Conor Oberst draws line in the sand over AZ boycott

Singer-songwriter Conor Oberst and Phoenix-based concert promoter Charlie Levy are in the midst of a very pointed dialogue over the real impact of Sound Strike, a coalition of artists including Oberst, Zack de la Rocha, Nine Inch Nails, Pitbull and Maroon 5 boycotting Arizona over the notorious immigration law SB 1070.

Sound Strike's members hopes to use their artistic platform to hit Arizona in its pocketbook and help force a repeal of the law. But in a recent editorial in the Arizona Republic, Levy argues that the real victims are struggling Arizona entertainment-industry workers, and the state's forums for cultural life that might be allies in their efforts to overturn the bill. Levy writes:

By not performing in Arizona, artists are harming the very people and places that foster free speech and the open exchange of ideas that serve to counter the closed-mindedness recently displayed by the new law.

The people who will feel the negative effects of the boycott the deepest are local concert venues, including non-profit art-house theatres, independent promoters, fans and the people employed in the local music business. If the boycott continues, it is all but guaranteed that some of these venues will be forced to close their doors. 

Oberst, meanwhile, replied with a very respectful but typically adamant (he's no stranger to politically volatile songwriting) letter suggesting that fiscal pain is the point -- it's meant to spur locals (the only people with any democratic say in this process) to work to overturn it. In his letter he writes:

The Boycott has to be so widespread and devastating that the Arizona State Legislature and Governor have no choice but to repeal their unconstitutional, immoral and hateful law.  It has to hurt them in the only place they feel any pain, their pocketbooks.

What I would encourage you to do, if you haven't already started, is to organize with all the local businesses you can to put as much pressure as possible on your State Government until the Law is repealed.  An economic death rattle is the only cry of outrage they will hear.

Oberst ends on a rueful note, sympathizing with Levy and the real-world impact of the boycott, but ultimately siding with the larger goal of overturning the law. But it's difficult to parse the particular effectiveness of Sound Strike's efforts. One imagines that many, if not most, Arizona indie music fans likely opposed SB 1070 from the outset, and as Oberst admitted in slightly more pointed language, the prospect of no future Bright Eyes shows in Arizona probably doesn't keep Gov. Jan Brewer up at night. And what may seem like esoteric collateral damage in a larger moral fight is, on the ground, someone's job, favorite venue or ability to keep a vital cultural scene in their hometown -- one that could be a useful place for these artists to begin fostering their repeal effort.

Blunt large-scale boycotts have worked in Arizona before. When the NFL pulled the 1993 Super Bowl out of Arizona over then-Gov. Evan Meacham's refusal to recognize the Martin Luther King Day holiday, voters soon passed an initiative establishing it, and Tempe won the right to host 1996 Super Bowl. But the Super Bowl is a far more prominent and demographically relevant event in Arizona than any concert could hope hope to be. A music boycott instead would likely affect a very different and repeal-sympathetic community.

Is the loss of a lot of live music in Arizona -- and all the particular economic peril that entails -- worth making a moral stand on SB 1070? Both Levy and Oberst will find out in the coming months.

-- August Brown

Photo: Conor Oberst. Credit: Butch Walker

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Comments

[Heisenberg]

BOYCOTT ARIZONA!!!

[Cervantes]

"repeal their unconstitutional, immoral and hateful law"

It's none of the three. It's doing the work that the federal government should, by law, be doing.

Most of AZ and the USA is in favor of the law; most of those who aren't in favor have not read the law.

Anyway it's a "Shut up and sing" issue, Conor, who ever you are.

[zoo]

The majority of Arizonans have likely never even heard of these morons, and couldn't care less whether they come here or not.

As far as the MLK issue, August Brown has his/her facts wrong, not to mention his/her spelling. "....then-Gov. Evan Meacham's (sic) refusal to recognize the Martin Luther King Day holiday...." The truth is, the previous governor Bruce Babbitt had declared a MLK state holiday by proclaimation, which was not legal or within his authority. An extra state holiday would have to be approved by the legislature or voters. Babbitt was ready to wash his hands of the governorship and run for President, so this was a pure political stunt to garner votes for his next political office. Mecham simply reversed it when he became Governor.

If this collection of 'small-timers' believe we are backing down on illegal immigration due to their stupid boycott, or any boycott, they're living in fog world.

[Sal]

If these artists and their collective effort are small potatoes then good luck with your racist law and its affects on your state coffers and its citizens. I will no longer travel to and spend my money in that state, and yes I have traveled there several times a year for the past 15 years or more for pleasure, including to see bands. It's interesting how Arizona bites that hand the feeds them (literally). The only reason people live in that wasteland is because of the cheap housing built on the backs of (illegal)immigrant labor. Hopefully one day, AZ will be tired of being cast as the racists they are, come to their senses and vote for sensible candidates and laws. Until then, Boycott. And before I forget...

R=R

Remember this.

Republican=Racist

[Bob Bobo]

The Los Angeles mayor can be recalled. He is a strong mayor; that is, he can veto or approve city council decisions. Seems like he has approved the boycott of Arizona's SB1070 since he has been silent on that issue. California is the only state that has a network of marijuana dispensaries. They are surely tied to the trade of marijuana in Mexico besides the local farmers. The Los Angeles mayor was once the ACLU leader of the Los Angeles chapter. The ACLU would defend anything that demoralized our country. He needed a resume. You see where the United States heads when the poles stand neck to neck on issues like gay marriage, legal pot, and amnesty for violators of federal laws. There are anarchists in the name of socialism out there.

Aloha, Conor

[Gringo Gerald]

Those involved in the boycott should also expand their boycott to California as Penal Code 834b is similar to the Arizona SB 1070 without the safeguards against racial profiling, and they should also boycott the USA as the California PC 834b is modeled after the federal immigration laws. I would be happy to not hear them at all.

[Roger]

I am disgusted at Conor Oberst, Zack de la Rocha, Nine Inch Nails, Pitbull and Maroon 5 . A few years ago, I saw Zack's band at Coachella and when Rage Against The Machine's fans were violent, his band was quiet. The lead singer of Crowded House was hit in the face by rowdy Rage fans. And these artists sell their shirts (which cost a dollar or so to make in some third world nation) for $20 to $50 bucks! I think everyone should support Arizona. People who come into America should do so legally. If somebody tried to come into Conor's home uninvited, I doubt he would say "go ahead and take what you want. You want a guitar, take one" - this is a joke. Support Arizona.

[joe]

This man's twee, narcissistic music is atrocious but is not as reprehensible as his racist political views.

He is in fact endorsing our current immigration system, one which rewards a wealthy country's oligarchy and protects sleazy businesses that want an unending flow of illegal workers to keep wages low. It's telling that he states that people should "organize with all the local businesses." Don't worry there little Conor, the "local businesses" are already organized into something called the Chamber of Commerce and they all agree with you.

A significant majority of illegals come from a single wealthy neighboring democracy, one which The World Bank states is "firmly established as an upper middle-income country" and one that has both the world’s richest man and an obscenely wealthy oligarchy. 

To reward the efforts of a wealthy neighbor to divest itself of its poor underclass is not only reprehensible and racist, it’s also un-American. Bangladesh has a per-capita income 1/10th that of Mexico, and yet we legally let in 3 times as many people from Mexico as we do from any other country. To reward illegal migration, most of which comes from this same wealthy neighbor, simply perpetuates institutional racism against those from truly poor countries.



Conor, why are you siding with the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal and why are you a racist?

[joe]

This man's twee, narcissistic music is atrocious but is not as reprehensible as his racist political views.

He is in fact endorsing our current immigration system, one which rewards a wealthy country's oligarchy and protects sleazy businesses that want an unending flow of illegal workers to keep wages low. It's telling that he states that people should "organize with all the local businesses." Don't worry there little Conor, the "local businesses" are already organized into something called the Chamber of Commerce and they all agree with you.

A significant majority of illegals come from a single wealthy neighboring democracy, one which The World Bank states is "firmly established as an upper middle-income country" and one that has both the world’s richest man and an obscenely wealthy oligarchy. 

To reward the efforts of a wealthy neighbor to divest itself of its poor underclass is not only reprehensible and racist, it’s also un-American. Bangladesh has a per-capita income 1/10th that of Mexico, and yet we legally let in 3 times as many people from Mexico as we do from any other country. To reward illegal migration, most of which comes from this same wealthy neighbor, simply perpetuates institutional racism against those from truly poor countries.



Conor, why are you siding with the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal and why are you a racist?

[joe]

This man's twee, narcissistic music is atrocious but is not as reprehensible as his racist political views.

He is in fact endorsing our current immigration system, one which rewards a wealthy country's oligarchy and protects sleazy businesses that want an unending flow of illegal workers to keep wages low. It's telling that he states that people should "organize with all the local businesses." Don't worry there little Conor, the "local businesses" are already organized into something called the Chamber of Commerce and they all agree with you.

A significant majority of illegals come from a single wealthy neighboring democracy, one which The World Bank states is "firmly established as an upper middle-income country" and one that has both the world’s richest man and an obscenely wealthy oligarchy. 

To reward the efforts of a wealthy neighbor to divest itself of its poor underclass is not only reprehensible and racist, it’s also un-American. Bangladesh has a per-capita income 1/10th that of Mexico, and yet we legally let in 3 times as many people from Mexico as we do from any other country. To reward illegal migration, most of which comes from this same wealthy neighbor, simply perpetuates institutional racism against those from truly poor countries.



Conor, why are you siding with the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal and why are you a racist?

[joe]

This man's twee, narcissistic music is atrocious but is not as reprehensible as his racist political views.

He is in fact endorsing our current immigration system, one which rewards a wealthy country's oligarchy and protects sleazy businesses that want an unending flow of illegal workers to keep wages low. It's telling that he states that people should "organize with all the local businesses." Don't worry there little Conor, the "local businesses" are already organized into something called the Chamber of Commerce and they all agree with you.

A significant majority of illegals come from a single wealthy neighboring democracy, one which The World Bank states is "firmly established as an upper middle-income country" and one that has both the world’s richest man and an obscenely wealthy oligarchy. 

To reward the efforts of a wealthy neighbor to divest itself of its poor underclass is not only reprehensible and racist, it’s also un-American. Bangladesh has a per-capita income 1/10th that of Mexico, and yet we legally let in 3 times as many people from Mexico as we do from any other country. To reward illegal migration, most of which comes from this same wealthy neighbor, simply perpetuates institutional racism against those from truly poor countries.



Conor, why are you siding with the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal and why are you a racist?

[thirteenburn]

So when is Oberst going to boycott Washington D.C.? You see, the Arizona law is THE EXACTLY THE SAME AS THE FEDERAL LAW ALREADY ON THE BOOKS, yet sadly un-enforced.

This just proves, yet again, the uber-leftist, Hugo-Chavez-esque Democrat Party's mind-numbing disingenuousness, overshadowed ONLY by their abject intellectual dishonesty.

Suffice it to say, not only are they acting and looking very foolish, they're also hurting themselves as I'm sure that those taking part in this asinine "strike" will "feel it in the pocketbook" as well when people stop buying their records.

Memo to "Sal" - 'Tis better to keep one's mouth shut and be THOUGHT a moron than to open one's mouth and be PROVEN one, you imbecilic child. I wonder how many Republicans you've called "racist" to their faces? That's what I thought, you gutless piece of gutter excrement.

"Think of the press as a great keyboard on which the government can play." - Joseph Goebbels - Propaganda Minister, SOCIALIST NAZI Party; 1939

"A man who reads nothing is far smarter than a man who reads nothing but newspapers." - Thomas Jefferson - Third President of The United States of America; 1789

[Marv]

EXACTLY WHAT IS IT ABOUT THE WORD ILLEGAL YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND?