yathrib wrote:It seems that the (nazi) skinhead scene evolved pretty organically out of the punk scene in a number of places. I was marginally involved in the early 1980s punk scene in college. By that, I mean that many of my friends and more-than-friends were more deeply involved, and I went to shows and got as punked out as possible without permanently (like the next morning) altering my appearance. It wasn't long before many of the (mostly) younger and (always) stupider among us started affecting swastikas and other Nazi iconography. At first it was a fashion statement and a way to shock one's parents in a hurry, but it wasn't long before they began to express hatred of different social and ethnic groups. As Nemo notes, many of these people were hardly pure Aryans themselves, and actually most of the hatred and violence was directed toward gays. Also, anyone who got in their way while drunk. My boyfriend, for example (a bassist) had his left arm shattered when these goons pushed him off a wall out of (I guess) scientific curiosity. One of the most terrifying individuals in this "movement" was actually a black female. Seriously.
Was this in D.C. and was the girl named Lefty?
I had a few run-ins with her and her crew many moons ago and it wasn't fun.
I've met Mexican and black Nazi skinheads all over the country, but few had a whole crew of about 50 (or more) white Stormtroopers, like Lefty did.
She and her friends wrecked punk shows all over the DC/Baltimore metro area.
It got so bad that all the punk labels and people who booked punk shows got together and decided that the best way to keep skinheads from coming to shows was to change the music.
Thusly, emo was born.
Personally, I still blame Ian MacKaye and Dante for bringing the Nazi skinheads in the punk scene in first place. Having a band named Iron Cross, whose members dressed like skinheads, is just asking for Nazis to show up and cause trouble.
Ian's cleaned up his image over the years, but I still remember him as the guy who dressed like a skinhead, sang "Kill The Faggot" in the middle of their cover of Wire's "12XU" and sang "Guilty of Being White", all of which brought in armies of skinheads and helped turn the punk scene, which was very non-violent and leftist, into the hardcore scene, which became very violent and right wing.