The fallout from last weekend’s violence in Charlottesville – prompted by the planned removal of a Robert E. Lee statue – has continued well into this week, with celebrities condemning Trump’s pro-statue stance.
Rosanne Cash, singer Johnny Cash’s daughter, is “sickened” at the sight of a neo-Nazi waring a t-shirt at the Charlottesville riot last weekend. She wrote the message on behalf of herself and her siblings.
“We were alerted to a video of a young man in Charlottesville, a self-proclaimed neo-Nazi, spewing hatred and bile. He was wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with the name of Johnny Cash, our father. We were sickened by the association,” Cash wrote.
They went on to say that their father was a humanitarian who stood up to social injustices and “championed rights of Native Americans, protested the war in Vietnam, was a voice for the poor, the struggling and the disenfranchised, and an advocate for the rights of prisoners.” and concluded “who claim supremacy over other human beings, to any who believe in racial or religious hierarchy: we are not you. Our father, as a person, icon, or symbol, is not you.”
The Cash family statement is a reminder that Cash’s groundbreaking 1960s TV variety series The Johnny Cash Show championed any number of counterculture stalwarts (Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Creedence Clearwater Revival) and civil rights heroes (The Staple Singers, Ray Charles).
“[Cash] would be horrified at even a casual use of his name or image for an idea or a cause founded in persecution and hatred,” it continues. “Our father, as a person, icon, or symbol, is not you. We ask that the Cash name be kept far away from destructive and hateful ideology.”
Johnny Cash died aged 71 in 2003. He made over 70 albums throughout his 45 year career, and won 11 Grammy awards.
What do you think about what the Cash children have to say about this?
