David Bowie’s “I’m Afraid of Americans” finds new relevance after Trump’s threats to Canada

By Steve Newton

Ever since U.S. president Donald Trump started making his recent threats against my country’s sovereignty I’ve had the title of an old David Bowie song in the back of my mind.

“I’m Afraid of Americans” isn’t one of my fave Bowie tunes, to be honest. Although I’ll admit that damn near everything Bowie did was brilliant, I personally prefer his music from the ’70s, thanks in no small part to the superlative guitar stylings of the one-and-only Mick Ronson.

So when Bowie released his 1997 Earthlings album, the one with the Brian Eno-cowritten, techno-tinged “I’m Afraid of Americans”, I didn’t rush out and buy it. But today, with all the fear and loathing about how Trump’s greed-driven tariffs and power-mad lust for foreign territory might effect us Canucks, I watched the song’s video on YouTube.

The clip revolves around footage of the ultra-cool-looking Bowie being chased around New York City by a creepy longhaired dude in a Travis Bickle-type army jacket (coproducer Trent Reznor). Of particular note is the constant imagery of individuals in the streets using their fingers to mimic shooting handguns at people’s heads at close range, which happens half a dozen times.

Then there’s the scene around the three-minute mark when Reznor’s character imitates unloading a machine gun at a taxicab, blowing out its tires and windows and blasting it full of holes.

The carnage is shown to exist only in the mind of the rattled visitor played by Bowie, but when you consider the rampant gun violence the U.S. is famous for–where AR-15s are commonly used to massacre schoolkids and innocent shoppers alike–it’s not hard to imagine those crimes actually taking place.

And that’s where the relevance to any potential annexation of Canada by the United States comes into play. One of the things we Canucks have always felt distinguished us from our southern friends and neighbours is our intolerance for gun violence and our laws against the proliferation of automatic weapons. If the NRA-loving Trump were to have his way, his “cherished 51st state” would no doubt become inundated with military-style weapons. It’s the American way, right? Second Amendment and all that shit?

Canadians don’t want that. In fact, we would politely request that you Yanks immediately do something about all the illegal weapons already flooding into Canada, which might be causing more deaths up here than the miniscule amount of fentanyl coming from our side. Don’t make us slap a 50% tariff on your stinkin’ Saturday night specials.