Tommy Vext Clarifies His Comments on Racism in Instagram Video
In the video above BAD WOLVES frontman Tommy Vext shares his views on the current state of the “Black Lives Matter” movement and what he believes is actually happening behind the scenes, along with his thoughts on racism and whether it exists.
In a 6 minute video posted on Instagram (which has now been deleted but nothing is gone from the internet), Vext says “You have antifa who is paid for by George Soros,” “These are highly trained, professional rioters and escalators. So they move in and disperse throughout all the different riots, right? And then The Clinton Foundation pumps money into promoting this stuff on social media.”
“The same people who instigate the event, organize the protest and escalate the protest make money off the African-American community’s outrage and further deplete the morality of the United States.”
But what surprised people most is when he said “There’s a huge fucking problem going on where we have turned into citizens policing other citizens over a veil of racism that doesn’t exist. I’m African American, I’m 38-years-old. I’ve grown up in this country and I have not experienced actual racism. I’ve spent twenty years traveling through 48 states and, how many countries? I don’t know, lets say 50 countries all over the world. We don’t have a problem with race here. It’s all manufactured…”
Many fans were in shock and some even reached out to band mate, Doc Coyle, who is also black. Doc made it clear he did not agree with Vext saying “Let’s just say we don’t see eye to eye on this one.”
Iet’s just say we don’t see eye to eye on this one.
— Doc Coyle (@DocCoyle) June 9, 2020
Tommy has since taken to Facebook to clarify his statements.
Vext has also posted a statement, saying the video was “a diagram of a theoretical scenario that was explained to me which has been widely misunderstood as my beliefs and opinion.”
Here is his full statement:
“Conspiracy Theory by definition is “an idea that some covert but influential organization is responsible for a circumstance or event” on Monday I shared a diagram of a theoretical scenario that was explained to me which has been widely misunderstood as my beliefs and opinion.
As per usual people failed to read the disclaimer that “I am in no way a political scientist or sociologist and have no authority on the subject. And that I am not claiming anything I expressed as truth.”
Predictably certain media outlets misquoted and misrepresented my inquiries as opinions and lambasted me to serve their own purposes making the video go viral.
Much like Drew Breeze I never imagined offending anyone one as I stated the disclaimer “I’m not a professional I just found this on the internet isn’t it interesting”
After several conversations with fellow artist/ thought leaders in the African American community I can see the insensitive timing of sharing such theories.
And As I DID STATE in the video systemic racism IS indeed a very real pandemic that effects the judicial, economic, healthcare, housing & education systems in underserved black communities. However my personal experience of White Americans and “white culture” over the past 20 years has not been one of hateful bigotry but unilateral acceptance. Maybe thats just “Heavy Metal Privilege” as our music community has a long history of condemning racism & fascism.
I know It has been very hard time for everyone in this country. I spent my own time with thousands of volunteers cleaning up after the riots. We all can see across the globe that things are wrong but we are all struggling to make sense of it. It’s probably time to turn our attention to our families, our friends and communities so we can rebuild ourselves and get back on with our normal lives again.
Love you all and can’t wait to see you when concerts start up again and may God Bless you and keep you till then ~ T”
