Reverend Al Sharpton's National Action Network in Detroit and others want upcoming Kid Rock shows in Detroit to be canceled. This comes after Rock blasted Colin Kaepernick for refusing to stand during the National Anthem last year.
"If you want to take a knee or sit during our Star-Spangled Banner, call me a racist [because] I'm not PC and think you have to remind me that Black Lives Matter," said Rock at a recent show at the Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids. "Fuck Colin Kaepernick and fuck any motherfucker who decides to disrespect the National Anthem."Director of the Damon J. Keith Center for Civil Rights in Detroit Peter Hammer criticized Rock for his comments and argued said after the White Nationalist rally in Charlottesville things have changed.
"These are moments where you have to act as a matter of character and state what your values are," he said. "Everything now is becoming symbolic. That means we have to choose our symbols carefully."Rock, who is from the Detroit area, has six concerts scheduled at city's brand new $860 million, 20,000-seat Little Caesars Arena starting next week. Now local civil rights leaders want that to not happen.
“This is the straw that broke the camel’s back,” said the Rev. Charles Williams II, president of the Sharpton Action Network’s Detroit chapter. “When you hire Kid Rock, who is known to be dog-whistling and cat-calling to white supremacist organizations and the white supremacist community, alt-right, whatever you want to call them, and you take our tax dollars to do that? That’s wrong.”Earlier this year, Rock announced that he might be running for Senate in his home state of Michigan in 2018.
[Related: Kid Rock thinks rap-rock is "pretty gay."]
What do you think about all this?