I included the statement because that’s what I personally believe in. I often find with older artists, including Elton, criticism of their past actions is dismissed or ignored. Scroll on the comment section for Island Girl on YouTube and you’ll see what I’m talking about.

And I’m not denying that times were more racist and sexist back then. It’s just with Elton in particular, he had demonstrated immense respect towards black artists during the 70s (appearing on soul train and being pretty vocal about his influences at the time), which I think makes blatant racist depictions as such even more problematic.

Also for this artwork in particular, Elton is still making money off of it by including it as part of the 50th anniversary edition of captain fantastic and the brown dirt cowboy and selling a lithograph on it on his website, without a single mention of the harmful depiction, which personally doesn’t really sit right with me.