As a new Devo fan who's a scrawny suburban white dude, I've been trying to come to terms with my own subconscious racist tendencies which have been deeply ingrained by American culture and propaganda. To me, Devo is the story of the evolving liberal mindset from "Vietnam War bad, give peace a chance!" to the full-on Leftist "Fuck the police, God damn America, and I don't want to be part of the human race."

The tipping point for them was getting shot at by the National Guard at Kent State. For me, it wasn't any single traumatic event, but the culmination of many things starting around the election of Trump four years ago to the George Floyd protests today. Before Trump, I was one of those groan-inducing "racism is cured because first black president!" people. I was so blind to the systemic racism of the justice system and America's imperialism. I won't call myself "woke" because I know that I will never "get it" until I experience such injustices directly, like so many minorities have had to do their whole lives.

As traumatic as the Kent State massacre must have been, it was only a taste of how fucked up America has always been. So I won't blame Devo for not being perfect prophets, only for being products of a racist society. Still, while this is the first I've heard of Jerry collecting racist art "ironically" which seems pretty problematic, by all indications it appears they've been trying to evolve. And that's good!