SLSK's Industrial Strength Racism

A post from 'Tape Operator', sent to the Side-Line Music Forum. It's actually a couple of years old (2008) but I thought it interesting as a snapshot, and it asks a few relevant questions - Strelnikov

"Being a Black American, I've always had a dual opinion toward the scene (Punk / Industrial / Goth / alterna-whatnot):

1) Regardless of what my hair looks like or what I wear, there is still a wall between me and a lot of the kids in the scene - I'm still a nigga. It was a little bit different when I had the mowhawk, but not a whole lot.

2) when these same kids "get over their phase", cut their hair and get their tats lasered away so that they can work a corp job for daddy (laying it on thick, but wait for it) or their uncle the CEO, I'm STILL gonna be a nigga.

It's like being black is more punk rock than punk rock ever was, could have been or ever will be, and you know that I'm right given how many white kids right now are giving their parents the shits by running around talking all that gangsta shit and listening to whoever it is that is getting paid to make black people look like greedy minstrels, barnyard animals and psychopathic weed-heads this week. These kids' parents WISH that they were into punk rock, lol. My point is this - with a few obvious exceptions, people here are in general pretty PC. Not me, now way, but a lot of you band members seem to have more in common politically with The Clash than a lot of old industrial bands.

So I use SLSK, send me hate mail. What I noticed way back is that the industrial chatroom on SLSK is literally the most racist place I have ever been on the web, quite literally. It's like a room full of kids screaming the most obscene things that they can think of, mostly racial epithets, although they don't hesitate to drag the two or three girls with low enough self esteem to go in there through the mud. It's almost cartoonish, as real racists tend to actually have an agenda, and the real fascists that I know personally LOVE racism, but don't engage in it at all: racism is an old trick designed to keep the unwashed massed busy fighting each other while 7 people run things and eat well.

I'm definitely not blowing this up - I went in there a few years ago, as Tape Operator, struck up a private conversation with this chick in there and shot her a link to my page. I'm still trying to think of something funny to say, and this chick is in the main chat posting: "TAPE OPERATOR IS A NIGGER", and again, this was a chick, or at least someone with links to pics of a (relatively plain) Goth chick. I mean, there's a user on there called 'niggersarenthuman' and the kid is not in the county music chat, he's in the industrial chat. Anyway, long post marginally shorter, these people are your fans.

What do you guys think about that? Has the total assimilation of fascistic imagery on the part of the scene combined with the music becoming popular amongst the masses, resulted in an audience full of racist assholes? Or were these people racist assholes when the gun went off, and for whatever reason, that the type of person who industrial music appeals to? Take a moment. Get on SLSK. Go in the industrial chat and lurk for awhile. Trust me, you are pretty self-centered if you don't leave that chat thinking about who's downloading your records."

Germany Targets neo-Nazi Internet Radio Station

From BBC News

The report notes "a growing trend among far-right groups to use music to recruit young people".

German police have arrested 23 people suspected of being involved in an illegal far-right internet radio station. About 270 officers took part in more than 20 raids across 10 German states.

Widerstands Radio (Resistance Radio) broadcasts music and ideology reflecting neo-Nazi views - something which is illegal in Germany. Prosecutors say those held face charges of forming a criminal organisation and inciting racial hatred. Police said the suspects were in their 20s and 30s and were believed to have broadcast on the station, or helped to organise the broadcasts.

The Federal Crime Office (BKA) said the 24-hour station used a computer server in the US and listeners would register under false names and addresses.


"[The] investigations are a strong hint to people running other extreme-right internet radio stations that dissemination of songs with extreme-right wing and xenophobic lyrics, even on the internet, will be pursued," said BKA head Joerg Ziercke.

He said they had noticed a growing trend among far-right groups to use music to recruit young people. Last month, the BKA said that over the past decade the number of people with the potential to carry out far-right violence in Germany had doubled to around 9,000. The BBC's Stephen Evans in Berlin says the arrests come during an intense debate in Germany over immigration, particularly from Muslim countries.

Source: BBC News