This morning a writer from Refinery 29, Lauren Le Vine, emailed us for a comment on Nicki Minaj’s apology. (We also heard from a couple of readers wanting us to tackle it.) You see, Ms. Minaj had released a video filled with Nazi imagery. There was, predictably, distress about this. So strap on your Flammenwerfer 41 and straighten your Wehrmachtsadler, your Hoheitszeichen and your Kragenpatte, because WE’RE GOING IN. MACHT SCHNELL!

Here’s the video:

Here are Minaj’s apology tweets from this AM:

And here’s what I told Lauren:

A good apology has to 1. Take responsibility for one’s actions, 2. Acknowledge the impact of one’s actions 3. Explain how and why the offense won’t be repeated and 4. Offer reparations. Minaj does none of those things. (And she gets bonus points for, essentially, “some of my best friends are Jewish.”) (Extra special bonus points for releasing the video on the anniversary of Kristallnacht.)

Minaj also does the dreaded “sorry if.” (It’s not a question of “if” the video offended anyone! It did! A good apology says “sorry that,” never “sorry if.” The word “if” is the Zyklon B of apologies.

Twitter’s 140-character limit makes the contrast of “I’m not responsible” [because she “didn’t come up with the concept”] and “I take full responsibility” [because, uh? why? if you were a passive player in this drama?] particularly stark and ironic.

Were we playing Bad Apology Bingo, I’d say she hits the “misconstrued,” “vagueness,” “sorry if,” “it was not my intent,” “my black/lady/gay friend was not upset” (I’m gonna EXTRAPOLATE that we can count “Jewish” in that roundup), “mistakes were made,” and “sorry you misunderstood” squares. This is not quite a full Bingo, but close.

Finally, on an artistic level, her explanation sucks. Sin City‘s look is classic noir. Metalocalypse is a parody of heavy metal culture. These comics emphatically do not explain the swastika-like symbols, the SS-style uniforms, and the imagery of the stage with long hanging red curtains featuring the swastika-esque logo and an audience of soldiers that is CLEARLY influenced by Triumph of the Will and old Nazi newsreels.

So her apology fails on every level. Her aforementioned house Jew, Alex Loucas (also her reputed boyfriend) has thus far remained silent, but the video’s director has spoken up, and he is very clear: 1. This is a deliberate use of Nazi imagery and 2. He’s not sorry.

Director Jeffrey Osborne said, in a statement on MySpace (MYSPACE??), after first clarifying that he’s speaking only for himself and not the artists in the video:

I’m not apologizing for my work, nor will I dodge the immediate question. The flags, armbands, and gas mask (and perhaps my use of symmetry?) are all representative of Nazism.

But a majority of the recognizable models/symbols are American: MQ9 Reaper Drone, F22 Raptor, Sidewinder missile, security cameras, M60, SWAT uniform, General’s uniform, the Supreme court, and the Lincoln Memorial. What’s also American is the 1^st Amendment, which I’ve unexpectedly succeeded in showing how we willfully squeeze ourselves out of that right every day.

Despite the fact heavy religious and economic themes were glossed over, there’s also Russian T-90 tanks, Belgian FN FAL, German mp5 (not manufactured until 1966), an Italian Ferrari, and a Vatican Pope.

As far as an explanation, I think its actually important to remind younger generations of atrocities that occurred in the past as a way to prevent them from happening in the future.  And the most effective way of connecting with people today is through social media and pop culture. So if my work is misinterpreted because it’s not a sappy tearjerker, sorry I’m not sorry. What else is trending?

The boldface is his.

Well, claiming there’s also NON-Nazi imagery in the video is just stupid. This is like saying your Ray Rice and his unconscious girlfriend blackface Halloween costume is not so bad because you’re wearing an American-made jersey that is iconic of the great game of football and Italian sneakers that symbolize postwar European Union harmony and also the blackface makeup was made in China and you love Egg Foo Yong.

However, he’s right about the First Amendment. He’s entitled to make an offensive, hurtful video, and Mazel Tov to him for succeeding. There is a whiff of “I AM BEING CENSORED HERE” in his invocation of the First Amendment, of course, a whiff that many aggrieved individuals carry the stank of after being accused of creating glib, tacky, historically oblivious, racist, homophobic or anti-Semitic work. I would hope that people will vote with their pocketbooks, since capitalism is another nice thing about America.

Further, it is weird to say “but there’s all this NON-NAZI imagery in my video too” and then follow it up with a noble statement about how you’re reminding people of history so that they’re not condemned to repeat it. (Maybe remind Nicki Minaj? She seems not to have gotten your memo.) Pretty sure no one is expecting a “sappy tearjerker” from Nicki “lookin’ ass niggas”/Anaconda tuchus Minaj, so no worries on that front.

But you know what? If Osborne is not sorry, he shouldn’t apologize. No apology is better than an insincere one, especially if he wants to stick to his M60s on this. “What else is trending?” is, of course, a douchey question — “hey, you haters are gonna be distracted by something else in a few minutes” — but he’s also right. Welcome to the fireworks-like nature of Internet outrage. (And this is why we try to point out good apologies as well as bad ones on SorryWatch. It’s exhausting to be furious and distractible all the time.)

PS. I am SAD that I don’t know Photoshop because I would have taken this photo and made it spell BOO NAZIS.