Kirin J Callinan has taken to Instagram to defend Brisbane rapper Miss Blanks after it was revealed that she raised concerns with Laneway management prior to Callinan’s removal from the 2018 lineup.
Miss Blanks, who is ambassador for Laneway’s safe space initiative, 1800 LANEWAY, told Hack earlier in the month that she was happy with his removal, primarily thanks to his use of blackface, his faking of an epileptic fit at a concert in 2013, and the fact that he got his dick out on the ARIAs red carpet.
The defence, which he posted as a caption on three photos of himself, seems to indicate that he’s not happy with the decision but even less happy with the idea of Miss Blanks experiencing backlash. I say “seems” because it’s written in the deeply vague and convoluted way you would expect from someone who has always played a character and is incapable of being actually sincere about something:
My friends,
There’s been some talk. Debate & discourse. Much of it positive, some of it misinformed, a small n sanctimonious element too.
Regardless o the noise, however, it does not sit well with me one puny pitiful bit that a fellow artist & clearly strong, trans woman of colour could now be shamed or take the blame, be defamed or suffer the same re my recent omission from a certain summertime festivus, regardless o the role she may have played.
She is the exact sort of artist we should all support ~ bold, original, flamboyant, progressive & with somethin to say.
Furthermore, it mortifies me to think that she could now be made to feel unwelcome in any way, shape or fabulous form ~ onstage, backstage or on her ig page, at any stage.
So I’m saying so, demanding it now, there will be no harassment, there will be no D’s out 4 Miss B in 20 A~teen. There will be tolerance & there will be respect.
I’m serious. Deadly.
To say I’m a wee bit disappointed that I will not also be performing for every dusty, sexy, sunburnt woman & man & non-binary human ‘round this beaut n dusty sunburnt land is the understatement o the new year. But more important than some rocking concert, more relevant than resentment or regrets, is respect ~ for each & every one o us.
So, be kinder to each other in 2018, be kinder to yourselves and perhaps, one day not too far from now, the world will be big enough, for all of us
There has yet to be any form of apology or even acknowledgement that maybe flashing people at a public event in the midst of the Weinstein accusations was maybe a terrible read of the room, but I guess this is a step in the right direction.
