It's silly when people accuse this song of racism. Morrissey is really only singin g to this Bengali as a means to reflect upon himself and his own alienation and isolation. As a knowing reject, the character advises the outsider that it's best to simply stay away. The slightly mocking tone can be percieved as mere honesty, he's taking slight pleasure in being a rejector, as opposed to his more typical reject-ee; but at the same time relating to the outsider. Those that flatly acuse the song of racism have no sense of poetry ~ shading, suggestion, metaphor; they see things on one level.
Gotta agree here: this song is pretty sympathetic to the "Bengali in Platforms," actually. Moz's narrator sees this guy who's trying really hard to fit in and failing miserably at it. Drawing on his own experience, he wants to tell the guy to give up, because there's no point -- you'll never "fit in," you'll never "make it," you'll never make your life better by trying to be something else, so just live with the fact that you are what you are. Or even, "yes, I'm from this England that you're trying to embrace, and let me...
Gotta agree here: this song is pretty sympathetic to the "Bengali in Platforms," actually. Moz's narrator sees this guy who's trying really hard to fit in and failing miserably at it. Drawing on his own experience, he wants to tell the guy to give up, because there's no point -- you'll never "fit in," you'll never "make it," you'll never make your life better by trying to be something else, so just live with the fact that you are what you are. Or even, "yes, I'm from this England that you're trying to embrace, and let me tell you, not only is it kind of a shithole, but it will never accept you. It won't even accept me."
That said, I don't quite understand the silver-studded rim, ankle star, and lemon sole references. The last is a bad pun on the "high soles" of platform shoes and the fish (maybe something you'd order in a restaurant where the Bengali guy, stereotypically in the '80s, is a waiter?), but I don't understand why or to what purpose. Any ideas?
It's silly when people accuse this song of racism. Morrissey is really only singin g to this Bengali as a means to reflect upon himself and his own alienation and isolation. As a knowing reject, the character advises the outsider that it's best to simply stay away. The slightly mocking tone can be percieved as mere honesty, he's taking slight pleasure in being a rejector, as opposed to his more typical reject-ee; but at the same time relating to the outsider. Those that flatly acuse the song of racism have no sense of poetry ~ shading, suggestion, metaphor; they see things on one level.
Gotta agree here: this song is pretty sympathetic to the "Bengali in Platforms," actually. Moz's narrator sees this guy who's trying really hard to fit in and failing miserably at it. Drawing on his own experience, he wants to tell the guy to give up, because there's no point -- you'll never "fit in," you'll never "make it," you'll never make your life better by trying to be something else, so just live with the fact that you are what you are. Or even, "yes, I'm from this England that you're trying to embrace, and let me...
Gotta agree here: this song is pretty sympathetic to the "Bengali in Platforms," actually. Moz's narrator sees this guy who's trying really hard to fit in and failing miserably at it. Drawing on his own experience, he wants to tell the guy to give up, because there's no point -- you'll never "fit in," you'll never "make it," you'll never make your life better by trying to be something else, so just live with the fact that you are what you are. Or even, "yes, I'm from this England that you're trying to embrace, and let me tell you, not only is it kind of a shithole, but it will never accept you. It won't even accept me."
That said, I don't quite understand the silver-studded rim, ankle star, and lemon sole references. The last is a bad pun on the "high soles" of platform shoes and the fish (maybe something you'd order in a restaurant where the Bengali guy, stereotypically in the '80s, is a waiter?), but I don't understand why or to what purpose. Any ideas?