During their reign of terror & power, the Nazis set about to purge Germany of all, "corrupted" and "degenerate" forms of culture. Now, several generations later, modern-day purveyors of hate have embraced the very things that those before them wanted to destroy.

In their efforts to install a racially pure Aryan culture, the Nazis set about to purge any and all traces of culture that was created by or had origins from Jews, Gypsies, Negroes, and generally anything that didn't have the overtones of a Wagner opera. In terms of artistic creativity, they all but succeeded in wiping out an entire generation of some of the most brilliant minds of this period of history. Fortunately, the folks at Decca have painstakingly compiled and released an amazing collection of music created by these individuals persecuted during this dark and hideous period of Western Civilization.

But this is not what I am writing about today. What I would like to talk about, is something that is almost gut-wrenchingly funny.

Over the past several years, a strange movement has been taking place in the wretched ranks of the various purveyors of bigotry: Race Rock. The music that falls into this genre is an offshoot of Oi, a genre of street music that originated in England during the late 70's and played mostly by working class Skinheads.

Now here's where it gets funny.

The racist skinheads (called 'Boneheads by non-racist and Traditional Skins) are proud to be skins. Proud that is, until you bring up the subject of the origins of Skinhead culture. For the uninformed, Skinhead cultures origination's can be found in the early 60's in various Dancehalls, where individuals from Jamaica and the West Indies would meet, play Ska music, and socialize.

Now, let's move on to the actual music.

As previously noted, this genre is a corrupted offshoot of Oi, which is a sub-genre of rock and roll. And what are the origins of Rock and Roll? The very beginnings come from various sources. But one thing that can't be denied is that from the start, Rock & Roll has always been deeply influenced by Blues, Swing, Gospel, R&B, and Jazz.

So what do we have? We have a sub-culture whose favored musical form lies in the same mud as the people they would love to exterminate.

And what of their heroes? What would Der Fuher and his buddies think? Chances are very good that the concentration camps would have an additional population of youth who have been corrupted by the degenerates who want to destroy the master race.

On the Internet, there is an organization, called Hatewatch, that has devoted itself to dragging these groups out into the light, exposing these views of ignorance, blind ignorance and hatred for all to see. Because of this, they are one of the most targeted and hated web sites to date. Constantly under attack, every day they act as a one-stop-shop of hate in every imaginable category, and how to intelligently combat it. They have compiled a listing of nearly every racist-driven rock band, and have linked to their various web sites. Hatewatch believes in letting these modern-day thugs speak for themselves. And in doing so, they do more damage to their cause than any anti-racist group could ever hope to. And aside from the hilariously ignorant lyrics and message these bands want to deliver, the music is just plain bad.

Check it out yourself

maclisp@pigdog.org