Please, Keep Your Politics in Music
Please, Keep Your Politics in Music
A resource more valuable than a black square or empty message, and the dumbest guy I've seen in a while picking the dumbest fight with Tom Morello.
Those of you keeping score at home might have noticed I haven’t published anything for more than a week. I didn’t have anything that I felt like saying or publishing in that time, because everything felt very quaint and unimportant at a time where more important voices needed to be heard. I’m still very aware that my voice is the least important in any room right now, but I wanted to push something out that I think is worthwhile.
The last blog post I did was about the Music Industry Blackout, and how it all felt very, well, worthless to me. We didn’t need someone like Warner Music to post about how they stand up to racism, when we all know that mega-businesses in the entertainment industry are often built on a foundation of exploiting people. We certainly didn’t need to tell people not to buy or stream music from artists who need the money after months of being unable to tour. Plenty of labels and artists did things much more valuable last Tuesday.
And today, a little over a week later, I saw something else that caught my eye, and I wanted to use what tiny platform I have for this blog to boost it out. Maybe someone will tweet it around, too.
It was a tweet from James Cassar, who does artist management (among other jobs) for Rumblepak. It was a link to a resource Rumblepak had put out today called the Anti-Racism Starterpak, designed for music fans/venues/etc. to do more to not only not be racist, but be actively anti-racist. The information came from How to Be Anti-Racist by Ibrahim X. Kende.
Basically, it’s an easily digestible how-to guide to eradicate racism from the music scene, and the community overall. Most importantly, from your own immediate circle. And whether you’re actively going to or hosting shows or just existing in the world, there are valuable lessons to take away from this.
Here’s a link to the full PDF, but I wanted to highlight a few sections that stood out to me.
SPEAK WITH YOUR DOLLARS WHEN THOSE IN POWER SPEAK WITH THEIRS.
“Powerful economic, political, and cultural self-interest...has been behind racist policies.” Package tours are packaged in a way that benefits agents and their rosters. If a commitment to think diverse and think beyond hasn’t been made, the power’s in your hands. Don’t give these spaces your money.
TALKING THE TALK(S) WITH OTHERS
UNPACKING THE ‘NOT RACIST’ DEFENSE
“The only thing wrong with White people is when they embrace racist ideas and policies and then deny their ideas and policies are racist.” When people say they are “not racist,” they’re avoiding the internal work that it takes to be anti-racist. Start slowly with this: ask them to explain their point of view, and then point out where racist abuses have been committed. However well-intentioned this person may be, they need guidance.”
I certainly recommend that you to read the whole thing, and check out some of the other resources laid out by Rumblepak here.
And then, when you’re done doing that, if you want a good laugh today, I recommend going on a dive of Twitter today. Specifically, check out this mush brain who realized today, after almost 30 years of being in Rage Against the Machine, Tom Morello’s politics have gone too far and he needs to keep his politics and beliefs OUT of the music they have been enjoying for so long. The totally non-political music of Rage Against the Machine.
This screams “bot.” But I can’t help but laugh thinking about some chud from wherever-the-fuck going home after a long day at the plant, putting on his slippers and jamming out to “Killing In the Name” as an escape, and then realizing today that Tom Morello et al. have gone too far with their political pageantry.
Actually, turns out it’s not a bot (or at least its handler is responsive. The Detroit Metro Times did some good ol’ investigative journalism.
We asked when exactly he was a fan of Rage Against the Machine — whose searing 1992 debut single "Killing in the Name" takes on police brutality, and whose debut album famously features a photo of a Buddhist monk lighting himself on fire as an act of political protest.
"I understand they've always been political, but it's getting worse and worse and worse," says Castaneda. "That's where I'm trying to get at. The whole thing is to the point where I'm ready to cancel out Facebook, Twitter, everything else. I don't even want to listen to this stuff anymore. So, no, I haven't checked my Twitter account. I rarely go on Twitter."
We advised he check his Twitter. By the time we finished this blog post, Castaneda had made his account private.
It is akin to someone getting mad that Jimmy Buffett is “shoving his tropical lifestyle down our throats” if he appeared in public wearing sandals.
Please, Mr. Buffett. Music is an escape for me and my sanctuary. The last thing I want to hear is another song about getting drunk on a fishing boat with your friends and singing songs together. Enough!
Jokes and fun aside, I’d like to genuinely thank Rumblepak for putting this thoughtful resource together, as well as the countless artists who already have used their platform to say the uncomfortable things people need to hear to make changes, or donated their earnings to worthwhile causes without any fanfare.
I’d also like to thank Tom Morello for finally deciding to use his platform for good and stop trying to evade the tough politics talk. It’s hard when it comes at the expense of alienating your fanbase, but we Profits of Rage fans are so happy you’ve finally made your voice heard.
Today’s Snakes and Sparklers musical guest is Run the Jewels.