Oh I see!!

Oh... that is indeed very disappointing, but you raise an excellent question. I am a fan of Mr. Reich's music, have been for a very long time, one of the best concerts I have ever been to was a live rendition of Music for 18 Musicians - which was absolutely out of this world!

Generally, I think people need to be a lot more forgiving, these days it's like you say one thing wrong or make one mistake and it's like you are the devil incarnate.

Attitudes and appropriate behaviour change over time and are different for different people, hell - cannibalism is accepted in some cultures, marriage of young children in others, etc. It's not that long ago that full on racism was pretty much fully accepted in western cultures, even deemed absolutely necessary for survival by some! I have talked with some people in Africa that I would consider to be extremely racist, yet when you hear the stories that led them to have these beliefs, it's understandable on some level. They are prejudiced literally because they believe their lives depend on it. Would I go wandering around the streets at night in some SA townships? Er... not a hope in hell! Is that prejudice or just not being insanely stupid and reckless? I could say the same thing about certain areas in Manchester, UK while I was growing up, possibly still true to some extent.

So it is only when someone absolutely insists on being severely nasty despite being asked to reconsider that I ever speak out about these things.

I am definitely in the camp of well, come on, give them time and show a little tolerance, you know, have a conversation. How can you expect anyone else to show tolerance if you show none yourself?

Otherwise we just end up in a situation where it is "us and them", and without wanting to be over dramatic, that's literally how wars start!

It's not like anyone who grew up with certain cultural beliefs and a lifetime of experience is suddenly going to wake up one day and for no reason at all suddenly become a completely different person is it... these things take time, patience, effort, understanding and forgiveness.

I am not making excuses for whatever they said, I am trying to add a certain element or rationality to the situation. I realise there will be people out there who will show me no tolerance or understanding for saying these things... but such is life!

Do we destroy all the Egyptian artefacts because of Egyptian slavery? Probably not... although I guess some people would!?

Art is art. Acknowledging it's context and cultural relevance is important, but by no means required, or even possible in any meaningful sense in many case.