BUT (yes, there's a but), as a general rule I don’t like to support neo-nazi psychopaths.
Herein lies the conflict of this anecdote.
The record shop that I work in is independent, and is no stranger to controversy. Around the Bjelke era, there was a showdown with the police over albums that had 'rude' words in them.
But we draw the line at racist arseholes. For some reason, though, these said arseholes
seem to think they have allies in us. I
have personally been asked to order in skinhead bands’ CDs on several occasions. I’m not talking about skinheads that just
like to wear combat boots, but skinheads that like to wear combat boots so they
can smash skulls.
On one occasion the gentleman that I served wanted to
order in a CD by Screwdriver, probably the most prominent neo-nazi group. I told him, politely as I could, that we didn’t
order in that kind of music.
‘Why
not?’ he said.
‘Well,’
I told him. ‘It is pretty overt white supremacist music, and we don’t feel comfortable
supporting those kinds of bands, or selling their releases.’
He
looked confused. His brow furrowed
beneath his shaven dome, which was embellished with a pretty lil’ swastika.
‘Okay,’
he eventually said. ‘Fair ’nuff.’ He still looked deeply perplexed.
To
this day, I find this reaction bizarre.
Did he really not know that songs like ‘White Power’ may be considered offensive
to some? Did he just rock a swastika in the same way some people wear Ramones shirts
without having ever heard their music? He seemed so clueless, and really not
that upset by my dismissal. Maybe he was undergoing an American History X-style transformation, and I was just one element
in his ultimate redemption.
His
reaction was slightly uncommon. Generally
these types get aggressive, at which point I call on my boss to give ‘em the
hard line.
Regardless,
I haven’t had a request for any of that music in a few years, which, on one
hand is great. It may suggest that hard-core
racists either don’t exist in such numbers anymore, or that society won’t accept
their presence so they are in hiding.
But
– slight tangent alert - a cynical part of me sees the reactions to asylum
seekers drowning at sea, reactions that are cloaked in economic rationality, or fears of cultural annihilation (what culture?), reactions that are at their
heart deeply xenophobic, and I wonder: maybe racism today is less honest or
overt, but it’s no less present.
