Erykah Badu has responded to a backlash over comments she made in which she appeared to praise Adolf Hitler.
The US R&B singer said she tries to see the good in everyone, including Hitler, in an interview with Vulture magazine this week.
Clarifying her remarks on social media on Thursday, Badu called on people to read the full interview and explained she was using an exaggerated example to make her point.
Either U read the entire VULTURE interview & U understood the message of compassion CLEARLY. OR U only read the selective, out of context Headlines, & were drawn in2 the whirlpool of collective emotional grief. I don't want 2 force U 2understand the way I love. I'm hopeful tho.
— ErykahBadoula (@fatbellybella) January 25, 2018
“Either U read the entire VULTURE interview & U understood the message of compassion CLEARLY. OR U only read the selective, out of context Headlines, & were drawn in2 the whirlpool of collective emotional grief,” she posted.
“I don’t want 2 force U 2understand the way I love. I’m hopeful tho.”
People are in real pain. So I understand why my 'good' intent was misconstrued as 'bad'. In trying to express a point, I used 1 of the worst examples possible, Not to support the cruel actions of an unwell, psychopathic Adolf Hitler, but to only exaggerate a show of compassion.
— ErykahBadoula (@fatbellybella) January 25, 2018
She added: “People are in real pain. So I understand why my ‘good’ intent was misconstrued as ‘bad’.
“In trying to express a point, I used 1 of the worst examples possible, Not to support the cruel actions of an unwell, psychopathic Adolf Hitler, but to only exaggerate a show of compassion.”
Badu had told Vulture: “I’m a humanist. I see good in everybody. I saw something good in Hitler,” adding he was a “wonderful painter” when pressed.
She added: “Okay, he was a terrible painter. Poor thing. He had a terrible childhood.
“That means that when I’m looking at my daughter, Mars, I could imagine her being in someone else’s home and being treated so poorly, and what that could spawn. I see things like that. I guess it’s just the Pisces in me.”
Asked about separating art from the artist with examples such as Louis CK and Bill Cosby, Badu said: “I don’t want to get scared into not thinking for myself. I weigh everything.”