American metalcore act The Ghost Inside have parted ways with their bass player Jim Riley, after racist comments he made in 2015 recently came to light.
The incident in question, initially dismissed by the band as a rumour, resurfaced after Bracewar drummer Rashod Jackson responded to the band’s new ‘What Do You Stand For?’ charity t-shirt release.
Jackson noticed that all profits from the sale of the shirt were going to the National Association For The Advancement Of Coloured People, and thought it was a bit rich given Riley’s previous comments towards a black bus driver five years prior.
“This is cute. @theghostinside y’all gonna act like your bitch ass bass player didn’t call y’alls bus driver a n*gger that time? I ain’t forget that shit,” he tweeted.
https://twitter.com/RashodJackson/status/1268745821010485249
Jackson was then asked why the incident wasn’t addressed at the time, to which he responded with a tweet from five years ago where he called Riley out over the incident.
Riley responded via his own Twitter account, explaining that it was a “shameful and fucking embarrassing” time for him, and that he had to take “a big fucking look in the mirror”, before making an effort to “purge” that side of himself.
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But Jackson wasn’t having a bar of it. “Hey coward….@ me motherfucker. Apologize to ME. Apologize to my fucking PEOPLE. You were a coward then and an even bigger coward now. As long as youre in that band, I’ll make sure you NEVER play a show. Mark my words.”
https://twitter.com/RashodJackson/status/1269025395598331904
The Ghost Inside have since released a statement, announcing Riley’s official departure from the band, as well as admitting that they should have “dug deeper” when the incident was first brought to their attention.
“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 towards the light. It closes and locks doors that need to be broken open,” the band said in the statement.
“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 but 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.”
The Ghost Inside was infamously involved in a head-on bush crash in 2015 which left several of members injured and resulted in the death of their driver as well as deaths in the opposite vehicle.
The band also recently dropped their self-titled comeback album.
Check out the full statement from The Ghost Inside:
https://twitter.com/theghostinside/status/1269347709531623426
