Last night, a portion of a Portland metal audience unironically cheered when a staunchly anti-fascist, pioneering extreme-metal act made a barbed comment about Portland being the seat of caucasian racial prejudice the last time they came through town some 20 odd years ago, and it solidified everything that’s wrong with this town for me. You should be ashamed of yourself, Portland. I honestly don’t know what else to say.
Usually, when one says that their city has let them down, they mean that their sports team lost an important tournament, or one functionally identical binary political party member is elected to some ineffectual position of imaginary power in favor of the other. It’s not often that one can say they’re morally disappointed in the entire city in which they live, especially when one is something of a moral blank oneself.
Last night, a legendary British band came through town for the first time in over two decades. Over the years, Carcass have pioneered a variety of extreme metal styles, and endured hardships that would break feebler bands. Throughout all this, a major lyrical theme of the group has been the rejection of authority and systems of oppression and torture, amongst a wide variety of other topics. Rejection of authority and rebellion may very well be overblown teenage constructs that lose their potency in the stolid march toward adult responsibility, but there is a kernel of truth in youthful anarchy, and I believe it remains relevant regardless of what age you are. Nevertheless, themes of antifascism are timeless and Carcass have penned a number of very powerful songs refuting oppression and torture.
In fact, here’s an excerpt from a former Carcass website F.A.Q. regarding the matter of fascism:
“Carcass are a vehemently anti-fascist band, if you are a right-wing nazi racist - please don't bother showing up to our shows or buying our records, you are sadly missing the whole point.” [1]
“Carcass are a vehemently anti-fascist band, if you are a right-wing nazi racist - please don't bother showing up to our shows or buying our records, you are sadly missing the whole point.” [1]
And another excerpt from an interview with Bill Steer:
“[…]All of us detest sexism, racism and bigotry in general[…]” [2]
“[…]All of us detest sexism, racism and bigotry in general[…]” [2]
So when bassist/lead singer Jeff Walker cracked a joke last night that “The last time we came through Portland, you guys were the white power capital of the world…” and a not insignificant portion of the crowd (roughly 20-25% by my entirely non-scientific estimate) cheered, I was not only heartbroken, but confused and angered.
The metal and punk I grew up listening to, for lack of a better explanation, came from a place of moral high ground. You could listen to metal and punk and it addressed important social issues like corporatist greed, and governmental corruption. It was a call to arms to challenge the human race to deny its sad history of nationalism and persecution, and to educate people in an effort to bring about a general sense of egalitarianism. I don’t know, though… maybe I’m just some kind of idealistic prick who read that all wrong and it was only meant in a “rights for whites” kind of way. I always had friends who were people of colour who listened to metal, and it never seemed any other way to me, so the very idea that forms of extreme music are exclusionary is absurd to me.
The extreme metal music climate I grew up in had a very strong antifascist core. 90s era east coast hardcore had its share of skins, but everyone I knew was firmly on the side of antifascism, and skins were persona-non-grata at most shows. In the event they did show up, there was conflict and it was made known they weren’t welcome. Bands like Sepultura, Candira, God Forbid, Body Count, Orange 9mm, Biohazard, Rage Against The Machine (yeah, yeah, they get a lot of shit for being corporate sponsored, hyper-popular metal hypocrites, but for all the metal hipster “too popular!” chatter, I personally think they were a solid band the entire way through, and they were a great mainstream source of antifascism… also, I was 17), Corrosion of Conformity, Rollins Band, etc. all featured either strong members who were people of colour and/or an avowed message of antifascism and equality.
It was never even a question of “should I be a racist dimwit?” when I was a growing up in extreme music, I always had amazing role models who crafted strong music that fostered a spirit of equality and justice to guide me, and friends of a variety of nationalities with whom to share the experience. That, and racism is idiotic, and if you can’t see why it’s inherently, logically wrong, you have the mental comprehension of can of soda. A very stupid can of soda.
Which is why, when I discovered that a book entitled “What Are You Doing Here?: A Black Woman's Life and Liberation in Heavy Metal” [3] exists, it brought about a very profound sense of dismay in me. People of colour were always welcome in metal and punk events in the area in which I grew up (NYC, NE Pennsylvania, and northern New Jersey). Again, it wasn’t all copies of By Any Means Necessary and flowers and shit. We had a racist contingent and we dealt with them. Their pride was a shameful thing. They were unwelcome. That they continued to show up to events was morally problematic for us. It never occurred to me that elsewhere, hell, even in other metal scenes, racism and the pervasive creep of real (as opposed to projected, knee-jerk, “I toss this term around to sound socially proactive”) privilege cast the shadow of exclusion on people of colour in the context of styles of music I love dearly.
Since then, my unfortunately, circumstantially naïve brain has come to conclude that metal has a problem with racism (and homophobia and sexism as well, but that’s another subject entirely). In a bizarre twist of irony, given that its birthroots are blues and rock and roll, metal and its subgenres are almost overwhelmingly populated by white, male musicians, most of whom are perfectly nice guys with no fascist agenda whatsoever, who will happily tell the racist skins to fuck right off should they turn out to shows. Indeed, there are disturbing pockets of propaganda machines in bands like Skrewdriver, Brutal Attack, and Skullhead, but many of those bands are shunned outright by the majority of most metal fans. Still, statistically, when you look at the numbers, white musicians and fans comprise the vast majority of the experience. Which isn’t inherently a bad thing; it’s largely a cultural construct, especially here in the states. The problem is that white people simply don’t understand racism from the receiving end because they’ve never experienced it. That, in all honesty, is the true definition of “privilege”. It’s not a term meant to shame white people, it’s simply a very real concept. A concept that illustrates that a certain group of people will never experience the lifelong consequences of casual or outright exclusion, derision, belittlement and violence that comes from being a visible minority; plain as that.
So when I stand, in my city, amongst a group 300 strong (at least), enthusiastically enjoying the music of a band who is avowedly antifascist, and that group cracks a joke about our city's shameful past and NO ONE fucking boos or jeers, and, in fact, a largely audible portion of the audience applauds and cheers… I have no fucking words for you Portland. None at all. I’m horrified, in fact. You should just… know better.
Not long ago, I was talking to a good friend of mine who is black, and we got to the topic of his experiences of racial prejudice in general and eventually that of his experience in Portland. He told me a story about how his mom came to visit him from out of state, so he took her to a nice restaurant so they could have dinner together. Along the way, someone shouted “NIGGERS!” at them from across the street. My heart fucking sank. Imagine the experience of taking a loved one out, simply to enjoy a freedom that everyone in the country has a right to. Now imagine that experience being overshadowed by a group of ignorant shitheads shouting the most demeaning, irrelevant insult at you that you can think of. Now imagine that it’s not an isolated incident. In fact, this, and several shades of more and less subtle disparagement pervade your entire life. It changes the way you experience the world.
Could the above incident happen in just about any town in the US, pretty much at any point in history? Sadly, unfortunately, the answer is yes. The fact that it happens at all in what is, today, considered one of the most progressive towns in America is despicable. It is not an isolated story.
I hear anecdotes of subtle and not so subtle racism in my chosen hometown frequently enough that I can’t simply ignore it. I, myself, frequently experience other white people whom are very obviously racist, but since it’s at least somewhat of a social faux pas to be a visible racist these days, they couch their bullshit in socially digestible nice-isms, acting like they’re being responsible community people, helping to keep a healthy buffer from a “bad element”. And truthfully? I don’t know how much more of it I’m willing to tolerate. The fact that I tolerate it at all is a source of great internal struggle for me. Often, I’m presented with these issues in the workplace, and I’m forced to put my financial stability before my sense of equality and fairness.
It is not my lot in life to be an activist in the traditional sense. I’m a DJ, a musician and a music engineer. That’s my passion, and it’s very clearly my path in life. It’s a very time consuming career and goal and it leaves little in the way (currently, at least) for me to both make a living and support my dream and my burgeoning career. I support antifascist charities and events when I can, but being on the front-lines isn’t really something I have the ability to provide a consistent, sustained focus for. Creating awareness is my small attempt to overcome that, to help educate people when I can. It’s a personal struggle for me, as I hate armchair activism, but in essence, I'm little more than an armchair activist myself. I suppose we all have our issues.
Honestly, I hope that perhaps my reading of the entire situation is simply mistaken, and the crowd were just cheering blindly at the words coming out of the mouth of someone they respect. That, in and of itself, presents its own very vexing problems and parallels, however.
Portland most certainly DOES have the capacity for great things. I’ve seen and am participant to a number of amazingly artistic and beautiful cultural events here in this city. There is also, undeniably, a very real problem with a very ugly demon that rears its head far too often to be a topic that is swept under the table as much as it is. What is to be done about that problem is a question I am unable to answer. Education is the best form of combat against intolerance, but how do you educate people who refuse to see they even have a problem? I don’t know, and it very seriously calls into question my continued, long term residence in this town.
Honestly, I hope that perhaps my reading of the entire situation is simply mistaken, and the crowd were just cheering blindly at the words coming out of the mouth of someone they respect. That, in and of itself, presents its own very vexing problems and parallels, however.
Portland most certainly DOES have the capacity for great things. I’ve seen and am participant to a number of amazingly artistic and beautiful cultural events here in this city. There is also, undeniably, a very real problem with a very ugly demon that rears its head far too often to be a topic that is swept under the table as much as it is. What is to be done about that problem is a question I am unable to answer. Education is the best form of combat against intolerance, but how do you educate people who refuse to see they even have a problem? I don’t know, and it very seriously calls into question my continued, long term residence in this town.
Get your shit together, Portland. Seriously. Not for me, and not because I’m some kind of moral force in the world, or even this town, but because it’s the right thing to do.
1. http://www.goddamnbastard.org/carcass/faq.html
2. http://www.goddamnbastard.org/carcass/interviews/nucleargore.html
3. http://www.amazon.com/dp/1935950053
1. http://www.goddamnbastard.org/carcass/faq.html
2. http://www.goddamnbastard.org/carcass/interviews/nucleargore.html
3. http://www.amazon.com/dp/1935950053
