Benji Webbe Tweets Non-Apology for Racist Babymetal Remarks
Last week, Skindred frontman Benji Webbe made a complete penis of himself at the Kerrang Awards in London by mocking Babymetal’s English language skills and bowing to them during their acceptance of the “Best Live Band” award. The racist joke did Webbe no favors, as you can hear plenty of fans booing him during his spiel.
Well, now Webbe has apologized… sort of. Rather than apologize to Babymetal for making a terrible joke, Webbe has tweeted the following, apologizing to the fans for making them think he disrespected the band:
Sorry to anyone who thought I disrespect baby metal at the awards tonight, truly I didn't mean to fuck with them
— Benji Webbe (@Benjiwebbe) June 10, 2016
People like I said I'm not into being horrible to anyone to all the fans and BABYMETAL from my heat I'm sorry if I offended u all
— Benji Webbe (@Benjiwebbe) June 10, 2016
I don't think they r as upset you fans
— Benji Webbe (@Benjiwebbe) June 10, 2016
So basically, Webbe wants us to know he’s sorry if we got bent out of shape about his racist remarks. He didn’t realize we were such delicate tulips.
The thing is, fuck that dude. Maybe Babymetal aren’t upset, and they laughed later with Webbe, but I bet all the Asian metal fans out there who are tired of dealing with this kind of bullshit aren’t happy. Meanwhile, I can’t help but think that if anyone had made a similar joke about black people while Webbe was receiving an award, he would be furious.
This reminds me of Chris Rock’s Asian joke at the Oscars — this idea that Asian jokes are sort of harmless and cute, and that somehow it’s on us for being offended at a racist joke, because it’s not really hate.
Meanwhile, you can listen to Webbe’s guest appearance on the Soulfly track “Prejudice” below. Here are some of the lyrics:
This hate is deep rooted get rid of the weed
Destroying the harvest
Of peace that we need
Hey, Benji, you’re one of the weeds. Here’s hoping you get uprooted.
[via The PRP]
