Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Do-It-Yourself white supremacy: Linking together punk rock and white power

2020; Elsevier BV; Volume: 82; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.poetic.2020.101476

1872-7514

Nathan Katz,

Rhetoric and Communication Studies

• Rock Against Communism (a strand of white supremacist punk) ties together punk rock and white supremacist values. • Band members regularly express their participation as being part of a scene, not simply a social movement. • Not only do the punk aspects of the music scene legitimize the white supremacist aspects, but white supremacy is also used as a justification to engage in ironically punk activities. The sociological study of white power music often focuses on music scenes as key to larger social movements, downplaying the cultural and aesthetic aspects of the scenes. Through a qualitative analysis of 41 fanzine interviews with band members, this paper builds upon past research by analyzing how band members view the Rock Against Communism scene not only as a social movement but also as a punk music scene. The results indicate that bands regularly express their participation as being part of a larger music scene rather than a social movement and that they incorporate punk aesthetics to reinforce and validate white supremacy. Simultaneously, white supremacist ideologies justify the need to be an authentic punk, thus helping to boost punk credentials, and creating a symbiotic relationship between the two.