Devendra Banhart has offended Hindu scholars with a music video called “Carmensita,” featuring his ex-girlfriend and Harvard graduate Natalie Portman as “Princess Carmensita Saplingita.”
Prominent Hindus in America such as Rajan Zed and organizations such as the Hindu Alliance of India are calling for a public apology from Portman because the video “mocks Hindu concepts and symbols.”
Banhart has a history of creating surreal videos, so this venture into religious territory is not much of a surprise — the world will always be full of insensitive but well-meaning people.
The music was nice, but I felt offended when I was watching the video. Plenty of Christians must have felt the same way when Andy Fleming announced a movie whose caption was “What Would Sexy Jesus Do?” Here are my introspective conclusions about the source of my feelings:
- Childhood totems (most important). I was raised to respect the images which are tossed around casually in the music video, so part of my reaction was visceral.
- Empathy (moderately important). Now I know how Muslims in Denmark must have felt during the Danish cartoon fiasco a few years ago.
- Desire for conflict (least important). Being an adolescent male, sometimes I want to fight for the sake of fighting. Part of me wanted to get riled up for no good reason.
Watching this video is not an opportunity to rail against Banhart, but rather to understand our attitude toward our own faith. It is an opportunity for us to become a little stronger, to become a little more hardened to the foolishness of a few. Hindus are a tremendously strong people — we have survived centuries upon centuries of external abuse. After that record, am I really base enough to enslave myself to the opinions of a few musicians and Natalie Portman?
Calling for a public apology puts the power of forgiveness in the hands of the offending party. Let us forgive first, and the apology will follow.
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