The pretty fucking terrifying video Romain Gavras-directed video for French house act Justice’s new single “Stress” has been condemned as racist, and banned from broadcast by the French goverment.
Which, frankly, makes absolutley no sense. The video depicts a gang of youths enacting some Clockwork Orange-style ultraviolence upon unsupsecting people, keying cars, fighting policeman and generally being a nuisance.
I’m assuming the “objectionable” content is the fact that some of the gang members are black, which is a negative stereotype; however, there are also white and Asian kids in the group. So…how’s it racist? Who knows? Neither Gavras nor Justice themselves have spoke about the video, or the “controversy” surrounding it.
To be honest, I’m more surprised there’s not controversy about the violence in it, which is all pretty visceral and realistic - and it’s all being done by kids. Go figure.
(I do like the fact that, after stealing the car, the kids turn the radio to Justice’s previous hit “D.A.N.C.E”, before kicking the stereo in and throwing it out the window. A sign that the threatening, more abrasive sound of “Stress” is the direction the duo are going to be following? Who knows?)
Is it a video conedming ASBO culture? Is it a condemnation of the tabloid press and their sensationalism concerning violnce in youngsters? Watch it and make up your own mind. Lazy.
Download “Stress”
