Mike S. Miller attempted to get his comic book Lonestar crowdfunded through Kickstarter. He was denied that opportunity by the Kickstarter staff because they claimed that the comic “discriminated” against “marginalized” groups.
Bounding Into Comics picked up the news from a tweet made by Miller on October 2nd, 2019, who shared the pitch images from the project and the letter from the Kickstarter staff who claimed that the project couldn’t be approved due to “discrimination” against “marginalized” groups.
Hey team @kickstarter, it’s nice to see that you consider MS13 a ‘marginalized group’, since that’s the only people who were being ‘subjugated’ in the artwork I provided.@benshapiro @JeremyDBoreing @QTRBlackGarrett @scrowder More wokeness from the tech companies on display. pic.twitter.com/ldRBzeUcW5
— Mike S. Miller Free Thinker (@AbacusMike) October 2, 2019
If you’re unable to read the message from the Kickstarter staff, it states…
“Thanks for sharing your project with us. We’ve carefully reviewed it against our Rules, and we’re unable to approve it to launch.
“As a Public Benefit Corporation committed to fighting inequality and creating a more equitable world, Kickstarter does not allow discrimination, subjugation, or intolerance towards marginalized groups. We recommend you review our Rules […] and list of Prohibited items […] to learn more.”
“This decision is non-negotiable. We appreciate your understanding.”
So who was being “discriminated” against in the Lonestar comic? Well, technically no one. However, the hero, Lonestar, was putting a beating to MS-13 gang members who were terrorizing a black lady in the comic.
Kickstarter apparently felt MS-13 is a “marginalized” group, even though they behead people in real life after stabbing them 100 times, as reported by The Sun.
MS-13 was also responsible for dismembering their victims and throwing the body parts into the San Fernando valley in California, as reported by the New York Times.
MS-13 also beat and killed a 13-year-old girl and left her mutilated body in a creek in Baltimore, Maryland, as reported by the Baltimore Sun.
MS-13 was also responsible for beating a man to death on a New York subway.
All of these crimes were reported on just this past year alone, and that’s just barely scratching the surface of some of the heinous acts they’ve committed.
Bounding Into Comics notes that originally Miller thought that Kickstarter denied the campaign because he was running an IndieGoGo campaign, but that wasn’t the case at all.
The most telling part was that Miller wanted to give Kickstarter the benefit of the doubt after he found out that they had banned Richard C. Meyer from the platform, thinking it was a “one-off”. He soon found out that that isn’t the case at all.
I wanted to give them a chance to show that the Zack thing was a one-off, maybe due to the controversy of the day and the dark roast, etc.
Clearly, not the case. But good to know for certain.
— Mike S. Miller Free Thinker (@AbacusMike) October 2, 2019
This isn’t uncommon. Various projects have been either rejected or banned from Kickstarter for nebulous reasons. Back in May MiKandi Japan and LINDA’s manga translation project was suspended midway through the campaign even after Kickstarter’s staff initially approved the project.
MiKandi and LINDA then took the project to IndieGoGo and finished funding through the platform.
Don’t think that IndieGoGo is a saint in all this, though.
The crowdfunding platform also arbitrarily sinks projects that they ideologically disagree with as well. Back in May the comic book Rebel Yell was banned from the platform, forcing the creator to take funds directly through his official store.
Miller, meanwhile, is still supporting Lonestar through the IndieGoGo page. So any future campaigns will have to be done through other crowdfunding services since Kickstarter banned the project.
(Thanks for the news tip CZ)
