Music in Motion Rocks

"The only truth is music." ~ Jack Kerouac

Editorial

OPINION – Stomp Out Racism In Music

Love Music Hate Racism (Image credit: KnotyknoH)

Ed. ~ We believe in stimulating your thoughts and provoking civil discourse.
At the same time, we deplore racism in any form and do not condone violence as a means to an end.

Make America Great Again.

Yeah, because it was so great when we invaded it and killed a bunch of indigenous people so that we could have their land, and to this day still defend it with a, “Hyuck hyuck, well… finder’s keepers.” Yeah, okay Billy Bob.

Or how about when we enslaved another race simply for their skin color, yet I still hear people say, “Black people are so lazy.” This coming from the people that literally forced African Americans to do their work for them. Got it.

How about when women had no rights? Why you ask? Because big man strong. Big man more powerful than woman. *Belligerent screaming about a razor company telling men not to be bullies, sexual predators and assholes.*

The World I Knew (courtesy of TWIK)

Unfortunately, the biggest problem in our country is racism, and there are those that will argue until they’re blue in the face that it doesn’t exist. Right, okay. Do you see who you have in office? The president is trying to build a wall to keep immigrants who want a new life out of this country, all while ‘science says’ millennials aren’t having enough babies to make up the population.

The argument is that immigration would bring more crime, but most of the crimes are already happening here with our ‘natives.’ Are you not worried about that crime? Do you really have your heads that far up your ass?

Which brings us to racism and music hitting close to home.

Racism is alive and booming in the music scene. If you know who Jared Saleski is (former member of Cincinnati trap-metal band The World I Knew), he’s pretty much the poster child of this whole thing in Ohio. From messaging band members on their social media pages and calling them the ‘N’ word to creating fake Facebook profiles to attack people that call him out, this dude is a real tragedy.

I’m not sure what went wrong in his life to make him such a hateful person, but I don’t feel bad for him. Not one tiny bit. He crossed the line with his racist bullshit. Wesley Merritt of The World I Knew was the victim of Saleski’s racial slur, posting proof of the slur. He went on to express how sick he was of racism, and to this day his post has over 400 reactions, 1,000 comments and almost 200 shares. Way to shed light on this idiot, Wesley!

On top of that, I just came back from a Facebook ban for calling out another racist, Samir Laarej of In Dying Lights, who referred to our former president as ‘blacky’ and showed his love of our oh-so-great racist, sexist, cheeto-orange president by cheering for a wall. Let me just note here that I reached out to the band and was ignored. However, I’m assuming Laarej controls the page, so I’m not going to say they’re all racist at this point.

There’s so much poverty in our country, homeless people can’t even sleep on benches without the city putting spikes on it, children aren’t being kept off the streets and the future is looking pretty bleak for our youth… yet here we are, screaming bloody murder from the comfort of our homes with a diet soft drink in hand, all while we show the world just how privileged some of us are.

Just to clear the air, for some of those a bit more ignorant, white privilege doesn’t mean you’re rich. It means you don’t have to worry about being shot, harassed, bullied or killed just for your skin color. It means you are WHITE.

As a biracial girl that grew up hearing my white dad call my black mom a stupid  ‘N’ word when he was mad at her, I can clarify that white privilege DOES exist. I mean, I’m pretty white passing and have NEVER personally experienced any form of racism.

People like Jared Saleski and Samir Laarej need to be FLUSHED out of the scene. We all need to stand together to condemn this kind of hate. There is no room for them, or any sort of bigot in our world. I know some of you think we should ‘stay in our lane’, but playing the role of Switzerland isn’t going to help it.

Feverwar
Image credit:
@whosrosstheisen / @jmemerick

You can choose to believe that being vocal about it won’t help. But that just shows how comfortable and ignorant you are. Here’s a thought; How about you stay in your lane and let us do the fighting? Mind ya business, you fucking dingus.

We need to make racists SCARED again. Let’s start with our own music community. Upon seeing the screenshot of Saleski’s derogatory racial slur, I found a few heroes that put their foot down to stomp out racism.

“Some dogs should be kept on a short leash. Others need put down.” Ed. ~ the source who stated this did not want their name used in this article.

Nicholous Thomas of Feverwar, a very unique and talented Ohio rock band, also made it a point to call out Saleski for his wrong-doings. Even some employees from BravoArtist (Ohio-based concert booking and promotions company) made it known they’d stomp bigots out. We need to work together to keep this sort of ignorance out of the scene.

It’s 2019 and people are still dumb enough to hate other people for the color of their skin. If they’re never going to grow up and get over themselves, it’s our jobs to just make them scared. Nobody deserves to be mistreated because they aren’t white.

To the people saying those standing up against racism in the scene are ‘sensitive pussies’, I feel really bad for you. I mean, I’d hate to be that stupid and edgy. Yikes.

Think what you will about my dragging, if you’re not going to do it, I will. I will continue to drag people like this until they are silenced. I’ll do it until they can’t even step into the light of day without being afraid. Music is important to me, and I’ll do whatever it takes to keep the scene full of love, not hate. We are NOT a white-washed community, and we’re all supposed to stick together.

To those of you who say ‘Violence isn’t the answer’, that’s fine, you’re allowed to believe whatever you want, but I’m gonna do my own thing. Drag them. Throw their names out. Stomp out racism in our scene and everywhere else. There’s no room for bigots anymore.

I’m the one you love to hate, signing out.

The World I Knew – Pieceful

2 Comments

  1. Fantastic article.

  2. Jim

    Hear! Hear! While I keep my music non-political, my personal life is all about destroying racism and all other forms of bigotry. I am Caucasian. In 2010, my wife and I adopted a six-year-old boy who is Biracial. I love him dearly and work towards a future where his skin color (and disabilities) do not matter.

Leave a Reply to Jim Cancel reply

Theme by Anders Norén

%d bloggers like this: