Gorilla Biscuits Frontman is Taking Shit For ‘Black Lives Matter’ Non-Controversy

Black Lives Matter has become such a hot-button issue this year that it has crept into the metal scene. It’s supported by Corey Taylor, Robb Flynn, and ourselves, and disliked by a band too dumb to know their home state wasn’t part of the Confederacy.

One response to the Black Lives Matter movement is people hoisting the motto ‘All Lives Matter,’ which portrays BLM as the exclusionary and heartless party. It’s a gross attempt to discredit an important message; sure, all lives matter, but all lives aren’t being profiled and ended by the police. Black Lives Matter exists because until now black people were being shown that their lives don’t matter (also, I have never heard someone sincerely use the phrase ‘All Lives Matter’ who I believed actually thought that all lives were important — it’s just some Thank You For Smoking-style discrediting of something that makes you uncomfortable).

Anyway, what does this have to do with hardcore forefathers Gorilla Biscuits? Well, at this year’s This Is Hardcore fest, frontman Anthony ‘Civ’ Civarelli said the following:

“In 2016, people still have to wear shirts that say ‘Black Lives Matter.’ No shit. Brown, white, yellow, black, we all fucking matter. Everybody here matters. Do not let the media, schools, institutions, influence you. We are one family, one people.”

Apparently, Civarelli pissed off a lot of punk rockers, who have come out declaring the band racist. Which, given how vocally anti-racist the Gorilla Biscuits are, feels a little silly.

In explanation, Civarelli posted the following to his Facebook:

So, look, whether or not Civarelli’s post is just a way of covering his ass or not, this doesn’t feel like that big a deal. And before some of our more vitriolic readers swoop in to say, But you condemned Mushroomhead for blah blah blah, fucking HYPOCRITES, let me be clear, Civarelli missed the point of the Black Lives Matter movement entirely, and probably shouldn’t have brought it up at all. It did nothing for him, really.

But tone and context are everything, and it doesn’t sound like Civarelli hates BLM as a movement. Notice how he says, “people still have to wear shirts that say Black Lives Matter”? He’s pointing out that it’s ridiculous that we live in a world where that slogan exists, where the message of Black Lives Matter needs to be an active movement and not a concept we all inherently know. Meanwhile, he ends his speech with, “We are one family, one people.”

So while the dude definitely bungled this opportunity to make a statement, he doesn’t come off as racist, and only the kind of reactionary firestarters who give BLM a bad name would really jump to that hard-lined conclusion.

Watch the video below and judge for yourself.

[via Rock Feed]