Deerhunter’s Bradford Cox Responds To Heckler Accusing Him Of Cultural Appropriation

Bradford Cox is known to pull some weird stunts. Back in 2012, he covered “My Sharona” for an hour straight at an Atlas Sound show. Yesterday, he had a ten-minute conversation with a heckler in the middle of his Deerhunter concert at Seattle’s Showbox. Stereogum tipster Daniela B. shared footage of the incident, in which an audience member accuses Cox of appropriating Native American culture and yells “fuck you.”

Daniela B. explained the situation in an email: “During the set, Bradford Cox started a dialogue with a heckler accusing him of cultural appropriation because he said he’s a huge fan of Twin Peaks, and he said was planning on staying in North Bend at the Salish Lodge that night so that he could explore Snoqualmie the next day.”

In the video, Cox calls the heckler to the front of the stage and lets her voice her concern on the mic. “You’re appropriating Snoqualmie culture,” she says. Cox asks her to explain — “Is there something about North Bend that I should know? I’d like to hear it.” — but she declines. “Why should I, as a person of color, have to tell you about it,” she asks to collective booing. “So that I can empathize and relate to your point,” Cox responds.

“Ideas are traded between cultures through communication, not by insulting and yelling ‘fuck you’ at people,” Cox says. “I have been marginalized my entire fucking life…marginalized by heteronormative culture, marginalized by socioeconomic situations, marginalized by being differently abled.”

“What is your assumption about my life that makes you think that I am somehow privileged or I represent someone appropriating your culture? I believe that you have a very good point that you’re not going to share with me out of arrogance.”

“You obviously as a white person, male,” she begins. Cox interrupts, “Did you just call me male? I don’t even know that you can assume my gender, my friend.”

Watch it all unfold below.




https://www.stereogum.com/2051988/deerhunter-bradford-cox-heckler-cultural-appropriation/video/