Br’er
In response to the unthinkable events in recent days in Charlottesville, Virigina; Br’er’s team of responded with the devastating new single “Diaspora” that draws from leader (and Blight Records boss) Benjamin Schurr’s own identity, heritage & more backed up by beloved bandmates Ben Usie, Erik Sleight & Johnny Fantastic. With all proceeds from this single going to charity for victims of the violence from the hands of white supremacists in Charolttesville—”Diaspora” plunges into the myriad identities of Judaic identity in global terms of understanding that numerous aspects of divisions & the cyclic movements of antisemitism through our world’s perpetuated senseless acts of racism.
“Diaspora” finds Benjamin grappling with his own Judaic heritage in conjunction with histories of both of family & culture and the accompany cycles of persecution & struggle. With inside word & rumor of a new Br’er record which is said to be very heavily focused on Judaism and the current culture of erasure that exists in our eras of openly aired expressions of hatred—Schurr draws attention to something beyond our nation’s fragile polical/cultural/social/economic climate for an executive branch that normalizes & accepts fringe hate groups. The final line of if it’s not me, it will be you is a plea for the disaffected zombie troll masses to get woke toward just causes lest they too become targeted of arbitrary infractions written straight out of a Kafka tale.
“Diaspora” is the song I’ve been trying to write my entire life, antisemitism has a history almost as old as Judaism it’s self and manifests in the subtle and the extreme in American culture. I spent years denying and hiding my culture which I have been coming to terms with since I started writing music as Br’er in 2007. Once the election cycle started and nationalist rhetoric started being thrown around i felt an extreme amount of fear and anger which i had never truly felt so vividly and this song came about in around June of 2016. We performed this song for the first time on the day before the election in DC. I’ll never forget the tone of the show, which was very ominous and and tense yet unifying. This was originally just supposed to be a demo but after the horrifying events in Charlottesville with people chanting “the Jew will not replace us” the band and myself felt compelled to release this version as a charity single.
Br’er’s new single “Diaspora” is available now via BLIGHT. Records.
