When Julian Casablancas compared American Zionists to Black people living under slavery on SubwayTakes, the backlash centred on one explosive sentence. It was, in my view, a historically clumsy and rhetorically damaging analogy.
But was that sentence the whole story?
In this episode of The Last Mixed Tape, I trace the wider context behind the controversy—from The Strokes’ politically charged Coachella performance and Casablancas’ Oxford Union address to the ongoing realities of Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
This is not a defence of Julian Casablancas. Nor is it an argument that public figures should be immune from criticism.
Instead, it’s an exploration of what happens when a bad analogy becomes more famous than the reality it was trying to describe.
Along the way, I examine how viral media shapes political speech, why historical comparisons can obscure rather than clarify suffering, and why conversations about Gaza, settlements and displacement deserve to stand on their own terms.
QThe Last Mixed Tape is hosted by Stephen White, and is also available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
The Last Mixed Tape 
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