The Linda Lindas wowed the internet with their punk anthem about a 'Racist, Sexist Boy'
A lot of us have had it with the explosion of anti-Asian sentiment in the United States that was driven by the 44th U.S. president, but The Linda Lindas have channeled their anger and frustration into a powerful earworm.
The "half Asian and half Latinx" teen quartet, featuring Mila (10), Eloise (13), Lucia (14), and Bela (16), delivered an eight-song set during a recent appearance at the Los Angeles Public Library. In a clip that has since gone viral, the band intro'ed a new song inspired by a classmate who carried his dad's racism into the classroom.
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"A little while before we went into lockdown, a boy in my class came up to me and said that his dad told him to stay away from Chinese people," Mila, wearing a Bikini Kill(!) tee, explained from her perch behind the drum kit.
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She continued: "After I told him I was Chinese he backed away from me. Eloise and I wrote this song based on that experience." Then Eloise chimed in: "So this is about him and all the other racist, sexist boys in the world."
In the two minutes that follow, the teens blast through their punk anthem, "Racist, Sexist Boy," bellowing the song's anti-hate lyrics with a kind of energy that speaks to the personal place the song comes from. The library's tweet, which posted on Thursday afternoon, quickly went viral, amassing more than 100,000 "Likes" and more than 40,000 retweets as of Saturday morning.
To their credit, the band has kept it chill while the library's video of their performance made the internet rounds. Their last Facebook and Instagram posts were on May 12, which was apparently just after the library show happened. But the praise has been pouring in from all quarters, including Rage Against the Machine's own Tom Morello, who dubbed "Racist, Sexist Boy" his "song of the day!"
As word of The Linda Lindas spread far and wide thanks to their viral performance it also opened some doors for the band. Epitaph Records, the punk-oriented label that helped boost the likes of Bad Religion and The Offspring, signed them, as Variety reported on Saturday.
Topics Music
Adam Rosenberg is a Senior Games Reporter for Mashable, where he plays all the games. Every single one. From AAA blockbusters to indie darlings to mobile favorites and browser-based oddities, he consumes as much as he can, whenever he can.Adam brings more than a decade of experience working in the space to the Mashable Games team. He previously headed up all games coverage at Digital Trends, and prior to that was a long-time, full-time freelancer, writing for a diverse lineup of outlets that includes Rolling Stone, MTV, G4, Joystiq, IGN, Official Xbox Magazine, EGM, 1UP, UGO and others.Born and raised in the beautiful suburbs of New York, Adam has spent his life in and around the city. He's a New York University graduate with a double major in Journalism and Cinema Studios. He's also a certified audio engineer. Currently, Adam resides in Crown Heights with his dog and his partner's two cats. He's a lover of fine food, adorable animals, video games, all things geeky and shiny gadgets.
