Nigger, nigger, nigger.....[tangental pc]

["Dennis Moore" <clayboy56>]

Willamette Week Online
Local Reviews & Previews
BY MICHAEL BYRNE, JASON SIMMS, AMY MCCULLOUGH & CASEY JARMAN

http://www.wweek.com/story.php?story=7299

Punk Rock Faggots come under fire
A band of high-school punks inspire ire with online activists

On Saturday, Feb. 25, www.PDXPress.net sponsored a benefit concert at
Reed College that raised $900 for Oregon Books to Prisoners. A product
of the punk website's altruism, the event hardly seems objectionable.
So how did it become a flashpoint for online social activists? Seven
words: Wolfgang Williams and the Punk Rock Faggots.

A local high-school band that was set to open the show, WWPRF raised
the ire of a man who called himself only Topher. The man was allowed
to take the stage to share his views after organizers refused to boot
WWPRF from the bill at his request.

Witnesses report that Topher, who later turned down WW's request for
an interview, argued that an all-white band would never call itself
the Punk Rock Niggers, so calling a band of straight guys "faggots"
was just as offensive. Twenty or so hecklers out of the crowd of 200
did little to dispel accusations of homophobia, taunting the activist.
WWPRF's bass player, Andre Fortes, thanked the activist for sharing
his views, and then the band played, starting its set with the song
"I'm So Straight."

Fortes later explained to WW that the band played that songfeaturing
the lyrics "Punch me in the face and give me a beer/ I gotta prove I
ain't a queer""to point out the fact that everything we're about is
satirical."

But the satire fell on skeptical ears at Portland Independent Media
Center (www.portland.indymedia.org), where Topher published an account
of his experience at the show that elicited more than 50 comments,
almost all verbose and angry in their support of the activist.

In that article, Topher relayed a response from Fortes claiming that
the band was simply carrying on a punk-rock tradition, adopting the
moniker as a challenge to high-school bullies who called the band
members "faggots." Topher countered that apparently "they were
entitled to perpetuate this hate speech beyond their high-school
walls."

Band leader Wolfgang Williams disagrees. "We were trying to reduce the
power of the word by calling ourselves faggots," Williams told WW.

Since the performance, show organizers and the band have apologized
for the actions of the crowd, and Oregon Books to Prisoners even
posted an open apology on Indy Media. The apology is understandable,
but Indy Media's rejection of WWPRF's wordplay is a little more
puzzling, considering that community's history with slippery
semantics.

In 2004, an Indy Media author praised Patti Smith for her Crystal
Ballroom performance, citing her encore as "the best" part of the
show. The song the white punk legend performed was "Rock 'n' Roll
Nigger," which culminated in a group chant of "Everyone's a nigger!"
The article garnered four comments, all of which were supportive.