The latest issue of Rolling Stone features a wide-ranging interview with Bruce Springsteen in which he says Black Lives Matter is America’s “chickens coming home to roost.”
Rolling Stone’s Brian Hiatt recently sat down with “The Boss” to discuss the singer’s new memoir, “Born to Run,” but the two also carved out time to address Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, the NFL’s national anthem protests started by quarterback Colin Kaepernick, and Black Lives Matter.
“It’s all chickens coming home to roost,” Mr. Springsteen said when asked about Black Lives Matter. “These are issues that have been ignored or hidden, and due to modern technology and the availability of cellphone cameras and constant video feed, these things are coming to the surface. Black Lives Matter is a natural outgrowth and response to the injustices that have been occurring for a very long time in the United States.”
“Why is it so hard for so many white people to grapple with? Why the backlash?” Mr. Hiatt replied.
“Nobody likes being told they’re wrong,” Mr. Springsteen said Wednesday.
The singer neglected to discuss the legal process that played out after the 2012 shooting death of Trayvon Martin in Florida, the 2014 shooting death of Michael Brown in Missouri, or the April 2015 death of Freddie Gray in Maryland. Each incident helped fuel the group’s ranks.
“What do you think of Colin Kaepernick’s protests and the reaction to it?” the writer then asked.
“Athletics is a difficult place to make political statements,” Mr. Springsteen responded. “There was the Olympics in the Sixties, and obviously Muhammad Ali. But sports is such an escapist field. I think when politics or personal expression is injected, it rankles people more than in other fields. But we’re in a time where there isn’t any place where these issues can be excluded. I admire Kaepernick, but it’s a very difficult field to be outspoken in.”
Mr. Springsteen also fielded questions his seemingly muted enthusiasm for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. He said Mr. Trump only offers “simple answers to very complex problems,” but that lending his support for the former secretary of state would have “a limited amount of impact.”
“I don’t think people go to musicians for their political points of view,” the singer said. “I think your political point of view is circumstances, and then how you were nurtured and brought up. But it’s worth giving it a shot when it’s the only thing you have.”
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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