Could just be the PR thing to do. Saying something and adhering to it, consistently, are two different things. Not declaring whether Morrissey is a racist or not, just to make myself clear.
Of course that's a possibility. In fact, that's the obvious impression the statement makes. Public relations, clear and simple. I hear it the same way, on the surface.
But as soon as you say it's just a "PR thing to do", the entire complexion of the matter immediately changes. We're talking about Morrissey. When in God's name has Morrissey ever been concerned with the "PR thing to do"? When has Morrissey censored himself out of respect for public opinion? When has Morrissey gone out of his way to appease the finger-wagging guardians of political correctness?
To the contrary, his almost 30-year record shows us a man who has very little sensitivity for the feelings of other people, especially where celebrities and other public figures are involved. He constantly puts his foot in his mouth. He constantly says the wrong things. On his first three solo albums he included songs which were dangerously ambiguous ("Bengali In Platforms", "Asian Rut", "National Front Disco")
after critics were already wondering, in print in the music weeklies, if Morrissey and The Smiths were racists or at least indirectly contributed to racism.
I mean, is that clear to everyone? Frank Owen's hit-piece, the one containing the Whitney Houston quote, appeared in 1986. It was in that article that "Panic" was infamously condemned as racist. In 1987 there was already talk about how retrograde and (again, directly or indirectly) racist the indie music scene had become. That was the context for Morrissey's comment about "black pop": writers like Owen and Simon Reynolds had already identified a widening chasm between "black pop" and "white indie music", and Morrissey was speaking to that. So even as far back as 1986 Morrissey was being attacked. Yet in 1988, 1991, and 1992 he deliberately included tracks which (according to the "PR thing" theory) he ought to have known better than to include on albums?
And we're supposed to believe, in 2007, he broke down and decided to say what everyone else wanted him to say, though it went against his own feelings?
Nonsense.
I know you're only arguing that it's a possibility-- a fair and legitimate point which I agree with-- but even a cursory amount of thinking about the matter reveals it as nonsense.
His anti-racism statement was PR. It also reflected the truth.
