*sigh* Alright. I’m off. I’m home. Got my weed. I’m ready to speak my peace now.

I’m going to start off by saying that I know I’m not that active on here, but this situation is hitting quite differently than many other discussions on here amongst FWM fans.

As you can guess, I’m a Stevie Stan. But that’s not to say that I don’t love Christine’s smooth, honey coating British voice. Say You Love Me is almost always the first song I listen to every day.

I first found out about the picture when I read Gold Dust Woman a year and half ago. Stephen Davis just nonchalantly mentioned it when he listed their costumes, as if she just went as a clown or witch I was in denial at first, bc he was wrong about A LOT of other things in the

Book but then my good friend @nopkehe did a fact check for me and low and behold, it was true. I told him not to show me the picture, I’d rather know it than see it. Plus, I was coming down off my first (very successful) trip on shrooms, so that would not have been a good idea

Then about 6 months later I’m on a Stevie FB group, I think it was a Halloween post of a variety of Fleetwood Mac Halloween’s, and whoever posted it just threw the picture in there like it was nothing.

Either that or I saw it on PINTEREST first. Can’t remember. Either way, I did NOT want to see it, yet people posted it here and there like it was nothing. And it really made me question the fan base a bit.

Since then I’ve tried to not think about it, but alas, my cognitive dissonance would lose, and it would finds its way through when I’m listening to her songs, and my heart breaks. And I have so many questions. Does she hate black people? Or think of us as less than??

Did she do this bc she thinks black face is a light hearted joke despite its history?? Are/were they really this ignorant in GB/ the UK?? Did she just like the fucking syrup???? With many people blindly using black face fit the sole purpose of getting their costumes

“Down to a tee”, and to not mock I was really hoping the latter was the situation. Doesn’t make it right AT ALL, but at least there want any hostility behind it right? But we won’t know unless she apologizes and explains herself.

If she were to apologize, admit she was wrong, and use this as a learning experience for herself, I will get more sleep at night. I’ll be fine.

BUT

She has to say so herself, sincerely. Just bc times changed doesn’t mean people change.

I really don’t expect a White person born in 1940s England (and a village on top of that) to be the most racially aware person. (I didn’t expect black face either tho but whatever) I really don’t. But I do expect growth, learning, accountability.

We all have said, done even thought something offensive in the past yes, we are not born knowing what’s right and what’s wrong. Many of us had to unlearn A LOT of things growing up, and we were lucky to be born during a progressive point in history where -isms are not tolerated

And where there are many resources from outside our environments. But it’s how you use that new knowledge that matters. And defending someone’s racist behavior (whether they were intentionally offensive or not, whether hostility was their intent or not) is NOT one of the ways

And please research and learn more about black face and minstrelsies. Those pretty much faded out here in America by the mid 20th century. While it may have went on Europe, the civil rights movement was overpowering America at that time (1959s-60s), making it known that this and

Other stereotypes/types of blackface were not okay

And to compare this to the bands drug addiction…do you really think addiction and racism goes hand and hand on the “Fucked Up” scale? Really????

I will say, if this were someone younger, like a younger pop star, I’d be more upset. Bc again, I really don’t expect much from a British white woman in born in the early 40s (sis ain’t even a Boomer). Being from rural South Carolina the bar is set pretty low. I personally do not

Expect a lot from white people. I’m used to being gaslit when I talk about racism if I’m being honest. But I do expect someone regardless of age, environment, or time period to learn and grow and change if they want to be respected