System of a Down’s John Dolmayan: “There Is No Systemic Racism in the United States”
System of a Down’s John Dolmayan continues to spread right wing propaganda and misinformation while going out of his way to prove that he has never actually listened to his band’s lyrics.
Yesterday, the drummer took to Instagram to post a photo of Secoriea Turner, the eight-year-old girl who was shot and killed in Atlanta, GA this past Saturday (July 4… because what could be more American than the killing of an innocent Black child?). She was one of five people killed in Atlanta over the weekend; the violence stems from protests over last month’s murder of an African-American man, Rayshard Brooks, at the hands of Atlanta police officers. As reported by CNN:
“[Turner] was shot in the area of University Ave and I-75/85 Saturday night while riding in a vehicle with her mother and an adult friend, according to police. The driver was attempting to enter a parking lot at 1238 Pryor Road where a group of individuals illegally placed barricades. Someone in the group opened fire on the vehicle, according to police, striking Turner.”
Along with the photo, Dolmayan shared the following message:
“The supposed black lives matter movement never had legitimacy in my view and were always a Democratic Party fundraiser and propaganda tool . Along with antifa they have shown themselves to be the enemy of the people of the United States and have adopted lawlessness emboldened by a sensationalist media and the moronic Hollywood elites who pander to them at every opportunity . They will be brought to justice but when? How many more innocents need to be murdered before we come to our senses.”
Militant elements of any movement are never good; it goes without saying that no one is arguing in favor of the murder of a little girl. But for Dolmayan to denigrate and dismiss the entire Black Lives Matter movement — already one of the most significant political campaigns in this country’s history — is ignorant. And these ideas that Dolmayan has about the movement being an illegitimate “fundraiser and propaganda tool” have been debunked. Like, enough with this crap already.
And then, in a truly facepalm-worthy moment, Dolmayan made things worse.
According to Blabbermouth:
“In response to John’s post, one fan complained that Dolmayan never speaks up when racial injustice towards blacks occurs, and said that ‘downplaying systemic racism in the U.S. is playing a dangerous game,’ to which John replied: ‘There is no systemic racism in the United States. Name one example’”
Uhhhh… Like. My brain just melted. I don’t even know where to start. He might as well have said “There is no such thing as drumming in heavy metal. Name one example.” I mean. The inordinate amount of African-Americans killed by the police — a.k.a. “THE VERY SUBJECT WE ARE DISCUSSING” — is a pretty clear example of systematic racism. For Dolmayan not to comprehend that, he’d either need to be willfully obtuse or not understand the definition of one of the four words in his band’s name.
If he wanted more examples, though, I would recommend Dolmayan, or anyone who agrees with Dolmayan, look at this Business Insider piece (because surely, the right has no beef with Business Insider?), which includes a whopping “25 charts that show the stark differences between the Black and white experience, because of systemic racism.”
And if he wanted more examples after that, I’d tell him to eat my shorts.
