The Mountain Goats’ John Darnielle Calls Katy Perry’s AMAs Performance ‘Racist’

Between Miley Cyrus’ twerking and, now, Katy Perry’s Japanese geisha costume at last night’s (Nov. 24) American Music Awards, there has been an increasing discussion of cultural appropriation during music award show performances. Cyrus and R&B singer Robin Thicke’s VMAs performance has been criticized ever since it aired in August, and now some are calling out Perry’s performance of ‘Unconditionally’ at last night’s AMAs (seen below). Mountain Goats frontman John Darnielle took to Twitter to add his two cents to the conversation.

“What the hell, Katy Perry. What the hell, music industry. Is ‘do a racist performance to get press’ gonna be a thing now? Please let’s not,” he wrote, criticizing the pop singer’s costume and stage design as grabs for attention and shock value.

“Seriously this one’s easy. Don’t treat other people’s cultural expressions as costumes for you to try on. Ever, please don’t. Thank you,” he added in a follow-up tweet.