AFRAM #3

            The punk music community is shown to be non-judgmental group that accepts everyone. In the Mimi Nguyen article “It’s (Not) A White World: Looking for Race in Punk,” she points out that “punks seem to be pretty good with political economy” by participating in some large protests on war and homophobia. However, there is a disconnect between punk and topics of race, sexuality, and social class. The “common culture” around punk music, just like in America’s mainstream culture, is based around heterosexual, middle class, white ideals. Nguyen explains this well by saying “Whiteness falls into a “neutral” category, and race is a property that somehow belongs only to “others.” With songs about travel, for instance, punk expresses it as “leisure, self-discovery, and freedom” rather than “immigration, refugee movement, or exile” in contract to other genres of music. Punk is creating this exclusion through the music’s word choice and continuing to fuel the paradox that “some kinds of individuality are valued” while others are not. Punk tries to turn away from this with colorblind phrases such as “we are all punk” and saying that these racist, sexist, and homophobic ideals are not “real punk principles.” But how can you say that you don’t stand for something when you don’t make a stand for anything in that regard?

Punk is only so seemly progressive until “something earth-shattering like riot grrrl ruptures the smooth surface of p-rock” and they try to create unity again. Riot grrrl, as Haeh Garrison says in here article, stands against the weakness that has been placed in the word “girl” and “puts the growl back.” Riot grrrl is an example of real unity through feminism that can and should be an example for punk artists on what taking a stand towards true equality looks like.