Bob Dylan sued for anti-Croatian remarks

Bob Dylan finds himself on the receiving end of a lawsuit from a Franco-Croatian association called The Council of Croats following comments he made during an interview last year.

Dylan made the remarks in a piece for Rolling Stone, quoted as saying: “Just like Jews can sense Nazi blood and the Serbs can sense Croatian blood”. It was in reference to comparisons between present-day racism in America and how the country was during slavery, with Dylan saying that “If you got a slave master or Klan in your blood, blacks can sense that. That stuff lingers to this day.”

“It is an incitement to hatred,” said Vlatko Marić of the organisation on the comments. “You cannot compare Croatian criminals to all Croats. But we have nothing against Rolling Stone magazine or Bob Dylan as a singer.”

Incitement of hatred laws means that both Dylan and Rolling Stone could be liable to pay a fine or face other sanctions should they be deemed guilty. You can read the full passage beneath:

“Mmm, I don’t know how to put it. It’s like . . . the United States burned and destroyed itself for the sake of slavery. The USA wouldn’t give it up. It had to be grinded out. The whole system had to be ripped out with force. A lot of killing. What, like, 500,000 people? A lot of destruction to end slavery. And that’s what it really was all about.

This country is just too fucked up about color. It’s a distraction. People at each other’s throats just because they are of a different color. It’s the height of insanity, and it will hold any nation back – or any neighborhood back. Or any anything back. Blacks know that some whites didn’t want to give up slavery – that if they had their way, they would still be under the yoke, and they can’t pretend they don’t know that. If you got a slave master or Klan in your blood, blacks can sense that. That stuff lingers to this day. Just like Jews can sense Nazi blood and the Serbs can sense Croatian blood.”

[via Pitchfork]