Are They Making A Statement About Interracial Dating Back In The 1960′s? Lana Del Rey “National Anthem” Visual Starring A$AP Rocky

In the age of Obama we still don’t live in a post racial society. The idea of a post-racial society in which race is no longer significant or important is still a dream for most of us. In today’s society, racism still exists in forms ranging from racial discrimination and hatred to dating, sex, and job equality. For about the past five decades, music has been a way to break racial barriers. A visual can be interpreted in so many ways. I love when an artist uses their creative ideas to film a visual.

Singer Lana Del Rey fired up the Internet, yesterday, Wednesday (June 27) when she released her “National Anthem” visual starring A$AP Rocky. According to Necole Bitchie, “In the video, Lana takes on the role as JFK’s mistress Marilyn Monroe who sings ‘Happy Birthday’ to the president. As the video continues, she plays Jackie O, while A$AP takes on the role as a modern-day John F. Kennedy. The 7 minute video details their time together all the way up until that fateful day in Dallas when JFK was shot.”

After reviewing this visual a few times, it is my opinion that they are trying to make a statement about interracial dating and how it made people uncomfortable and was indeed controversial during that. What most may not know is that certain jurisdictions, including the United States banned interracial marriage prior to a 1967 Supreme Court decision that deemed anti- miscegenation laws unconstitutional. After the Supreme Court decision, many states legalized interracial marriage in the United States. Watch the visual below and tell me what you think about it.

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NEXT PAGE: A$AP ROCKY DISCUSSES HIS ROLE IN THE VISUAL

In a recent interview with Noisey, A$AP Rocky discusses his role in the visual and how it came about.

I love it, yeah. I think you make a great JFK. How did it come about?
Lana wrote the treatment with me in mind. She wanted me to be the lead guy. Shit is like, everybody knows we got a thing for each other and we wanted to show that on screen. She’s a genius like…. nigga look at this bitch, I wanna fuck the shit outta her. Look at her she’s gotta be in her late 30s and shit… Err, Hello?

Haha. You’re not talking about Lana Del Rey there I take it…
Hahahaha nah, nah, nah. Nah, I was caught in the moment man; you know me Andy, cut it out man.

Yeah I was like, “Wow, this is very forward of him.”
Nah she wanted me to be the main guy and she wrote the treatment herself and came up with all the ideas. She came you with all that shit herself. And this guy Andy, nah, Anthony, what’s this nigga’s name…. Anthony Mandler shot it with some old cameras and shit to get the 1960s look and they had a set of extras. They had so many extras there, Interscope paid so much fucking money for this video that it’s not even true.

I tell you man, on set, I never did any kind of shit like this before with this much people involved and nothing like that so when I came on set with everybody dressed like they in the 60s and shit I really thought I was in the 60s. I’m serious. All joking aside – it was so realistic, I’m like DAMN.

Yeah.
And so I got in character like, “Fuck that like, I’m gonna be the black, trill JFK.” But basically I was just me, I don’t really think I did JFK no justice, (laughs). I was just me and it was like, “what if JFK met A$AP Rocky?” And that’s what you got. She looked like Jackie O, and I was kissing the shit out of her all day and shit.