| Shakira's Anti-Israeli Slur | |||
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| Netlore Archive | |||
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Email text contributed by Budd M., 05/07/02:
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Subject: Shakira This week the singer Shakira appeared on MTV in front of a live audience and talked to fans who called the studio. When an Israelie fan was put on the air, the singer refused to speak to her saying she'd "rather have PIGS listening to her music than Israelies!" I think it is a disgrace that a person like her is given a platform to express her incredibly outrageous views and that a network as big and as influential as MTV did not condemn her expression. This is a singer who is rated no.1 in the world and in Israel with her smash hit "whenever, wherever". We can not turn a blind eye to these sayings anymore! I ask you all, please send this e-mail to all your mailing lists to help spread the word on this terrible saying and to boycott the singer's CDs. |
Comments: Here we are asked to believe not only that a fast-rising pop star appearing on TV to promote her new CD uttered an outrageous slur against an entire people, but that the network aired it intact, without reservation or comment.
Poppycock. It's an obvious, slanderous hoax. For the benefit of those who lack the common sense to recognize it as such, I contacted an MTV spokesman who told me without equivocation that the story is false. This incident never happened.
Though her nationality is Colombian, Shakira's father was a Lebanese immigrant and her name is Arabic (meaning "woman full of grace") — a fact the author of this hoax clearly found ripe for exploitation in a climate of heightened tension between Arabs and Jews in the Middle East. But there is no record of Shakira making anti-Semitic or anti-Israeli remarks prior to this, nor any evidence that she has ever held such views.
Last updated: 05/18/02
More coverage:
Shakira Did Not Make Anti-Jewish Statement
Statement from the Anti-Defamation League with quotes from Shakira's management
Sources and further reading:
The Making of a Rocker
From Time.comShakira
Bio from Rolling StoneShakira
Bio from MTV.com
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Current Internet Hoaxes
The Urban Legends Top 25
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