While pop culture figures have been giving glowing endorsements of Black Lives Matter, iconic hardcore punk group Gorilla Biscuits is lending its support to the narrative that “all lives matter” regardless of race.
During a performance at the “This is Hardcore” festival in Philadelphia, frontman Anthony “Civ” Civarelli said, “In 2016, people still have to wear shirts that say ‘Black Lives Matter.’ No s**t. Brown, white, yellow, black, we all f**king matter. Everyone here matters. Do not let the media, schools, institutions, influence you. We are one family, one people.”
Civ then introduced “Degradation,” a song with lyrics about rejecting racial supremacy movements.
Even though Civ’s comment didn’t actually disparage the Black Lives Matter movement, the reaction from those covering the music scene, however, has been largely negative.
Vice’s music blog, Noisey, described what Civ said as “dumb,” while Exclaim’s Josiah Hughes was upset Civ had the nerve to “suggest ‘All Lives Matter’” (as if they don’t). He called Civ’s statement “questionable,” while simultaneously writing, “all lives matter" is “eye-rollingly obvious.”
While both pieces assert there was a large negative reaction to Civ’s comments, neither source included any examples of people calling Civ’s allegedly horribly offensive remarks “racist.”
Civ reportedly responded to backlash on Facebook by saying, “Totally, I’m surprised that this was taken in any other way then [sic] it was intended. My point was and I thought it was clear that in 2016 we as a people should not need such things to be on a shirt and they should be universal truths.”
“We are all in this together. If you know the band and the lyrics and what we have always stood for this should be clear. Also look at the lyrics to ‘degradation’ and ‘things we say’ especially the line, 'some people are so quick to judge let’s get the judgement [sic] straight,'” he said.