A Tumblr site called Sexism In Music made the rounds yesterday with a series of posts detailing hateful comments made by DIIV bassist Devin Ruben Perez (on the far left in the photo above) on 4chan and other places across the internet. The Tumblr calls Perez out as a “racist, misogynistic, homophobic asshole.” In the posts, he calls Perfect Pussy’s Meredith Graves a “bitch” and assigns a negative rating to her based on her attractiveness, says that he find Grimes “physically repulsive” and is “literally 0% attracted to her face and body,” and said of Zomby: “That nigger is the biggest troll ever.” In other posts, he uses the words “faggot,” “nigger,” “spic,” and “slut”, and makes an anti-Semitic comment: “I’m a good goyim. Every time a Rabbi gets close, I shout out for my friend Burnstein and tell him to leave me alone unless they want to break their shmageggi, oy vey.” In a post on 4chan yesterday, Perez said:

I honestly don’t regret saying any of the stuff that I did. No fucks given at all. It was all the truth really. I do regret calling Zomby a nigger (i’m part black anyway) and going off with that Burnstein goyim joke but I guess I was in 100% 4chan lingo mode.

What do? I’m not a homophobe, racist, or misogynist at all. Did Meredith Graves post this shit herself or was it someone else?

He also clarified his comments on Graves:

I just called her a “bitch” and that she “sucks” because I didn’t want to type an essay about fucking Meredith Graves.

She IS a bitch though. She’s really fucking mean. I never did anything to her and she’s always looking for ways to attack me and my friends, like a rabid FEMALE DOG.

She does suck too. Didn’t she have a blog about Coheed and Cambria or something before she became the punk princess SJW of the indie rock community?

The full archive of Perez’s 4chan posts can be found here.

DIIV frontman Zachary Cole Smith has responded in a series of tweets and replies to other people, saying that he “will never EVER tolerate sexism, racism, homophobia, bullying, or bigotry of any kind,” while also indicting media for covering this by “spreading it well beyond its prior scope.” Here’s a selection of his tweets — his full timeline can be viewed here.

I will never EVER tolerate sexism, racism, homophobia, bullying, or bigotry of any kind. I'm doing everything to get to the bottom of this

— DIIV (@DIIV) December 14, 2014

I'm so fucking disgusted. so fucking angry.

— DIIV (@DIIV) December 14, 2014

@87uytr well of course i am talking to him. a lot to say/ask, but also felt it was important to share my feelings on the subject immediately

— DIIV (@DIIV) December 14, 2014

@samantha_s_1278 yes they are hurtful. in fact the whole 4chan site itself is basically a clusterfuck of offensiveness. I find the (1/2)

— DIIV (@DIIV) December 14, 2014

@samantha_s_1278 no woman EVER deserves to be called a b***h, regardless of context. no person should ever be singled out and name-called.

— DIIV (@DIIV) December 14, 2014

Yes, I understand it is 4chan "lingo". But everybody who types that word knows what it really means and how much violence is attached to it.

— DIIV (@DIIV) December 14, 2014

All media who covers this is implicated in propagating spewings of an underbelly internet culture who r numb to the violence of their words

— DIIV (@DIIV) December 14, 2014

I'm hurt by the whole situation but especially by opportunistic media forming a sentence "DIIV …sexist/racist" just for cheap click fodder

— DIIV (@DIIV) December 14, 2014

There are actual humans behind all this. One woman is now being called a "b****h" across many national music sites. This isn't music news.

— DIIV (@DIIV) December 14, 2014

@bethmaidurant that's not fair to the victim or to me, the person who actually is DIIV. dev is/ was never creatively involved in this band

— DIIV (@DIIV) December 14, 2014

We’ve reached out to Perez and Smith for comment and we’ll update if either of them responds.

UPDATE: Sky Ferreira (Smith’s girlfriend) has also weighed in on Twitter:

Please leave @DIIV alone. He had nothing to do with what happened. He had to say something because it's his band.

— Sky Ferreira (@skyferreira) December 14, 2014

He didn't talk about personal matters/feelings about Devin. He said that DIIV doesn't support or tolerate racism/homophobia/sexism.

— Sky Ferreira (@skyferreira) December 14, 2014

This has nothing to do with me but I just have one more thing to say (lol):

— Sky Ferreira (@skyferreira) December 14, 2014

I'm not defending anything he did & or agree with the stupid/careless shit he said at all. It's really disappointing because…

— Sky Ferreira (@skyferreira) December 14, 2014

…I've never ever known Devin to be a remotely hateful person. It just doesn't make sense. I hope we can all learn from his mistakes.

— Sky Ferreira (@skyferreira) December 14, 2014

And Perez responded:

@skyferreira I'm not sexist, racist or a misogynist and anyone who knows me knows that. I just said some dumb shit on an anime message board

— Devin Ruben Perez (@sserpent) December 14, 2014

@skyferreira here are my famous "misogynist" words before the media butchered them pic.twitter.com/SyQDidr95x

— Devin Ruben Perez (@sserpent) December 14, 2014

@sserpent I know you that you aren't. That's what I just said

— Sky Ferreira (@skyferreira) December 14, 2014

UPDATE 2: DIIV issued this statement to Pitchfork:

Cole doesn’t stand for any bigotry, hatred, sexism racism or homophobia, especially when it’s manifest in his own band. Cole and Devin are discussing what happened and his future in the band. Devin acknowledges what he did is very wrong. 4chan is a poisonous place. It’s the bowels of the internet. A place where Devin lost sight of what’s remotely appropriate and what isn’t. Racial slurs and sexist remarks are practically what comprise the entirety of the site. It’s important to examine the context of his comments, not to excuse them, but rather because it is a place that breeds, proliferates, and encourages dark and violent ideologies disguised as humor.

It needs to be exposed. It’s lurking just beneath the surface and it’s everywhere. Every journalist covering this story has a responsibility to expose 4chan for what it is. But regardless of the context, what Devin said is inexcusable. It will not be tolerated in the band or anywhere. But ultimately Cole and Devin are very close friends so this is a very hard thing for him to swallow, seeing such unexpected behavior like this from such a close friend. It is not being tolerated and is being dealt with right now.