Accountability in Music • Page 33

I think this is a very complete assessment and very close to what I feel. While I believe in restorative justice and I feel like his community did an amazing job, in the current climate, in a context when unaccounted and un-rehabilitated abusers are on festival lineups everywhere, I feel like it's in bad taste to have someone play whose rehabilitation, even if genuine, is so recent.

I really wish we could just switch to restorative justice like that but we need a transition. What does this look like to all these abusers who are right now "staying away" to let the dust settle and will come back in a year pretexting having changed when all they did was write a new ep in their bedroom? There can't be two radically different systems functioning at the same time in the same place. It just looks like a double standard and creates loopholes for non-rehabbed abusers to return to their platforms. Especially since we are still fighting to get abusers down from their platforms at all! to even get an apology from 99% of them! This is a problem of context and climate. This isn't the time. It's good-intentioned, but as it was said before, reintegration into the community =/= giving an ex abuser their platform back.

 

Also in the context where apparently half the "woke" scene thinks "restorative justice" is compatible with never apologising at all, or refusing to address your victims when they try to contact you or letting people wage hate campaigns against them... who think that "restorative justice" means screaming "I CHANGED! I CHANGED! I CHANGED!!!" real loud over and over again....... I don't think I trust anyone to be properly rehabilitated.

 

I think while I would generally agree with the idea that abusers shouldn’t be given their platform back, I would push back here given that the survivor specifically said she hopes Malcolm uses his platform in order to educate about sexual violence and toxic masculinity. In a true showing that he understands, he even said in one of the Facebook comments that this is “your space” and that he’ll step away if enough people want him to.

I definitely understand the discomfort around this, especially because they could have booked a thousand dudes who haven’t abused someone. But if the activist community who originally cast him out has let him back in, and the survivor believes he has earned that platform back, I don’t think Bled is necessarily wrong to give that to him either

All of that said, a ton of survivors and also someone I’ve watched gaslight and abuse several people oops are pointing out that they feel uncomfortable about this on the Facebook and I think given that, it might be best for both Malcolm and Bled to walk this back

 

I completely get and sympathize with every survivor that feels unsafe at his inclusion. I also feel like, with the whole restorative justice process he's undergone as well as his victim's comments re: that process, that removing him from the lineup is kinda sending the message that redemption is impossible, which I don't really subscribe to. It discourages abusers from holding themselves accountable for their actions if their career is more or less over if they do so. By accountable I don't mean firing off some faux-Jesse Lacey non apology to try and salvage their image/career, but something more along the lines of what Malcolm has supposedly done.

I also don't think we would (or should) have this conversation if this was the singer of some 4 piece white dude emo band, but Malcolm is, so far, one of the only activists and one of the only POC on the lineup, and what he talks about in most of his work is important for Bled Fest's usual demographic to hear

idk, again there was really no good way to do this. I feel like I would have leaned towards leaving him off, as the opinions of sexual assault survivors at the fest would have mattered more to me personally than whether or not people think Malcolm should be "allowed" to have a career again. The only real way to deal with it would have been to just not have booked him at all, but I believe them when they said they didn't know.

 

True, but consider that this extremely doesn't apply to this particular situation. This situation was a group of black folks, entirely outside of this scene, understanding that the criminal justice situation would hurt both the victim and the perpetrator and found a solution that worked for them

 

lots of super great discussion here today, nothing to add but thank you everyone for sharing all your informative posts. You all teach me a ton

 

There’s like one or two people on these FB threads that keep pushing for Foxing to get thrown off as well

 

then those people obviously have no fucking clue what they're talking about

 

Oh, completely, but I thought I'd made it clear I was not talking about this activist group, who are both progressive and hyperaware and who clearly have it together and are active contributors to the movement of restorative justice. I was talking about the general audience of Bled Fest and their scene connections, who are very much not that. It's two different worlds : one of people whose communities are constantly hurt and victimised by the criminal justice system and who are systematically overtargetted and overpunished by it, and one of privilege, unaccountability and power. Sorry for the mixup.

 

The new Camp Cope record is streaming, and there are lyrics all over it regarding accountability in the music scene, especially the first track. It also happens to be one of the best records to come out in the last few years. No hyperbole.

First Listen: Camp Cope, 'How To Socialise & Make Friends'

 

I hadn't seen anything about this until this post:



Edit: I guess this is about the previous allegations of the nude photos and what not?

 

interesting

 

Reading the comments on that reminded me how much I hate your stereotypical, white pop-punk bro.

 

yes, this is the allegation that also came out at the time of the first when they kicked the first dude out, that they ignored until now

 

Bummed that Lydia is touring with them.

 

RE: Moose Blood

We do not propose to comment further at this stage.

Whoever is writing their statements is bad at writing.

 

“Yeah so like we thought she was gonna shut up but she’s not so we’re just gonna sue.”

Fuck these guys.

 

judging by the fact that this couldn't be resolved privately/without a lawsuit AND the creepiness of their lyrics, i find it really really hard to trust these dudes. i hope the victim gets the justice they deserve

 

Phone records should make it fairly easy to establish either sides story, no? Or is that different via WhatsApp

 

she also isn't backing down even when said the accusations are false? which leads me to believe that she's 100% truthful here, there'd be no reason to push on when you're in the harder situation if you were making false accusations. not that she ever was, of course

 

That Moose Blood thread in the article section is giving me an aneurysm. It's like the dude is proud of how dumb he is.

 

He clearly doesn’t want to listen to logic so I gave up on replying to that thread, but I did still read the latest posts only because I’m astounded anyone can be that self righteous while calling others self righteous at the same time. Truly a feat.