For those that have been following our campaigns for a number of years you will remember that in 2015 we wrote a letter to Immigration regarding the visa application for rap artist Tyler, The Creator. A characteristic feature of his songs is retribution against women who he perceives have wronged him. For example, he sings about strangling and chopping up women who reject his sexual advances and raping their corpses. Before Immigration could make a decision Frontier Touring cancelled the Australian tour, not before Tyler incorrectly tweeted that he was banned.
This tweet directed at one of our staff, Coralie Alison, led to mass online abuse from all around the world. So much so that her name was trending in 6 continents and the global head of Twitter's internet safety personally phoned her to check on her wellbeing.
"I'd love to hear that he's changed and that he has something to say about it, because I haven't forgotten," says activist Coralie Alison from Collective Shout.
"Based on the continual threats I have coming through, even four years down the track, it's not something that just went away for me."
"I had to go to the police about it and there were people trying to track down where I lived, trying to threaten relatives and family members. I still haven't seen Tyler call out his fans to condemn that behaviour," says Alison.
"We got confirmation from Immigration at the time that they never got to make a decision," says Alison. "We were in correspondence with Immigration so we know for a fact that he was never officially banned."It's unfortunate because his tweet led to a lot of abuse, and it didn't have to be that way."
"A lot of people really look up to him and admire him, so he could use that to channel a positive message – in particular in Australia, where violence against women is still at epidemic rates," she says.
"I would love to see him speak out against those extremely violent and misogynistic songs that he created in his early days. And if he acknowledges the harm those songs can do, then I'd love to see him remove them from Spotify and Apple Music.
"Because if he's still profiting off that music and those lyrics, then he's still complicit in advocating the message those songs portray. And if he is still allowing those lyrics to influence young people, has true change really occurred?"
Read the full article in The Sydney Morning Herald here.
See more:
Collective Shout responds to common arguments from Tyler the Creator fans
Why Do Hundreds of Men Want to Rape and Kill Coralie Alison?
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