more punk than anything the punks did”.