T-Rex
ELITE MEMBER
- Joined
- Apr 7, 2008
- Messages
- 9,989
- Reaction score
- -11
- Country
- Location
Power of hatecore music to recruit young
Date
August 11, 2012
James Dao, Serge Kovaleski
Grief and questions women at a candlelight vigil in Oak Creek, near Milwaukee, for those who were shot at the Sikh Temple there. Photo: AP Photo/Milwaukee Journal-Senti
MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin: The shooting rampage by an avowed white supremacist that killed six people at a suburban Sikh temple came at a time of growth and disarray in the white supremacist movement.
Although data collected by the Southern Poverty Law Centre, which monitors hate groups, shows the number of ultra-right-wing militias and white power organisations has grown sharply since the election of President Barack Obama in 2008, the movement is more decentralised and in many ways more disorganised than ever, experts and movement leaders say.
Yet the shootings also shone a light on a cultural scene that is helping keep the movement energised and providing it with a powerful tool for recruiting the young and disaffected: white power music, widely known as hatecore.
Wade Michael Page, accused killer in the Wisconsin Sikh temple shooting attack.
Wade Michael Page on his MySpace page.
For more than a decade, Wade Michael Page, a former soldier who the police say was the lone gunman in the Milwaukee massacre last Sunday, played guitar and bass with heavy metal bands that trafficked in the lyrics of hate.
Advertisement
Even in Page's below-the-radar world, those bands - Blue Eyed Devils, Intimidation One and his own, End Apathy - provided a touchstone and a gateway to a larger cause.
''It is one of the pillars of the white supremacist subculture,'' Mark Pitcavage, director of investigative research at the Anti-Defamation League, said of white power music. ''The message can motivate people to action, cause them to be proud of themselves and their cause. It can aggravate anger levels. It can rouse resentment.''
Arno Michaelis, the former leader of a white power band called Centurion, whose CD 14 Words has sold 20,000 copies worldwide, recalls being swept away when he heard racist music from the British skinhead group Skrewdriver in the 1990s.
''Listening to that music was an essential part of how we rallied around the idea of racism,'' Mr Michaelis said. ''It made me feel I was part of something greater, that I had purpose and that my race was something very special and was something I needed to defend.''
A Milwaukee resident, Mr Michaelis distanced himself from the racist scene years ago, but was stunned to receive a call in 2005 from a German neo-Nazi who wanted him to reunite with Centurion for a European tour. The call prompted him to help form an organisation, Life After Hate, that evangelises against racism.
What may have triggered the rampage remains a mystery to investigators, but Page's life as a white power musician playing violence-inciting songs was surprisingly open. He did interviews, posted photos on MySpace pages (one shows him playing guitar with a noose in the background), performed at festivals and even spoke candidly about his beliefs with an academic researching the movement.
The academic, Peter Simi, an associate professor of criminology at the University of Nebraska, Omaha, said he met Page in 2001, when Page was living with a white supremacist Professor Simi had followed.
Page told him he had first come in contact with racist skinheads in Denver as an adolescent, but became a true convert after joining the army in 1992. Page received a general discharge in 1998 after being knocked down a rank for misconduct.
''He told me if you don't go into the military as a racist, you will certainly come out as one,'' Professor Simi said. ''He felt the deck was stacked against whites in the military, and that blacks got all the promotions and were not disciplined for misconduct.''
Racist and neo-Nazi rock began as an offshoot of British punk in the late 1970s, appropriating its shaved-head style and so-called ''oi'' sound featuring slashing guitar chords and barked vocals. By the 1990s, the music had become heavier, louder and darker, featuring violent diatribes against blacks, Jews and, later, gays and immigrants.
In 1999, the National Alliance, founded by William Pierce, author of the 1978 white supremacist novel The Turner Diaries, bought Resistance Records, the largest and most prominent label for white power music. The acquisition signalled the growing importance of the music to recruiting a new generation of white supremacists.
''The music became not only the number one recruiting tool, but also the biggest revenue source for the movement,'' said Devin Burghart, who has been monitoring racist hate groups for 20 years.
But the movement has grown disjointed in recent years, despite the recruiting opportunities presented by an economic recession and the election of a black president.
One reason might be the growth of a more mainstream movement, the Tea Party, whose successful forays into electoral politics have siphoned energy and support from violent fringe groups, said Chip Berlet, a Boston journalist who writes about right-wing groups.
But the decentralisation of the white supremacy movement may also encourage isolated actors - as Page appears to have been - to strike out, said Mark Potok, senior fellow at the Southern Poverty Law Centre.
''When there are not large organisations, you are more likely to see lone wolves like Wade Page,'' he said. ''We are seeing a movement full of white-hot rage and frustration because they feel they have lost the battle to make America a white country.''
The New York Times
Read more: Power of hatecore music to recruit young
Date
August 11, 2012
James Dao, Serge Kovaleski
Grief and questions women at a candlelight vigil in Oak Creek, near Milwaukee, for those who were shot at the Sikh Temple there. Photo: AP Photo/Milwaukee Journal-Senti
MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin: The shooting rampage by an avowed white supremacist that killed six people at a suburban Sikh temple came at a time of growth and disarray in the white supremacist movement.
Although data collected by the Southern Poverty Law Centre, which monitors hate groups, shows the number of ultra-right-wing militias and white power organisations has grown sharply since the election of President Barack Obama in 2008, the movement is more decentralised and in many ways more disorganised than ever, experts and movement leaders say.
Yet the shootings also shone a light on a cultural scene that is helping keep the movement energised and providing it with a powerful tool for recruiting the young and disaffected: white power music, widely known as hatecore.
Wade Michael Page, accused killer in the Wisconsin Sikh temple shooting attack.
Wade Michael Page on his MySpace page.
For more than a decade, Wade Michael Page, a former soldier who the police say was the lone gunman in the Milwaukee massacre last Sunday, played guitar and bass with heavy metal bands that trafficked in the lyrics of hate.
Advertisement
Even in Page's below-the-radar world, those bands - Blue Eyed Devils, Intimidation One and his own, End Apathy - provided a touchstone and a gateway to a larger cause.
''It is one of the pillars of the white supremacist subculture,'' Mark Pitcavage, director of investigative research at the Anti-Defamation League, said of white power music. ''The message can motivate people to action, cause them to be proud of themselves and their cause. It can aggravate anger levels. It can rouse resentment.''
Arno Michaelis, the former leader of a white power band called Centurion, whose CD 14 Words has sold 20,000 copies worldwide, recalls being swept away when he heard racist music from the British skinhead group Skrewdriver in the 1990s.
''Listening to that music was an essential part of how we rallied around the idea of racism,'' Mr Michaelis said. ''It made me feel I was part of something greater, that I had purpose and that my race was something very special and was something I needed to defend.''
A Milwaukee resident, Mr Michaelis distanced himself from the racist scene years ago, but was stunned to receive a call in 2005 from a German neo-Nazi who wanted him to reunite with Centurion for a European tour. The call prompted him to help form an organisation, Life After Hate, that evangelises against racism.
What may have triggered the rampage remains a mystery to investigators, but Page's life as a white power musician playing violence-inciting songs was surprisingly open. He did interviews, posted photos on MySpace pages (one shows him playing guitar with a noose in the background), performed at festivals and even spoke candidly about his beliefs with an academic researching the movement.
The academic, Peter Simi, an associate professor of criminology at the University of Nebraska, Omaha, said he met Page in 2001, when Page was living with a white supremacist Professor Simi had followed.
Page told him he had first come in contact with racist skinheads in Denver as an adolescent, but became a true convert after joining the army in 1992. Page received a general discharge in 1998 after being knocked down a rank for misconduct.
''He told me if you don't go into the military as a racist, you will certainly come out as one,'' Professor Simi said. ''He felt the deck was stacked against whites in the military, and that blacks got all the promotions and were not disciplined for misconduct.''
Racist and neo-Nazi rock began as an offshoot of British punk in the late 1970s, appropriating its shaved-head style and so-called ''oi'' sound featuring slashing guitar chords and barked vocals. By the 1990s, the music had become heavier, louder and darker, featuring violent diatribes against blacks, Jews and, later, gays and immigrants.
In 1999, the National Alliance, founded by William Pierce, author of the 1978 white supremacist novel The Turner Diaries, bought Resistance Records, the largest and most prominent label for white power music. The acquisition signalled the growing importance of the music to recruiting a new generation of white supremacists.
''The music became not only the number one recruiting tool, but also the biggest revenue source for the movement,'' said Devin Burghart, who has been monitoring racist hate groups for 20 years.
But the movement has grown disjointed in recent years, despite the recruiting opportunities presented by an economic recession and the election of a black president.
One reason might be the growth of a more mainstream movement, the Tea Party, whose successful forays into electoral politics have siphoned energy and support from violent fringe groups, said Chip Berlet, a Boston journalist who writes about right-wing groups.
But the decentralisation of the white supremacy movement may also encourage isolated actors - as Page appears to have been - to strike out, said Mark Potok, senior fellow at the Southern Poverty Law Centre.
''When there are not large organisations, you are more likely to see lone wolves like Wade Page,'' he said. ''We are seeing a movement full of white-hot rage and frustration because they feel they have lost the battle to make America a white country.''
The New York Times
Read more: Power of hatecore music to recruit young
