Sowell vs. Punk
Thomas Sowell excoriates Barack Obama in a column that says the candidate's relationship with Jeremiah Wright indicates deeper problems. According to Sowell, a passage from the book Dreams From My Father, in which the author discusses his college-era comrades, reveals that Obama's fondness for racial exremists goes way back:
These friends included "Marxist professors and structural feminists and punk rock performance poets" -- in Obama's own words -- as well as the "more politically active black students." He later visited a former member of the terrorist Weatherman underground, who endorsed him when he ran for state senator.
Obama didn't just happen to encounter Jeremiah Wright, who just happened to say some way out things.
For Sowell, this proves Obama "was trying to become a convert to blackness" and seeking "a racial identity that he had never really experienced in growing up in a white world."
I have no beef with Sowell's judgment on Obama's fondness for "members of the left, anti-American counter-culture." But his citation here indicates a misunderstanding of popular culture that is glaring even for a 78-year-old economist.
To wit: If you were looking to find your own blackness, in Obama's day or (to a slightly lesser extent) now, you might possibly cozy up to Marxist professors. There's a very outside chance you might associate with structural feminists. But you would not go anywhere near punk rock performance poets.
Punk was many things, but it was first and foremost white-kid music. I neither praise nor condemn punk for that. It just is — or was: These days, we have Afro-Punk, and we have black punkers willing to speak about the genre's racial divides. But back then, it was vanishingly rare to find any color but untanned-pale in punk rock. Indeed, the hints of white supremacy that always circled around Siouxsie and the Banshees and New Order should be the tipoff. When Obama claims alliances with punkers, he is doing the exact opposite of what Sowell accuses him of: He's indicating his willingness to make friends across racial and cultural lines.
I don't think Obama should be praised for that, as I always find something vain and self-regarding in bragging about your disreputable friends. But a decent respect for the truth demands that we point this out. During the candidate's misspent youth, the only hint of black identity you were likely to find in the punk universe was Sy Richardson's bravura performance in Repo Man.
Update: Interesting discussion of the history of black punk in the comments. Thanks to everybody who contributed.
Well if this got Mitchell Young and me on the same side of an issue, it was all worth it.
Andre's comments about who is and isn't punk remind me of something I'm ashamed not to have realized until I was an old fart: These sorts of distinctions generally mean a whole lot more to listeners than they do to performers. A few years back, hearing an interview with John Doe where he said 10cc's "I'm not in love" was one of his favorite songs, recalling the tale of how The Clash once pleaded with Pete Townshend not to break up The Who because that was their favorite band, and finally cogitating on another too-hammered-to-remember listen I gave to a joint interview where some full-bona-fides punker (Mick Jones I think, but don't hold me to that) discussed his fondness and mutual admiration for some icon of twee 70s hair guitar (Peter Frampton, possibly, but again don't hold me to it), I finally figured it out: All these years I and others had been drawing ever finer distinctions of genre and street cred, when in reality nobody really cared about that stuff.
Posted by: Tim Cavanaugh | April 11, 2008 at 01:23 PM
Is it enough? Absolutely not! In fact what Obama has said and done is going totally in the wrong direction! Excuses! Rationalization! Continued allegiance! If it had been Clinton's or McCain's white pastor who preached not just 5 snippets but rather week after week, month after month, year after year that another race with in America is the enemy and America is not our friend because that race controls America do you really think what Obama has said and done to date would be enough if it were Clinton or McCain? Absolutely not! If Clinton or McCain’s pastor had written supporting Hamas and had visited terrorist states in support of those terrorist states and we found that out would what Obama has said and done be enough if it were Clinton or McCain? Absolutely not! If we herd this white pastor was a part of there campaign team and had been there spiritual adviser for 20 years and was still continuing to be there chosen spiritual adviser would we be OK with that? Absolutely not! If they were still attending that Church when 24 other churches of the same exact faith are within the same driving distance would it be acceptable with the American public? Absolutely not! If Clinton or McCain had thrown there grandmother under the bus but not the pastor, especially if that grandmother was of the race that the pastor weekly’s innuendoes called the enemy would we think that was the right thing said and done? Absolutely not! Americas answer should be a resounding absolutely not to Obama! In fact it is not even close to being enough right words, action and attitude! If it had been Clinton or McCain’s involvement with this kind of pastor and spiritual adviser the cry from the public and the media would be non stop as it absolutely should be. Obama’s handling of this issue should absolutely not be enough for any TYPICAL AMERICAN citizen of any race, creed, color, age, gender, or sexual orientation.
Posted by: Roger | April 10, 2008 at 06:03 AM
Oh, man, I feel I have to take Timeteo's side here. There is no doubt ( no pun intended) that there was more than a tinge of white solidarity in much of punk. Who can forget the Vandals Ladykiller -- which mocked whiggers avant la lettre. Then again, Urban Struggle -- a bit of intra-white wrangling -- was more of a 'hit'. And of course there was the Dickies with "Stuka's over Disneyland" and [Stuck in a Pagoda with] Tritia Toyota. (Call in Welch if you need help with the references Timmy). Was Black Flag's White Minority "racist". I don't know -- but it is a mark of how unfree we have become that none of the above songs would likely be aired now-a-days for fear of offending some or other community. Then again, it's kind of hard to get airplay when the dial is taken up with Banda and narco-Corridos.
Posted by: Mitchell Young | April 09, 2008 at 06:03 PM
"I'm afraid the talk about Siouxsie Sioux and New Order didn't originate in Atlantic City"
Look Jonah jr. the only one's talking about that is you. Because you cannot back your facts up does not make self-evident. It makes your claim wrong. I shouldn't need to puke on anything to make this point any clearer. A 'decent respect for the truth demands' that I point this out.
If I was to make the claim that all LA Times bloggers are anti-semitic on a major papers website I had better have some damned good evidence. Otherwise, I might look like an ass.
You made a claim that not only was punk "white-kid" music but that two popular bands (not even punk rock bands by anyone standards except Michael Bolton's) are tinged with white supremacy.
However, you do not provide proof. What you do is malign unjustly an entire group of people and give others fuel for violence and prejudice against them.
This is why journalist must be held to a higher standard then you average nutcase screaming his opinion on a street corner. You have a wider audience and therefore a greater opportunity to spread false information to the detriment of others.
As you are not from SoCal and apparently did not bother to understand the culture and history from the locality you chose to represent I am simply calling you out as ignorant.
Apology accepted.
Posted by: Andre Casanave | April 09, 2008 at 03:29 PM
Also, I don't want to be too dismissive of these excellent counterexamples. Looking back over the book I note that Obama is talking about his experiences in 1979 at Occidental. You could make the case that L.A. punk was more multicultural than most, but given the context, in which he also talks about reaching out to "Chicanos," "foreign students," and so on, the point that he was seeking rebels of all stripes, not just black solidarity, still stands.
Posted by: Tim Cavanaugh | April 09, 2008 at 10:47 AM
I'm afraid the talk about Siouxsie Sioux and New Order didn't originate in Atlantic City, nor was the story first probed by Chemical Marketing Reporter. That punk was first and foremost white kid music and not the logical refuge of a "convert to blackness" searching for "racial identity" is self-evidently true. But I'm glad to see the I'm-more-punk-than-you-you-wouldn't-know-hardcore-if-it-puked-in-your-face line of argument is as alive today as it was in 1980.
Posted by: Tim Cavanaugh | April 09, 2008 at 09:27 AM
Bus Boys
Untouchables
Fishbone
Not exactly hardcore, but certainly in, around, and among the punk/new wave LA scene back, back, back in the day.
And if you get upset by the Siouxsie lyrics, for God's sake don't check out X's lyrics to Los Angeles
Posted by: Mitchell Young | April 08, 2008 at 06:11 PM
So the Atlantic city native and former writer for the Chemical Marketing Reporter knows punk. Going so far as to list Siouxsie and the Banshees and New Order as white supremest. I doubt even the bands themselves would call themselves punk. They would almost certainly laugh in your face for hinting that they are tied to the white supremest movement.
So for you to claim any knowledge about the LA punk scene or the punk genre must come from pure ignorance. You are remarkable un-informed. As a writer for the LA area you should at least have a basic grasp of the culture-geography for which you write for and represent. You clearly failed. Maybe you should be writing for the Atlantic City Weekly but not here.
Posted by: Andre Casanave | April 08, 2008 at 04:21 PM
I would expect such non-factually based drivel to come from Jonah Goldberg's mouth. But from somebody writing an LA blog when so much punk music came from this area is surprising. You are simply ignorant.
Can you maybe comment on the MEXICAN-AMERICAN punkers who founded many of the seminal bands. Or are they too white for you.
How about the BAD BRAINS. First hardcore band ever. All black. Or did they act too white for you.
I have played punk music with blacks, browns, asians, whites, retards, queers, you name it. The only thing that mattered was that they were true to themselves and played with attitude. I bet that they would be surprised to hear that punk had a whites only sign above it.
Many punkers have had there ass kicked because some dumb$#!% like yourself tries to tie in punk with white power. If I could meet you in person I would like to return the favor.
Posted by: Andre Casanave | April 08, 2008 at 04:01 PM
Siouxsie & The Banshees had a black female violinist, Simone, in the band before they even had a record deal.
Posted by: Paul Weston | April 08, 2008 at 11:54 AM