Tom Morello is proud of his Black heritage and is an outspoken racial justice advocate. However, the Rage Against The Machine guitarist admits it's tough to be a Black musician in the rock industry.
"It is indeed a concern and it has been a frustration throughout my career," he told Grammy.com when asked about the music industry's failure to realize Black artists' complexities. "Because I don’t play what is stereotypically referred to as 'urban music,' the music I do make is virtually ignored by industry, press, radio, etc. that features Black artists. Musicians, like myself and Slash for example, while we ply our trade in rock’n’roll we are of mixed race and that fact is often completely overlooked, not only by the industry but by fans."
"I cannot tell you how many times 'die-hard fans' have expressed their outrage and disbelief via social media whenever I reference being Black," he continued. "It causes a cognitive dissonance that sometimes upsets them greatly. There is a very broad, deep, and nuanced range of music that is created by African-American musicians that often goes unrecognized as such. And all of this is quite surprising, given the fact that the genre of rock’n’roll from Chuck Berry to Fats Domino to Little Richard was launched by African-American artists."
During the interview, Morello also gave advice on what the average person can do to educate themselves and help fight for change. "The principal issue that you need to educate yourself on is that YOU are the one that can make a difference," he said. "History is not something that happens, history is something that you make. Every progressive, radical, or revolutionary change that has ever happened in the history of this country was caused by average, ordinary people standing up in their place and time. Those people had no more courage, power, intelligence, creativity, or money than anyone reading this right now. They just did it."
"I’ve always believed that we should aim for the world we really want without compromise or apology," Morello added. "The world is not going to change itself, that’s up to you."
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