KISS bassist/vocalist Gene Simmons has decried racism in America, saying it “has got to stop.”
“Yes, [America is] racist,” Gene told Metal Hammer in a new interview. “Yes, it’s anti-Semitic. And yet, here in America, there are no limits. You can have an African American president, you can also have the alternate — a semi-racist, semi-extremist president — but anything’s possible. Which is why I still worship the idea of America: it can get better and it will get better.
“People think of Martin Luther King, making great advancements for African Americans and just kind of smashing the door open to deal with it,” he continued. “And you’ve got to deal with this thing. We’ve got to get along and stop treating African Americans, especially, so horribly in America. Racism has got to stop.”
Last year, Simmons, whose Hungarian mother survived the Holocaust, joined more than 170 black and Jewish leaders from the entertainment industry launching the Black-Jewish Entertainment Alliance (BJEA), described by the organization as ‘a joint initiative by black and Jewish entertainment industry professionals devoted to countering racism and anti-Semitism in the entertainment community.’
Gene told Daily Mail he was disgusted by the racism he sees in America and said society should take a hardline approach to those spreading prejudice and hate, comparing them to cockroaches.
“It is going to get better but you’ve got to confront it,” he said. “You’ve got to turn on the light and go after those cockroaches. And don’t just chase them out. Find out where they live. Identify them, make their lives miserable — legally. Shine the light on that cockroach. The guy with his drunken buddies hurling racial epithets, take photos of him. This guy’s name is so-and-so and he lives right outside of Manchester and works in this garage. Guess what the garage is gonna do? They’re going to fire his ass right away, because they don’t want the attention of hiring a hate-monger.’
Simmons praised the Donald Trump administration for opening dialogue between Arab nations and Israel but added that “doesn’t give him a pass in the hatred he spewed as a world leader.
“He was the fuel for the fire that enabled these extremists to storm the White House. Without a president like that in charge they wouldn’t dare,” he said.
“Cockroaches hide until they see a big one in the middle of the room.”
Back in 2014, Simmons voiced his support of controversial Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling, whose private, racist comments got him banned from the NBA for life. Additionally, he said he was on “Mel Gibson‘s side,” when it came to getting flack for making questionable comments in private conversation.
“If, because you say an off-color joke or make a racist rant privately, that causes you to lose a job — nobody would have a job,” he told The Wall Street Journal. “Black people do it, Jews do it, Christians do it — everybody does it. It’s called America. Free speech. Even if free speech insults other people. Privately. Publicly, that’s different. I’m on the side of free speech in the privacy of your own home or privacy of the situation. Big brother has finally crawled in bed with us.”
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