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Originally Posted by Lord Larehip
I sampled different scenes all over the country because I was in the service at the time and I'd have to say punk is predominantly left wing if not extreme left wing. Then the apolitical punks would come next with right wing bringing up the rear--I never met any, personally.
Well, I was there in the 80s and I moshed from Michigan to Massachusetts to New York to Philly to Virginia to Chicago to Milwaukee to St. Louis to Cincinnati to Florida. I can't say I saw any real bigotry. I'm not sure what you mean.
Once again, I've met a lot of black punks. And I've met a lot of black punk musicians. True, it's predominantly white but there are or at least were a significant number of black punks. Frankly, I saw them everywhere I went and corresponded with one who lived in California because I was contributing to a zine he was running. If we are to believe him, he took more flak from other blacks for being punk than he did from whites. Really, whites didn't care because blacks at the punk venues was not at all uncommon. I saw black guys and girls at punk clubs in every city I visited.
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Sure there were black punks, Ice T and company use to go punk clubs on the strip in the 80's. You may have not experienced racism in the scene, I did. The New York Hardcore scene for all its right wing values was very diverse, Puerto Rican skinheads, black skinheads, the riot in Southall London in 1981 is another side of the coin.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lord Larehip
Again, I have a DVD called "American Hardcore." It has no narrator, it's just the hardcore bands and promoters and what not talking and they say Bad Brains was the first. Ian Mackaye, if I remember correctly, acknowledges Bad Brains as the first hardcore band. He talks about them quite a bit at any rate. You can take it up with these guys. There were there, they were the movers and shakers. I'll take their word for it.
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I have seen the video, D.O.A. is largely considered the first punk band to cross into hardcore, and is known for coining the phrase with the album Hardcore 81.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lord Larehip
There was more than one. I mention them specifically because they are said to be the first. Many of the bands had black and white members. The most famous one I can think of is the Dead Kennedys. Their drummer, Darren Henley, is black. He had fans independent of the DKs.
No, it was rap. There were plenty of black punks in the 80s--believe me.
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Historically there is only one notable black hardcore band and that is Bad Brains, I could go through a list of 100 historic punk bands before I get to another notable punk band consisting of all African Americans. Yes there were black punks, but it wasn't rooted in their culture. Black kids in the south Bronx weren't running out in mass to load up on Agnostic Front records.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lord Larehip
A lot of their culture IS garbage. The out-of-wedlock birthrate is downright ridiculous--upwards of 70% from I am given to understand. The crime rate in black communities still remains the highest in the nation. 500,000 people have left Detroit in an last few years because the crime rate is among the highest in the country. The small businesses have left because they are tired of getting robbed. And a lot of that has to do with the affects of rap on the minds of young black men.
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You said it not me! For a supposed anti racist white punk rocker that argument sounds like something Patrick Buchanan would frame. If your going to take the left wing side on the culture war, than you have to take the responsibility of the family breakdown that has happened since the late 60's onward to both black and WHITE working class communities.
Out of wedlock birthrates and high crime rates isn't a result of Black culture! it is the result of being ghettoized & impoverished from years of racial discrimination. In short, being at the bottom of the food chain in a post culture war environment.