I liked this article, thanks. I think one issue is that white isn't a culture. Polish is. Russian is. Mexican is. These even have subcultures. White is not and does not. I think we run into trouble when we mistake white for culture, which is why some might struggle with a Polish pride festival. They're celebrating Polish-ness, not white-ness. I think the Dreadnoughts and Polka Time celebrate polka (the latter more, obviously), which is part of *some* European cultures (like mine; my mom is German). I don't know about, say, Finnish (or other Baltic) or Armenian polka, but who knows? Maybe there's a vibrant Baltic or Black Sea polka community I don't know about.
In years past, I would frequently end up rubbing shoulders with Far-Right / White Supremacist individuals in a political setting who thought I was in agreement with them. You touch on a couple of things that sound incredibly familiar.
Firstly these ideologies absolutely weaponize the loss of culture we've experienced over the last few decades, using an idealised, and stylised caricature of culture to create a sense of community. In my non-academic view, a lot of these extremists are driven fundamentally much more by a sense of loss than hatred. The cure to this isn't to repress the cultures they are making caricatures of, but to openly celebrate, appreciate, and invite those who were previously shunned from, this culture. I think the Dreadnoughts are a great example of how to do this.
In the UK we see examples of this too, although perhaps less binary than the concept of whiteness feeling problematic. I'm sure the entire folk-punk scene cringed when Nigel Farage came to Thatchers Cider's defence.
There is I think something to be said about how cultural appropriation of certain white cultures unintentionally reinforces the power of the Far-Right's cultural caricatures. I won't name names, but there's a proliferation of 'Irish Punk' bands from the Continent whose music is like a laundry-list of insulting stereotypes: Get Drunk, Fight the English, yadeyadeya. I can't speak for all the cultures The Dreadnoughts have been inspired by, but your incorporation of Westcountry influences has always felt appreciative rather than exploitative. I dread the day we start seeing a German band called 'Dick Taylor and the Scrumpy-Jugs'.
I liked this article, thanks. I think one issue is that white isn't a culture. Polish is. Russian is. Mexican is. These even have subcultures. White is not and does not. I think we run into trouble when we mistake white for culture, which is why some might struggle with a Polish pride festival. They're celebrating Polish-ness, not white-ness. I think the Dreadnoughts and Polka Time celebrate polka (the latter more, obviously), which is part of *some* European cultures (like mine; my mom is German). I don't know about, say, Finnish (or other Baltic) or Armenian polka, but who knows? Maybe there's a vibrant Baltic or Black Sea polka community I don't know about.
In years past, I would frequently end up rubbing shoulders with Far-Right / White Supremacist individuals in a political setting who thought I was in agreement with them. You touch on a couple of things that sound incredibly familiar.
Firstly these ideologies absolutely weaponize the loss of culture we've experienced over the last few decades, using an idealised, and stylised caricature of culture to create a sense of community. In my non-academic view, a lot of these extremists are driven fundamentally much more by a sense of loss than hatred. The cure to this isn't to repress the cultures they are making caricatures of, but to openly celebrate, appreciate, and invite those who were previously shunned from, this culture. I think the Dreadnoughts are a great example of how to do this.
In the UK we see examples of this too, although perhaps less binary than the concept of whiteness feeling problematic. I'm sure the entire folk-punk scene cringed when Nigel Farage came to Thatchers Cider's defence.
There is I think something to be said about how cultural appropriation of certain white cultures unintentionally reinforces the power of the Far-Right's cultural caricatures. I won't name names, but there's a proliferation of 'Irish Punk' bands from the Continent whose music is like a laundry-list of insulting stereotypes: Get Drunk, Fight the English, yadeyadeya. I can't speak for all the cultures The Dreadnoughts have been inspired by, but your incorporation of Westcountry influences has always felt appreciative rather than exploitative. I dread the day we start seeing a German band called 'Dick Taylor and the Scrumpy-Jugs'.