Following the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile at the hands of police, as well as the killing of five Dallas police officers last week, entertainers have been weighing in on these tragedies with various takes from all sides of the aisle. The latest musician to talk on the subject is Slipknot and Stone Sour frontman Corey Taylor, who gave his two cents on the Blacks Lives Matter Vs. All Lives Matter topic.
In a statement released via a Facebook video for The You Rock Foundation, Taylor gave some complex thoughts on the subject.
Taylor called for unity, and asked us to come together and ignore anyone who is trying to be divisive:
“It has been kind of crazy lately. And some of the voices that are out there are saying one thing, trying to pull us apart, splitting hairs and taking various unifying messages and ripping them to shreds beneath the minutiae of just pretentious ignorance.”
He continued by stressing the point that one could support the Black Lives Matter cause, while still supporting cops and still being horrified by what happened to the officers in Dallas:
“To me, it’s very simple. We all matter. There’s a time and a place to talk about things like that. However, we are seeing that our black friends… You know, there’s a lot of violence going against them. So what we need to do, we need to do, is band together with them and say, yes, black lives do matter, because we all matter. And to fight for those black lives does not mean that you’re saying anything against anybody else. You can back up ‘black lives matter’ and say that cops’ lives matter; it’s all the same thing. And you can have those different ideas in the same thought, and there’s nothing wrong with that, because we do all matter.
The thing that I’ve realized is that if music can bring us all together and get us all to care about one another and tear down those color lines, those personality lines, those lines that try to keep us different, if music can rip all of that down, then we can all band together and say, ‘Well, if music can bring us together, maybe life in itself is the best way to bring us all together and keep us there.’”
Taylor’s thoughts near the end there may sound idealistic to say the least, but even if the power of music won’t immediately solve every problem, he’s still headed in the right direction on this difficult topic. And if some wicked metal riffs can help us shed those lines that divide us for just a little while, that’s certainly not a bad thing.
(Via NME)
