Watch Deerhunter’s Bradford Cox respond to a crowd member accusing him of cultural appropriation

“You’re appropriating Snoqualmie culture"

Deerhunter frontman Bradford Cox had a ten-minute conversation with a crowd member who accused him of cultural appropriation during a recent show.

The band were playing at the Showbox venue in Seattle, during which an audience member accused him of appropriating Native American culture, yelling “fuck you” at the stage.

An audience member called Daniela B. confirmed the exchange that followed in an email to Stereogum.

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“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,” Daniela wrote in her message.

Cox then calls the heckler to the stage, allowing her to say her piece into the microphone. “You’re appropriating Snoqualmie culture,” she says.

“Is there something about North Bend that I should know? I’d like to hear it,” Cox tells her, before she declines, saying: “Why should I, as a person of color, have to tell you about it?” “So that I can empathize and relate to your point,” Cox responds.

Deerhunter

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

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“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,” the heckler then said, before Cox interrupted, asking: “Did you just call me male? I don’t even know that you can assume my gender, my friend.”

Deerhunter released their latest album ‘Why Hasn’t Everything Already Disappeared?’ at the start of the year via 4AD. In a four-star review, NME‘s Mark Beaumont said: “The National turned art-pop into a commercial force. With their eighth album, Deerhunter may have done the same – and ‘Why Hasn’t Everything Already Disappeared?’ is arguably their answer to David Bowie’s ‘Low’.”

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