Getting real about RACISM in metal (Tank The Tech)

Tank The Tech joins to talk about racism in metal.
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[thatguyreiji]

Black dude who loves metal here... My journey started with nu metal as it was easy to fall in love with...Discovering Linkin Park, Limp Bizkit, Deftones, Korn and Slipknot(Yes I consider Corey Taylor a rapper)😂😂 Jokes aside... In my opinion I feel a lot of black people were drawn to this side of metal... I'm from Africa so never got to experience any of the scenes considering geographical limitations, but I digress. Guess worst experience was going to a music show and being side eyed as the only black guy...Got palpable the way you could feel people stare at you like an outsider. But it goes both ways, when people in my own race ask me why I'm trying to be white( just cause I like a genre that is "white" for a lack of better words) I hope we can accommodate people more or just be open minded...But with bands like Sevendust, Animals as leaders, one hopes the involvement of people outside of the "normal race" associated with metal. Would open people's mind that metal or music itself shouldn't be race specific.🤔 Hope I made sense if any.

[hildestroyer]

I heard a quote from another Youtuber the other week on racism in metal, along the lines of 'you can't separate the art from the artist when they're not even doing that themselves', I haven't heard a statement that accurate in a long time.

[greenmatrixseven]

as a black dude who loves metal...I agree w/ all of this. To echo what Finn said...” if it looks walks quacks like a duck then it is a duck”. We cannot keep making these prefabricated pathetic sorry excuses for this.

[theexpert]

Im 45 y/o interracial man who loves east coast hiphop BUT loves metal. Back when I was a teenager metal ruled airwaves, so I grew up listening to metal. And it sucks that things have to be this way at this day and age. Especially when I have so much respect for metal musicians. It actually hurts to the core to know that people feel like they do. Great video thanks guys

[roclenoir]

Being the only black guy at a metal concert only scared me once .... Marilyn Manson show 😅🤣😅 felt like that guy ending up in that rave with a bunch of vamps in the first Blade movie !!! #thebeatifulpeople

[naveedahmedny]

South Asian here, used to front a post hardcore band. Constantly feeling otherized by the scene, my own bandmates, etc ate away at me for years and gradually made me step away from the scene as a whole. Especially as the band grew outside of New York. I still have a lot of love for heavy music, but the culture/scene around it has a lot of work to do. I’m glad there’s more discussion around racism in the scene now

[skylarsaenz]

Thank you both for what you said about "separating the art from the artist". Life's too short not to spend it listening to one of the great metal bands who didn't call a black person the n word to his face or sieg heil on stage. There's plenty of them out there. People who call that cancel culture should have to explain why artists are entitled to my time, money, and attention, even after I stopped liking them. At the end of the day, the question is, "what do you want metal to be? Are you okay with metalheads having even so much as the perception of harboring racist, sexist, and homophobic views?" If the answer is yes, then the metal community deserves to have the world pass them by.

[TheBassicBassist]

I believe in separating the art from the artist. I don't believe in giving the artist a pass because I like their art. What someone creates becomes mine when I experience it. What someone is, that's all them.

[summeronio]

As a black man, we all knew not to go to Pantera shows

[jacobprice]

The thing about Tim Lambesis. I never listened to As I Lay Dying. They may be good or whatever. It's important to ask if if he's learned anything? Or more importantly, if he's doing something positive. I happen to be casual friends with Sammy from Fang. Dude killed his girlfriend while messed up on drugs. I do believe that he should have gotten life (or even death). For what he did, but he didn't. I do know that since he has been out of prison, he sponsors at least a dozen people in AA, and has personally opened halfway houses to prevent people from making stupid mistakes. When Fang does play, they don't play any of their old songs that promote drug use or anything like that. The point is that he realizes he got a new lease on life and does his best to affect the world in a positive way. Pantera has an enormous fan base. That being so, Phil has an enormous responsibility to not do racist crap, even if he is Joking. If you have millions of fans and do something that promotes negativity, hundreds of them are going to take it to heart

[jevinday]

Literally whenever I'm in an Uber or something and someone asks me if I want to listen to anything in particular I say "I don't really care, as long as it isn't Nazi metal". I think racism is the worst in the metal scene. Like you said, imagine having a pop artist use the n word with a hard casually at a show and just be racist as hell. They would be broke in a week.

[rinehardt]

I have to say at 55 years old I thought this would have a long been a thing of the past. As someone who is a black American, I grew up on Michael Jackson, prince all the great R&B bands Commodores, when I got in the high school a friend of mine, introduced me to Def Leppard An I fell in love with this genre. Next came Motley Crue, and a lot of big bands of the era. I think of thing that I always annoyed because people consistently assume you don't listen to R&B or rap music anymore just because you like metal most of my friends who were black someone didn't understand it, but they never gave me a hard time about it. AndI can say I was lucky because I used to go to a rock club all the time and I didn't know the owner and I never had a problem and a lot of times I would be the only black guy there. I think the worst thing that ever happened to me was a guy at a Bon Jovi concert was giving me a side eye for a second. i've been to see Korn five times never had a problem, but I'm not naïve. I do realize these things happen. I am a big fan of five finger Death Punch, but that show nothing all good. but I know every year they introduced the rock 'n' roll Hall of Fame nominees. If there is a rapper in it, people are gonna lose their shit. But it's funny how people really didn't get that upset when the beastie boys or Eminem got inducted. I think the beastie boys are one of the greatest rap groups of all time and Eminem's incredible. But there are tons of artists like Joan Baez James Taylor are they rock really easy listening as I said it 55 I thought we would be long pass worrying about race in different kinds of music. Sad to see it's still a thing.

[GodsonLXV]

Doug Pinnick plays bass and sings in King’s X. He was at Dimebash. He’s also black. And came out as gay back in 1998. We called him to ask about the interaction he had with Anselmo before Phil went onstage: “Yeah, Phil kissed me, ” Pinnick laughs. “I walked backstage and he got up, hugged me as hard as he could and whispered in my ear, ‘You are the greatest human being I’ve ever known.’ That’s just how he is. He’s over the top about everything. I love that guy.”

Not that Pinnick condones Anselmo’s actions onstage that night. “He shouldn’t have done it. I can’t stick up for what he said. I think he was trying to be funny and controversial, but he doesn’t have a racist bone in his body. I know people say, ‘How can you do something like that as a joke?’ But you gotta know Phil and his sarcasm. He got shit on for it, and rightfully so, but the backlash he got was a little bit over the top, I think. These people that are saying all these horrible things about him, they don’t know him. He’s branded a racist forever now, probably. That’ll be part of his résumé. But I hope he can recover from it and continue making music.”

[kennethmartinez]

First off, I see that you guys have your heart in the right place with this topic. But finn you sound a little clueless saying that there is "no room" for this in pop music. It's not that racism, homophobia or sexism doesn't exist it that realm, it's just simply hidden. The mainstream is all about looking sweaky clean but it's no better. That's the same for society in general. We assume that racism is minimal but it's everywhere, its deep rooted. It's just disguised and subversive. As far separating the artist from the art, people think that they are doing a good thing by ceasing to support an artist for their beliefs or things they have said but let's face it, if we stopped supporting every artist that had fucked up beliefs or said fucked up shit, we wouldn't be listening to anything because everyone is fucked up, some are just better at hiding it then others or just havnt gotten caught yet. You mentioned 2 metal bands, pantera and AILD. you stopped listening to them, so what?! The metal world is full off white dudes from the south and mid west who only play in bands with other white dudes and perform for other white dudes..you really think those 2 are the only ones?? Come on now..if you really mean what you say then be prepared to stop listening to literally 98% of metal and hardcore. At the end of the day people just wanna listen to what they want to listen to. The conviction is paper thin...Micheal Jackson is all but a convicted pedophile but it doesn't stop people from listening to Billie jean does it?

[At.mos.fEarProduktionz]

The moment I saw Phil say white power....haven't heard them since. I cannot separate the artist from the art.

[CONTROVERSY]

BLACK DUDE HERE THAT LOVES METAL, KORN, TOOL, METALLICA,

[mikkokorperich]

"You can't be anti-woman in the pop world." What about all those misogynistic rappers? And I must add that I'm a fan of rap music, been listening to it since the early 90's and I know many artists have stood up against the misogyny in the scene, but still... Anyway, great video again with very good points!

[jofuskee]

I agree on this topic but question, when do you give the grace to them for being dumb in their past as well? You both said it yourselves that you said things in your past. Does that make all the material you’ve created tainted bc of the admittance since it wasn’t recorded or does the admittance relinquish the responsibility of using that language?

[AlphaNumeric]

“Imagine racism or hating women in mainstream popular music—it can’t exist” bro what? Have you heard how much misogyny is in rap and hip hop? Or insane amounts of homophobia? You’ve said before that rap is clearly the mainstream, so there’s no disputing that part. Racism in rap isn’t as prevalent but it’s clearly there, usually only in brief bars about how dorky Asians or white people are. The over the top misogyny in rap is undeniable though, what a low-wattage idea Finn

[evacody]

Finn: I know let me talk about how metal has a racism and sexism problem.

2023 uh yeah sure Finn.