Hi! I was wondering if you could talk some more about the racism in the MCR fandom? I just saw a post about it on my dash, and I'm white and relatively new to the music so I wasn't familiar with it, but I've heard a lot about Lyn-z and I can't really say that it surprises me that Gerard may act like that. Plus, I've read the killjoy comics and noticed it looked like they white-washed The Girl. I guess I just want to know if you have any more opinions on it? Honestly, I just want to make sure I understand it all so I can be better about acknowledging it when it comes up
here are some posts where ive already discussed it: 1 2 3 4
and this post by @godlywitch that covers it very well imo
but to just repeat everything;
gerard way and mcr built their platform on being anti-discrimination. you can see it interviews, shows, they constantly discuss how they wanted their band to provide a safe space for people.
they then went on the become an associated act with mindless self indulgence, a band known for being aggressively discriminatory and offensive, especially towards black people. they're friends with all of the members on that band. the bassist of msi, lyn-z, is married to gerard way. in addition to the things the band has done, she's guilty of race faking and being a generally awful person for a multitude of reasons. the fact that gerard talked so much about being against discrimination and then married someone who was exactly what he claimed to be against calls into question how genuine his activism ever was in the first place.
aside from all that, in june gerard way responded to police brutality and the black lives matter movement by posting a black square on instagram. that was it. it was only after receiving backlash that he made a long post talking about his feelings and how discrimination sucks. the black square and the long post were the only things he has said at all about any of the brutality and discrimination going on. he has not spoken up again since then.
on march 2nd gerard was part of a panel to speak on mental health. he discussed social media and how he stays away from it for the sake of his mental health. he still posts infrequently on instagram, however, to promote his own work. this paired with his ongoing silence on black lives matter prompted some people to start a discussion on his racism. he has the time and energy to post about things that make him money, but not to share one or two posts about police brutality or... literally any kind of discrimination at all. you know, the discrimination he's apparently so against. he also remains friends with and associates himself with dozens of racists and antisemites in the industry. his ongoing friendships with these awful people, again, draws into question how he really feels about discrimination. if he not only will not speak about it, but is perfectly fine being friends with and married to people who perpetuate racism, how anti-racist is he really?
gerard has also had many issues with perpetuating antisemitism himself, but as im not jewish i feel it's not my place to speak on this. you can scroll through some of my recent posts to see other people discussing his antisemitism.
