When we first mentioned that the shooter from the Wisconsin Sikh temple massacre was in a white power hardcore band, we’d expected that metal might be thrown into the spotlight. What we didn’t expect was for CNN to enter the fray with one of the more clueless statements we’ve seen in a while. Lonnie Nasatir, director of the Anti-Defamation League’s Upper Midwest Region, wrote a guest column for the CNN’s site where she initially singled out Hatebreed as a white power band. Here’s part of her column:
At any given time, about 100 to 150 white power bands are in the United States. The bands’ own names defiantly express feelings of hate or violence: Aggravated Assault, Angry Aryans, Attack, Definite Hate, Final Solution, Force Fed Hate, Fueled by Hate, Hatebreed, Hate Crime, Jew Slaughter and White Terror, among others.
It’s obvious to anyone with even a passing familiarity of metal or hardcore that Hatebreed is about as far from a white power band as possible. In fact, just after the article, Hatebreed weighed in on the article via Twitter. “Again, CNN loses all respect,” the tweet reads. “First they ignore the #FREERANDYBLYTHE story now they slander us. We demand a retraction & and apology. #hacks.”
Being lumped in with bands that no sane non-racist person have ever heard of like Jew Slaughter and Angry Aryans? Yeah, that’s pretty slanderous. I’m pretty sure most white power hardcore bands are playing in front of 12 people in a barn, not selling hundreds of thousands of albums and touring the world. And while most metal fans laughed this off at the cluelessness of the non-metal media, you can bet there’s some overprotective parents ripping down a Hatebreed poster in their kids’ bedrooms right now. The post has since taken Hatebreed’s name out of the article, but no retraction or apology has been issued.
[via aux.tv]
