There are a few things in the world that you can reliably count on. The tides come in, the tides go out and Morrissey says or does something that proves he’s an asshole. Moz’s latest outrage-sparking, boneheaded move was incorporating James Baldwin into his tour merch and then superimposing a line from The Smiths’ “Unloveable” over it so that the shirt reads “I wear black on the outside ’cause black is how I feel on the inside.”
Until now, this line was best interpreted as another instance of Morrissey’s sad-sackery. But now, it permanently serves as yet another reminder that The Smiths frontman is a bit confused about the whole race thing. We all liked I Am Not Your Negro, Moz but you have to do better.
The internet — as you might imagine — was not pleased.
Morrissey is selling racist t-shirts because he is a fucking idiot: https://t.co/4AOFeYjyiE pic.twitter.com/HpieWPYIaa
— 180.Fact (@180fact) March 15, 2017
https://twitter.com/googlyartiste/status/842390754236424194
A whole new generation of people realizing what a racist shithead Morrissey is. It's a beautiful world.
— ๐ฝ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐, ๐๐๐๐๐. (@OhGoodItsAlex) March 15, 2017
https://twitter.com/macstrobecream/status/842124140266065921
https://twitter.com/space_binch/status/842119054093512704
Dear Morrissey, please leave James Baldwin alone ๐คฆ๐ฝโโ๏ธhttps://t.co/7QiKzwNMHi
— Cadence Weapon (@cadenceweapon) March 16, 2017
James Baldwin: I wear black on the outside โcause black is how I feel on the inside
Morrissey: pic.twitter.com/rbhH6tszwo
— Eric Haywood (@EricHaywood) March 16, 2017
there's a critical difference between Baldwin and Morrissey hmmm can't put my finger on it https://t.co/hOA37ElWie
— Astead (@AsteadWH) March 16, 2017
The shirt has since been pulled from his U.S. store (though it’s still up on the U.K. side) and won’t be for sale on his tour. So we can all reset our countdown clocks to the next time Morrissey does something ill-advised. Let’s hope the next one is as harmless as his truly terrible novel about a demon-hunted track team and not yet another instance of him trying to talk about race and sticking his foot in his big mouth.