Steve Neavling
Sam Riddle, political director of NAN's Michigan chapter, called out Little Caesars Arena for going into business with Kid Rock.
Good riddance, Kid Rock.
That was the message from civil rights activists who gathered across the street from Kid Rock's Made in Detroit restaurant at noon Wednesday, a few hours after Ilitch Holdings, which runs Detroit's Little Caesars Arena, announced it was not renewing its lease with the alt-right rocker.
A handful of people held signs that read, "Mute Kid Rock Now!" and "When you disrespect black women, you disrespect all women."
Ilitch Holdings' decision to part ways with Kid Rock came less than a week after the Trump-supporting, hate-spewing musician went on a drunken tirade directed at Oprah Winfrey while claiming he was not racist.
The National Action Network's (NAN) Michigan chapter, which has long railed against Kid Rock's restaurant at Little Caesars Arena, urged Ilitch Holdings to boot the restaurant after the tirade went viral.
"Oprah does not deserve some low-life, racist punk rock star to make these types of statements toward her and this community," Rev. Charles Williams, president of NAN's Michigan chapter, told reporters. "That's why we say good riddance. We hope he takes this opportunity to learn his lesson."
A lone white heckler called out "bullshit" when the activist group called Kid Rock a racist. He refused to identify himself but continued to disrupt the activists who were speaking.
Sam Riddle, political director of NAN's Michigan chapter, called out the Ilitch family for allowing Kid Rock, a politically divisive figure, to open a restaurant there in the taxpayer-subsidized arena in the first place. In January, a Black former bartender at the restaurant alleged in a lawsuit that she was fired by the management for wearing her hair in an afro.
"The Ilitches are notorious for breaking promises to the people of Detroit after they pimped the people of Detroit for $400 million in corporate welfare," Riddle said. "What did they do? They brought in the musical icon for white supremacy.
"When you normalize Kid Rock, you normalize hate."
Riddle called Kid Rock "the musical icon of white supremacy" and "a professional hater."
While activists spoke out about Kid Rock, the bare-chested musician posted a photo of himself extending his middle fingers on Facebook.
"All this BS going on has just go (sic) my blood pumpin’ and is only more songwriting fuel for a new record and tour in 2021," he wrote. "I am beholden to no one, no corporate sponsors, no label and I am gonna go the fuck off!
You haters better be shaking in your boots."
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