The Real Reason Fans Are Angry With Bryan Adams
Right about now, Bryan Adams might be wishing he was back in the summer of '69 doing all the things that implies, such as falling in love 69-style and attending Woodstock. But instead of taking stock of his wood, Adams has to do damage control because of an online rant about the COVID-19 pandemic. As the BBC details, the singer struck a bitter tone after having to scrap his upcoming concert in London. The singer vented his frustration on social media, which miraculously manages to be both the emotional toilet of the internet and a place where rage never goes to waste.
In an Instagram post, Adams fumed: "Thanks to some bat eating, wet market animal selling, virus making greedy [expletives], the whole world is now on hold." As you may have learned from the soundtrack to Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves that everything Bryan Adamds does he does for you. You know it's true. But critics of Adams' Instagram tantrum seemed to think he wanted to cut Asian people's hearts out with a spoon. Note: that's an allusion to an epic line from the aforementioned Robin Hood movie, not a serious assessment of what people think. Sometimes, people say things they don't literally mean or mean to imply, which brings us to the question of what the Canadian artist meant by his remarks.
Search your heart, search your soul
Per the BBC, the president of the Chinese Canadian National Council for Social Justice, Amy Go, called Adams' statements "so irresponsible and just so, so, so, so racist." However, the people at PETA were totally in favor of shaming bat consumption and wet markets, arguing that Adams wanted to promote veganism with his comments. Obviously, only Adams knows what he meant by his remarks.
Both perspectives make sense depending on what information you're looking at. It's of course important not to promote intolerance, and it's very easy to start scapegoating people and spreading conspiracy theories amid something as ugly and uncertain as a global pandemic. Asian Americans have been spit on, verbally abused, and physically attacked in different ways during the pandemic, via PBS.
However, it's also worth noting that China isn't the only place on earth with wet markets. CBS reports that the U.S. has wet markets that are capable of spreading disease. Incensed New Yorkers protested wet markets in the Big Apple after scientists named wet markets in China as the likely source of the coronavirus pandemic. Plenty of people are angered by those places for reasons unrelated to race, so it would make sense that their potential connection to the pandemic enhances that. The "real reason" that people are angry at Adams — or supportive for that matter — is probably that it's easy for people to see what they want to see.