用音乐传播的白人至上主义
MILWAUKEE — The shooting rampage by an avowed white supremacist that killed six people at a suburban Sikh Temple near here came at a time of both growth and disarray in the supremacist movement.
密尔沃基—当下,白人至上主义运动正在壮大,而且散漫无序。在最近发生的枪击案中,一名白人至上主义者枪手在密尔沃基郊区附近的锡克族寺庙杀死了六人。
Though data collected by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate groups, shows that the number of ultra-right-wing militias and white power organizations has grown sharply since the election of President Obama in 2008, the movement is more decentralized and in many ways more disorganized than ever, experts and movement leaders say.
根据监视仇恨团体的南部贫困法律中心(Southern Poverty Law Center)所收集的数据,自2008年奥巴马在总统大选中胜出以来,极右翼民兵和白人至上主义组织飞速发展。专家和运动领导人称,这些组织的权力更为分散,在很多方面,架构也比以往更为紊乱。
“There is plenty of frustration and defeatism in the white nationalist movement,” Don Black, director of Stormfront, the largest white nationalist online discussion forum in the world, said in an interview. Calling Mr. Obama “a symptom of the multiculturalism that has undermined our country,” Mr. Black added that “there is no preeminent organization today.”
“白人民族主义者运动中充斥着挫败感和失败主义,” “风暴前线”(Stormfront)的负责人唐·布莱克(Don Black)在一次采访中说。他称奥巴马是“多元文化主义的病征,而多元文化主义正在削弱我们的国家。”他还补充说,“今天已经没有一个组织可以独占鳌头。”“风暴前线”是全球最大的白人民族主义者在线论坛。
周二,来自纽约的阿马迪普·辛格来到威斯康星州奥克里克的锡克族寺庙。
Yet the shootings also shined a light on an obscure cultural scene that is helping keep the movement energized and providing it with a powerful tool for recruiting the young and disaffected: white power music, widely known as “hatecore.”
不过,枪击案也让人们注意到了一个原本不为人知的文化现象。这种文化给白人至上运动提供了能量,并成为这类运动吸引年轻人和心怀不满者的有力工具:它就是白人力量音乐,广为人知的名字是“恨核”(hatecore)。
For more than a decade, Wade M. Page, a former soldier who the police say was the lone gunman — and who was himself killed by a police officer on Sunday — played guitar and bass with an array of heavy metal bands that trafficked in the lyrics of hate.
警方称,韦德·M·佩奇(Wade M. Page)是枪击案中的唯一枪手,上周日,他被一名警察击毙。在过去的10年里,他曾先后在许多不同的重金属乐队里担任吉他手和贝斯手,这些乐队的歌曲中充斥着表达憎恨的歌词。
Even in Mr. Page’s below-the-radar world, those bands — Blue Eyed Devils, Intimidation One and his own, End Apathy — provided a touchstone and a gateway to a larger cause, as they have for many others in recent years.
即便在佩奇那个本不为人知的世界里,那些乐队——“蓝眼恶魔”(Blue Eyed Devils)、“恐吓一号”(Intimidation One)、以及他自己组建的“结束麻木”(End Apathy)——在近些年为很多人提供了一个试金石和和一个通向更大事业的入口。
“It is one of the pillars of the white supremacist subculture,” Mark Pitcavage, director of investigative research at the Anti-Defamation League, said of white power music. “The message can motivate people to action, cause them to be proud of themselves and their cause. It can aggravate anger levels. It can rouse resentment.”
“它是白人至上主义亚文化的支柱之一,”反诽谤联盟(Anti-Defamation League)的调查研究主管迈克·皮特卡瓦奇(Mark Pitcavage)在提到白人力量音乐时这样说。“它传达的信息会激发人们采取行动,使他们对自己和自己从事的事业感到自豪。它能加重人们的怒火,激起愤恨。”
Arno Michaelis, the former leader of a white power band called Centurion, whose CD “14 Words” has sold 20,000 copies worldwide, recalls being swept away when he heard racist music from the British skinhead group Skrewdriver in the 1990s.
阿尔诺·米凯利斯(Arno Michaelis)曾是白人至上乐队“百夫长”(Centurion)的领导者。该乐队的专辑 “14个词”的全球销量达到2万张。米凯利斯回忆说,20世纪90年代,他听到英国光头党组织“Skrewdriver”的种族主义音乐后,便深陷其中,不能自拔。
“Listening to that music was an essential part of how we rallied around the idea of racism,” said Mr. Michaelis, now 41. “It made me feel I was part of something greater, that I had purpose and that my race was something very special and was something I needed to defend.”
“我们之所以可以团结在种族主义理念下,在很大程度上要归功于这种音乐。”现年41岁的米凯利斯说,“它让我感觉自己是一项伟大事业的组成部分。我有自己的目标,我的种族非常特殊,它需要我的捍卫。”
A Milwaukee resident, Mr. Michaelis distanced himself from the racist scene years ago, but received a call in 2005 from a German neo-Nazi who wanted him to reunite with Centurion for a European tour. The call prompted him to help form an organization, Life After Hate, that evangelizes against racism.
米凯利斯住在密尔沃基,他已经远离种族主义环境很多年了。然而,2005年,他接到德国新纳粹主义者的电话,希望他能为一次欧洲巡演重回“百夫长”乐团。这个电话促使他协助组建了反种族主义宣传组织“憎恨过后的人生”(Life After Hate)。
Though what may have set off the rampage remains a mystery to investigators, Mr. Page’s life as a white power musician playing violence-inciting songs was surprisingly open. He did interviews, posted photos on MySpace pages (one shows him playing guitar with a noose in the background), performed at festivals and even spoke candidly about his beliefs with an academic researching the movement.
对调查者而言,导致枪击案的动机依然是个谜。尽管如此,作为一名演奏煽动暴力歌曲的白人至上音乐人,佩奇生活的公开化程度令人诧异。他接受采访、在MySpace页面上传相片(其中一幅照片显示在他弹奏吉他,而背景里挂着一根绞索)、参加音乐节,甚至和研究该运动的学者坦率地谈论他的信仰。
The academic, Peter Simi, an associate professor of criminology at the University of Nebraska, Omaha, said he met Mr. Page in Southern California in 2001, when Mr. Page was living with a white supremacist whom Mr. Simi had followed.
这位学者是内布拉斯加大学奥马哈分校(University of Nebraska, Omaha)的犯罪学副教授彼得·西米(Peter Simi)。他说他2001年在南加州认识了佩奇。当时佩奇和一名白人至上主义者住在一起。西米曾研究过这名白人至上主义者。
Mr. Simi said Mr. Page told him that he had first come in contact with racist skinheads in Denver as an adolescent, but became a true convert after joining the Army in 1992. Mr. Page received a general discharge in 1998 after being knocked down a rank to specialist for misconduct.
西米说,佩奇告诉他,他第一次接触种族主义光头党是在丹佛,当时他还是一个少年人,但他真正成为其中一员是在1992年参军之后。在军中,他因为行为不当被降级为专业军士,之后他在1998年退伍离开了军队。
“He told me if you don’t go into the military as a racist, you will certainly come out as one,” Mr. Simi said in an interview. “He felt the deck was stacked against whites in the military, and that blacks got all the promotions and were not disciplined for misconduct.”
“他跟我说,就算参军之时你不是一个种族主义者,在离开军队的时候,你也一定会变成种族主义者,”西米在一次采访中说道。“在军中,他感到白人未能获得公正对待。所有的升迁机会都给了黑人,他们即便行为不端也不会受到纪律惩罚。”
Racist and neo-Nazi rock began as an offshoot of British punk in the late 1970s, appropriating both its shaved-head style and so-called oi sound featuring slashing guitar chords and barked vocals. By the 1990s, the music had become heavier, louder and darker, featuring violent diatribes against blacks, Jews and, later, gays and immigrants.
种族主义及新纳粹摇滚始自20世纪70年代末期,当时是英国朋克音乐的一个分支。它吸取了朋克音乐中的光头形象,以及被称为“oi”的音乐元素:以急促的吉他和弦及大声嚎叫的演唱为特色。到20世纪90年代,这类音乐变得更沉重,更刺耳,也更阴暗。猛烈抨击黑人和犹太人是它的特色,后来,同性恋者和移民也成为它的抨击对象。
In 1999, the National Alliance, founded by William Pierce, author of the 1978 white supremacist novel “The Turner Diaries,” bought Resistance Records, the largest and most prominent label for white power music. The acquisition signaled the growing importance of the music to recruiting a new generation of white supremacists.
1999年,威廉·皮尔斯(William Pierce)建立的“国家联盟”(National Alliance)收购了白人力量音乐中规模最大、最知名的标志性唱片公司“抵抗唱片”(Resistance Records)。这起并购显示,音乐在吸引年青一代白人至上主义者方面的作用日渐强大。皮尔斯是1978年出版的白人至上主义小说《特纳日记》(The Turner Diaries)的作者。
“The music became not only the No. 1 recruiting tool, but also the biggest revenue source for the movement,” said Devin Burghart, who has been monitoring racist hate groups for 20 years.
“音乐不仅成为吸引新人的第一工具,而且也是白人至上运动最大的收入来源。”监测种族主义仇恨团体长达二十载的戴维·伯格哈特(Devin Burghart)说。
But Mr. Burghart and other experts on racist ideology said the movement has grown disjointed in recent years, despite the recruiting opportunities presented by an economic recession and the election of a black president.
但伯格哈特和其他研究种族主义意识形态的专家称,尽管经济衰退和黑人总统当选给白人至上运动提供了吸纳新成员的机会,白人至上运动在近些年已变得杂乱无序。
One reason for the disarray might be the growth of a more mainstream movement, the Tea Party, whose successful forays into electoral politics have siphoned energy and support from violent fringe groups, said Chip Berlet, a Boston-based journalist who writes about right-wing groups.
在波士顿,负责报道右翼团体的记者奇普·贝莱(Chip Berlet)认为,导致这种杂乱无序的一个原因可能是更为主流的“茶党”(Tea Party)运动的壮大。 茶党成功挺进选举政治,抽走了极端暴力团体的活力,并且分流了支持者。
But the decentralization of the white supremacy movement may also encourage isolated actors — as Mr. Page appears to have been — to strike out, said Mark Potok, senior fellow at the Southern Poverty Law Center.
然而,南方贫困法律中心的资深研究员马克·波托克(Mark Potok)认为,白人至上运动的权力分化可能会鼓励孤立的行动者,例如佩奇这类人,发起攻击。
“When there are not large organizations, you are more likely to see lone wolves like Wade Page,” he said. “We are seeing a movement full of white-hot rage and frustration because they feel they have lost the battle to make America a white country.”
“如果没有大型组织,你更有可能看到像韦德·佩奇这样的独狼。”他表示,“我们正在见证一场充满狂怒和失意的运动,因为这些白人至上主义者感到,在这场将美国缔造成白人国度的战役中,他们已经失败了。”