It’s hard to talk about skinheads and racism, since there’s so much bullcrap out there on the two.

We are the single most universally hated bunch of folks in the world, and some of us love it. You think that skinhead up on the cross wants to be let down? Hell no.

Part of being a skinhead is asking for trouble. It gives freshcuts a bit of glee when some ponce jumps in their path and calls them Hitler’s Youth. Those people are a godsend when you’re feeling punchy.

And sometimes, if we’re not tired of playing ambassador, we do sit those people down and explain things out. The other day, I met a nice foreigner outside Skunk. I told him what I am and pointed out some of the Korean skins standing around, and he replied “Well, we have real skinheads back in South Africa.”

Don’t blame people like this; they don’t know better. It doesn’t help that we encourage these assumptions. Red or white braces and bootlaces, Skrewdriver shirts, bands with ‘88’ in the name—if we were really sensitive to what people think, we’d stop it all. I had a friend who wore a Skrewdriver shirt to a reggae night where I was DJing, and his friends told him to change. Perhaps we can get away with it by pulling out some sort of race card—”I love reggae” or “I’m a Korean.” We all have a copout.

In fact, after reading this article, you may laugh it off and say “How can a Korean really be into this shit?” In a nation that is not predominantly white, how can we have white supremacism? To an extent, everyone here has the freedom to explore racist music because it won’t result in a swift and immediate bootfucking. We can enjoy it ironically, and laugh over the lyrics, and even call ourselves Nazis when we’re all good and drunk.

Probably the single thing that irks me most among the Korean skinheads is the interest in RAC, or Rock Against Communism. To me that’s every bit as much a symbol of white supremacism as a Nazi flag or a burning cross. There’s a folder full of RAC on just about every Korean skinhead’s Soulseek account. Everyone knows who Skrewdriver was. Every once in a while, each of them is contacted by some enraged foreign SHARP or concerned punk who threatens them and calls them a race traitor. Is it deserved? Sure, you need to know the consequences.

Now I’ll make a confession. I’ve got a horde of RAC music on my own computer as well. Why not? It’s fun to listen to. However, I’m cautious about sharing it with others, and I nearly had a heart attack when a People Haters song came on while I was cuddling with my Korean girlfriend. “Gook oi! We’ll never forget Pearl Harbor!” What a rush that was.

I say that if you’re interested in RAC, you must know what it is and be smart on the subject. The music may be good but the politics are rotten, and it’s in every Korean’s best interest never to meet an RAC skinhead.

Of the racist skinheads I’ve talked to, most of them really didn’t have a problem with Koreans liking RAC. As long as they do it in their own country.

One such Korean, Boram (bassist of Samchung), bore witness to one such band while visiting Sweden: Pluton Svea. He reported no problems among the locals with having a Korean skinhead present. It makes me wonder if they performed the song “Hail the Swastika,” in which they sing:

We fight for the existence of the white race every day.

Niggers and Jews, gooks and communists—you have to pay!

The race war is here; there’s no turning back; we won’t retreat

Our enemies already starting to run from our screams

How can a band compromise these lyrics when they see an actual “gook” at one of their shows? I can’t even begin to imagine; the only theory I have is that white supremacists are as lame in Europe as they are in Canada. Boram’s encounter led him to believe that there was something greater than racial politics at work there.

The top misconception of RAC revolves around the name. “Anti-communism? That sounds perfect for a South Korean skinhead!” One problem: the original Rock Against Communism organisers had little or nothing to say about actual Communism. They began organising RAC shows in response to Rock Against Racism, which must have been making their lives difficult. The name of RAC itself is oppositional to Rock Against Racism, not to Karl Marx. To those far-right and racist participants, they saw Communism in their nation’s lenient immigration policies and acceptance of multiculturalism. Try asking these people what Communism is. You’ll get things like “Skinheads who mix with other races” and “South Koreans.”

In every article I find about Rock Against Communism, I read that the concerts were dominated by “far-right and white supremacist bands.” Far right, huh? So maybe originally RAC was nothing more than the “Conservative Punk” movement of today. Maybe, maybe. I find it strange that anyone with a far-right political stance who isn’t racist would want to throw their support under Skrewdriver, a white power band that did not hide their belief in racial superiority.

The leader of Rock Against Communism was Ian Stuart Donaldson, who is considered by racists to be the grandfather of all skinheads. The lead man of Skrewdriver, who formed in 1977, he wasn’t known for racism in the beginning. In fact, he roomed with some of the members of Madness before things went ugly. Most of the stuff you can find by Skrewdriver online is from before they broke up in 1979. It wasn’t until 1982 that Donaldson reformed the band, with all new members and a new objective: rallying whites to action.

It’s important to know who’s pulling the strings behind all this. The thing I find despicable about the original racist skinheads is how they were nothing more than pawns of British racist group the National Front. In America, the seminal label Resistance Records is financed by the National Alliance, who promise “a society in which young men and women gather to revel with polkas or waltzes, reels or jigs, or any other White dances, but never to undulate or jerk to negroid jazz or rock rhythms.” The main reason why I would not trust my back to a white power skinhead is because one of these two groups has influenced him, backed him, funded him, or at least his justified his existence in some way.

Over time, RAC has become a label, then a zine, then a sound. It moved to America, and everywhere else where white boneheads wanted an anthem. Most of the time it’s used as a synonym for white supremacist music, since pretty well all white power bands were involved in RAC in some manner.

Many Korean skinheads insist that RAC has shifted its focus. To them, it’s a symbol of national pride, wherever you’re from, and racism isn’t the issue. Operating on this assumption, it is now possible for Asians to make RAC bands—bands that have no official association with the original people, and almost certainly have no following with them. I’m sure it’s the greatest insult to some of them that Koreans are downloading and enjoying their music.

So let me ask why Koreans need to copy these cockmarts. All the racist skinheads I’ve met have been the dumbest people I’ve known; why would you want to associate with that? The Japanese made their Skinhead Samurai Spirit movement, making all sorts of RAC-influenced bands, but not in the name of RAC. Although you can find all sorts of evidence of Japanese nationalist skinheads, they’re more the flag-waving type than the Paki-bashing or Asian-bashing or gay-bashing racists we deal with in Western countries.

Malaysia too has a growing neo-Nazi community, but these guys seem more like fucking retards. They want to show pride in their country so they wear a symbol of white supremacy. I don’t care who you are; any non-Aryan who dresses in a Third Reich flag is a race traitor. Even that inbred Prince Harry was pissing on his ancestors’ graves by wearing the Nazi uniform, but I doubt he meant it. The Malaysian Nazis do mean it, and one of them told me they believe that everyone is Aryan except the Jews. Uh, no.

What we see now is that RAC has come to represent a sound or a genre, just like oi or clockwork punk. Just the same as we ask for a Kleenex when we need to blow our noses, or a Band-Aid to cover our cuts, or we drink Coke instead of generic cola, or we “Photoshop” images, the white supremacist groups have lost control over their trademark name. And through this, we’re left with an interesting exploit.