The Boston Globe issued an apology Tuesday after referring to a group of black musicians as “anthropoids” in an article about the upcoming Boston Calling music festival lineup.
The original article, published Monday, praised the festival for including local talent after being criticized for not booking enough local acts in recent years. “Rock weirdos Dinosaur Jr. play Sunday, as do Lowell-bred rock hitmakers PVRIS and Swiss-army-knife rapper Cliff Notez,” the article read. “Hip-hop anthropoids Camp Blood, meanwhile, are on Saturday.”
“Anthropoids” translates to “ape man” in most dictionaries. Camp Blood is comprised of musicians Haasan Barclay and Shaka Dendy, both black men. After replacing the term with “trailblazers,” the Globe issued the following apology:
“Due to errors by a writer and editor, an earlier version of this story contained a term to describe the band Camp Blood that, in the context it was used, is racist. The word the writer intended to use was android. The story has been updated to remove the reference,” the correction reads. “The Globe deeply regrets the error and extends its apologies to Camp Blood and to Globe readers.”
In response to the article, Camp Blood member Haasan Barclay expressed his frustration over the racist descriptor on Twitter, as a musician who fights against racism with his music. “Boston’s really not for us,” Barclay tweeted. “This is like...literally what most of the [Camp Blood] EP is about lol what a way to validate us.” Neither Barclay nor Dendy responded to requests for comment.
Boston’s really not for us
— haasan (@haasanbarclay) January 29, 2020
Roxbury-based rapper and poet Oompa tweeted, “Funny how the rock acts are “weirdos” & “hit makers” but the two black male/masc acts are “Swiss-army-knife” & “anthropoids.” ANTHROPOIDS?”
Funny how the rock acts are “weirdos” & “hit makers” but the two black male/masc acts are “Swiss-army-knife” & “anthropoids.” ANTHROPOIDS? @BostonGlobe BostonGlobe y’all thought this was ok? https://t.co/XwlPcdynLV
— Quing X Oompa (@OompOutLoud) January 29, 2020
Mark Elzey, a Boston-based photographer, tweeted his support while criticizing the Globe’s arts coverage. “The Boston Globe has to do better,” he wrote. “The support for local artists was already pretty scarce, then they come out and slander local artists with deep rooted racism.”
The author of the article, Isaac Feldberg, who is a freelancer for the Globe, said he was “horrified and devastated” by the mistake. In a statement, Feldberg said in describing the “industrial and futuristic elements of Camp Blood’s sound, the word 'androids' came to mind.” Felberg said the word was accidentally changed in the writing process, and he describes not catching this mistake as “a massive failure of journalistic responsibility.”
“I don’t take lightly the damage that word caused,” Felberg said. “That word was not just tremendously offensive to the members of Camp Blood as pioneering black artists but a disgusting attack on their humanity. From the bottom of my heart, I assure you it’s the last thing I intended.”
Camp Blood appears on the Boston Calling lineup with several other local hip-hop acts, including rapper Cliff Notez, who publicly criticized the festival’s organizers last year and put together his own festival, Boston Answering, as a response to the lack of local attention. In a tweet Tuesday, Notez described the Globe article as “racism from the 1930’s.” In another tweet, Notez wrote, “some of y'all struggle to understand/describe blackness and it shows.”
Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that the word android was changed in the editing process. In fact, it was changed during the writing process. We regret the error.