If you've been on Twitter recently, you've probably noticed that Pete Wentz is trending.
Twitter user @ProfessorBLove tweeted a surprising fact about Pete and Pete's Fall Out Boy bandmate Andy Hurley.
Never forget that 2 members of Fall Out Boy were in a punk band called Racetraitor. They wrote anti-racist and anti-imperialist songs. The name of their first EP is called "Burn The Idol Of The White Messiah". https://t.co/C3LmlVCNgP
"Never forget that 2 members of Fall Out Boy were in a punk band called Racetraitor. They wrote anti-racist and anti-imperialist songs. The name of their first EP is called 'Burn The Idol Of The White Messiah'," he wrote.
Neither Pete nor Andy was an original member of the band, which formed in 1996. In the biography Fall Out Boy — Our Lawyer Made Us Change the Name of This Book so We Wouldn't Get Sued, it's mentioned that Andy took over for Racetraitor's original drummer, Karl Hlavinka, so Karl could become the band's second guitarist. As for Pete, he temporarily joined the band when bassist Brent Decker left.
People who weren't familiar with Racetraitor were pleasantly surprised to learn that two of Fall Out Boy's members were part of an anti-racism band before becoming pop punk legends. But Pete in particular is trending because, thanks to the tweet about Racetraitor, many are just finding out that he is actually biracial.
Every time Twitter learns Pete Wentz is half black is always a hilarious day.
Pete Wentz is trending, and the weird fascination people have with picking apart the features of "racially ambiguous" folx is pretty creepy. Also, I went to high school w/ Pete, but I don't remember him (nor would he remember me), which is weird b/c it was a small school.
It's that time of the year when people learn Pete Wentz is Black.....(again).
His mom, Dale, is half Black.
Although many assumed that Pete is white, he is one of the most prominent BIPOC to emerge from the Myspace-era emo scene, which unfortunately was known for being centered on white men.
People's realization that Pete is biracial has brought up an important conversation about BIPOC representation. As comedian Jaboukie Young-White tweeted back in 2018, being a "white-passing" BIPOC is complicated.
me: pete wentz is black also me: tea also also me: you’re perpetuating the one drop rule by considering someone as white passing as pete wentz black also also also me: tea also also also also me: either way pete wentz can say nigga also also also also also me: tea
Though Pete benefits from white privilege, many pointed out how he is criticized whenever he shows sides of his Black culture.
if there's a reason why pete wentz never talks about him being black is because you fuckers bully him into deleting and being ashamed of it. fuck every single person who trashed him for wearing cornrows. fuck you all for whitewashing him for so long.
i'm not running a pete wentz tumblr on the side filled with his arma angelus days before he was oppressed and whitewashed for you to say he's not half black.
"pete wentz has never acknowledged he's black" oh so yall wanna talk about how the media whitewashed him or the fact that when he wore his natural hair yall called him a freak and said he looked bad or the fact that he recognizes his privilege and never misuses black culture?
Others are also calling out people for making Pete take down his now-deleted tweets saying that his followers should watch the video of George Floyd's last moments so they'll understand racial injustice better.
to the people who bullied pete wentz into deleting his tweets, fuck you.
You mean to tell me, y'all bullied Pete Wentz so much that he was too scared to talk about being Bi-racial??? This is why us white passing mixed kids are hesitant to say we are mixed cause y'all fucking bully us and say we aren't.
In an interview with Kerrang!, Pete opened up about growing up in a biracial family and how he found strength in being different from his white peers:
“The only thing that was a little weird is our family is mixed race, and it was a super-white neighborhood, so it was like, ‘Oh…I don’t look like any of the people that I live near in this community.’ But there was no great sadness to it. If anything, it made me be like, ‘Well, I’m just who I am.’ It gave me armor.”
