When Old Punks Go Racist
BY CURT HOPKINS
Most of the old punk rockers I love still play for freedom, fearlessness, inclusion, and anti-authorianism. These are the things I love them for. These are the things that give me hope. These are the things I can dance to! But some have become just about as sad as fuck.
Punks and musicians are people, so they get old, their opinions get dumber and more calcified, and they mistake change for disintegration, at the same rate as the societies in which they operate. But it’s still sadder than when it happens to your dad.
There have always been assholes in the scene, racists like Morrissey and Johnny Ramone, who are arguably closer to older racist assholes like Clapton than to their peers. (Neo-nazi bands have always been marginal to an already-marginal scene, but their little foot soldiers were prevalent enough to warrant Mark Arm jumping off the stage and beating their asses and the creation of an anthem celebrating their failure.) Sadly, it’s not as unusual as it should be to see old punk rockers get locked up for criminal activities, especially, like Handsome Dick Manitoba, on domestic violence charges.
But to see someone like Exene Cervenka gibber like a poisoned bat that every mass shooting is a false flag operation is absolutely heartbreaking.
The conspiracy nuts in the scene come out of a tainted strain of the normally healthy tendency to question received wisdom. Some of the late-stage racism and right-wing reductionism, like that of John Lydon and Glenn Danzig, comes out of a simplistic understanding of free speech and the urge to shock without the balancing element of an obligation to attack the powerful and defend the oppressed, not the other way around.
Thank God we still have ladies, blacks, Latinos, Asians, and queers like The Linda Lindas and Fuck U Pay Us, who recognize punk as a language with a purity of expression that they can ride above all the nasty bullshit of life, including the garbage that floats around in the scene itself.
The Linda Lindas – “Racist, Sexist Boy” (Live at LA Public Library)
Curt Hopkins is a San Francisco-based writer and the author of THE DOG WATCHES AND OTHER POEMS. Follow him on Twitter @curthopkins.
3 Comments
It’s easy to really dislike anyone who puts themselves above others. It never was OK, but it’s all good now! I want someone to write the truth. I want someone to talk about reality. People choose their lives, and work hard to change what they don’t like. I’ll never believe an entire race let themselves be “oppressed”. Suddenly, they have more say and more power than anyone. Blacks have NAACP – who’s job it is to call out non blacks for offending blacks. Is that racist and extremely privileged? Yes. I live in Oakland – where blacks openly talk down to non blacks, and have taken disrespect and bullying to a whole new level. This is not how to create equality. Humans can’t handle being handed the key to Emerald City – especially when they have done nothing to earn it. I worked and went to school on my own. Nobody has brought this out and talked about it. I’m not ok with having black everything in my face and why should I be? All they did was trade places and claim they are not racist. WHAT IF everyone EXCEPT black Americans (no, they are NOT African Americans) quit paying taxes, quit their jobs, and left the Country? Could Blacks survive on their own without ANY help? They haven’t even tried to change – it’s easier to be bullies. Integrity Matters.
Speak up, Karen. Can’t hear you over your own dog-whistle-esque squealing.
Yikes, Colleen. That’s a lot to unpack. How about this? Hate, in all forms, is a problem. But, yikes again, that starts getting problematic the minute you say/write that. I suspect Charles is on the side, just salivating, trying to find a way to Tweet-dig at my observation.
Yikes again, Colleen. You seem to harbor a grudge that is not really in keeping with the original post. So I leave you to your problems. And I hope you find grace in your musings.
Thing is, back on-post, punk is a breeding ground for problems. Being provocative carries a lot of weight. So when does that baggage start to sag, like so much does, when you are older? Lydon, a nutter who cares for his sick wife? He is jabbing at the darkness around him. Morrissey? Fey and not punk, is angry he isn’t (not) adored anymore. Cleese? Funny, until those coconuts stopped clapping his way. Gilliam? An amazing director, but tone deaf when it comes to women and how the movie-making machine treated/treats them. Oh no, This all sounds too British. Then again, you can swap in others and do the same thing.
I think Mr. Writer is onto something. But I also think Guest is missing something too. People’s opinions of others calcify as they get older. Generally speaking, those attitudes exist when they are spry and youthful too. So you sometime miss what the rage of youth suggests, even if you condemn it when you can fully see it, in full bloom, as their defenses start to fail. What am I suggesting? A lot of the spit and vinegar that you applaud is just phlegm and croaking years later. Times change? They sure do. But many bedrock positions, seem in the sheen of youth, are actually horrid when viewed at a distance that age provides.
But I get your point, Mr. Guest Writer. There are those who hold to one point and keep at it. Those should be, I assume, your touchstone. They are, however, simply keeping true to a POV that you hold. And that is a good thing. Thing is, there are others who will disappoint you. That’s a gospel truth to which even the non-religious can give an ‘Amen’.