Anti-Defamation League Accuses Nicki Minaj of Using Nazi Imagery in "Only" Lyric Video

The most shocking thing about Nicki Minaj‘s “Only” hasn’t turned out to be the fact that it features Chris Brown, or that Lil Wayne’s verse is arguably better than Drake’s. It’s the animated lyric video, directed by Jeffrey Osborne and released this weekend, which has been accused of repurposing Nazi imagery. The Anti-Defamation League has gone after Minaj, both for the video itself and for releasing it on the 76th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the “Night of Broken Glass,” which signaled the beginning of the Holocaust, as The Hollywood Reporter points out.

ADL National Director Abraham H. Foxman, who is a Holocaust survivor, issued the following statement:

Nicki Minaj’s new video disturbingly evokes Third Reich propaganda and constitutes a new low for pop culture’s exploitation of Nazi symbolism. The irony should be lost on no one that this video debuted on the 76th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the “night of broken glass” pogrom that signaled the beginning of the Final Solution and the Holocaust.

It is troubling that no one among Minaj’s group of producers, publicists and managers raised a red flag about the use of such imagery before ushering the video into public release.

This video is insensitive to Holocaust survivors and a trivialization of the history of that era. The abuse of Nazi imagery is deeply disturbing and offensive to Jews and all those who can recall the sacrifices Americans and many others had to make as a result of Hitler’s Nazi juggernaut.

Although the clip doesn’t directly depict swastikas, the imagery is evoked on flags and armbands with a similarly styled Young Money logo. Minaj plays a dictator and other military images surround the likenesses of Drake, Lil Wayne, and Chris Brown.

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