What should've been a week of celebration turned into a week of introspection. This week, The Ghost Inside released their first album since their horrific 2015 bus crash. Instead of a celebration, the band is dealing with the fallout of some poor choices made by their bassist, Jim Riley.
After posting a note saying they would be donating proceeds from a shirt sale to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Bracewar drummer Rashod Jackson accused Riley of calling his bus driver the N word.
https://twitter.com/RashodJackson/status/1268745821010485249
remember when little whitey open hand slapped his tall punk ass in the face for it?! HAHAHA https://t.co/YA6bMNKmS7
— Humongous Martín (@ForeverLawless) June 5, 2020
https://twitter.com/RashodJackson/status/1268750666966740995
https://twitter.com/RashodJackson/status/1268768610765475848
Earlier this weekend, the band announced that they were parting ways with Riley.
“The Ghost Inside was born from a scene of forward thinking, understanding and progressiveness. Our music and message has always been one of hope and finding that light at the end of the tunnel. Racism and bigotry of any kind stifle that journey the light. It closes and locks doors that need to be broken open.
“We have decided to part ways with bassist Jim Riley. While we didn’t hear these words spoken directly from his mouth, we did hear mutterings of the incident. At the time we thought this to be just a rumor, but it offended and hurt a community. A community we are meant to bring together.We should’ve spoken up back then and we didn’t, we should’ve dug deeper. We acknowledge that we were silent. We are self educating and growing and learning as individuals. We are here to say that we as a band fully condemn racism and support the black community in the fight against systemic racism.”
Shortly after this went public, Rashod Jackson was subsequently called out for his past use of homophobic slurs, for which he apologized.
