Music legend Bob Dylan is facing legal trouble in France over a year-old interview he gave with Rolling Stone. Dylan has been charged with “incitement to hatred” for statements he made in the magazine’s Sept. 27, 2012 issue, where he compared Croatians to Nazis.
In the interview with Rolling Stone, Dylan stated that racism is holding America back.
“Blacks know that some whites didn’t want to give up slavery — that if they had their way, they would still be under the yoke, and they can’t pretend they don’t know that,” Dylan was quoted in the Sept, 27 2012 issue. “If you got a slave master or Klan in your blood, blacks can sense that. That stuff lingers to this day. Just like Jews can sense Nazi blood and the Serbs can sense Croatian blood.”
A formal investigation was conducted after the Council of Croat Institutions of France (CRICCF) claimed the comments published in the French issue of Rolling Stone violated French racial hatred laws. The CRICCF released a statement saying, “We have nothing against Rolling Stone magazine or Bob Dylan as a singer. [But] you cannot equate Croatian [war] criminals with all Croats.”
Just last month, Bob Dylan was awarded France’s Legion d’Honneur, the nation’s highest cultural award, for serving as an inspiration to young people.
If convicted on the charges, Bob Dylan faces up to a year in prison.
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