Is This Shirt 'Racist'? A Tribe Called Red Threatened With Boycott

Photo by Pat Bolduc, courtesy A Tribe Called RedIan Campeau, aka Deejay NDN, wears a shirt that an irony-impaired critic has called 'racist. — Photo by Pat Bolduc, courtesy A Tribe Called Red
Ian Campeau, aka Deejay NDN, wears a shirt that an irony-impaired critic has called ‘racist.

Indian Country Today

Ian Campeau, better known as Deejay NDN of A Tribe Called Red, is an outspoken cultural critic, both as official mouthpiece of the DJ trio and a twitter provocateur. Campeau was instrumental in getting the Nepean Redskins football club to change its name (they’re now the Nepean Eagles), and sports mascots is one of his favorite topics to discuss.

It has to be a sign that you’re being heard when an irony-impaired curmudgeon calls for a boycott.

In a recent Instagram post, Campeau shared a note apparently written to the organizers of Westfest, a music and arts festival taking place June 13-15 in Ottawa’s Westboro Village. A Tribe Called Red is scheduled to play the final concert Sunday night.

“So we’re supposed to play Westfest next Sunday,” Campeau wrote. “The organizers have been receiving thinly-veiled threatening emails in protest to me performing. Here’s one of them. This is my hometown. So disappointing.”

Here’s the image of the letter, in which a critic complains, anonymously that the group is “divisive” and that Campeau is a “racist hypocrite” who wears a “racist t-shirt”:

A letter calling for a boycott of Westfest over A Tribe Called Red’s “racism.”

We’ve seen Campeau in a few different ironic t-shirts over the years, but the one that this individual is referring to is likely the “Caucasians” design (sold by Shelf Life Clothing), featuring a white version of the Cleveland Indians’ controversial Chief Wahoo mascot. Campeau wears the shirt in some frequently-used publicity photos: