Anti-hate crime groups have asked the Irish community to watch out for Neo-Nazi groups that are organizing Irish dancing and singing events as a way of luring unsuspecting young people into their groups.
The groups are speaking out after Neo-Nazis organized a well-attended Irish dancing class in St. Louis in February, without the participants knowing the true nature of the event.
the article is dated from April but it was just posted to IRTRAD-L; i haven't seen it mentioned here, apologies if this was already discussed.
This is something the non-hating community needs to stamp out IN A HURRY. If trad music gets the rap as music for racists, it's all over--that stench will stick around for years.
Henry Ford's support for OT fiddle and dance music as an expression of white pride wiped out a whole regional scene in the early dacaeds of last century--it wasn't until the folk boom of the fifties that any ground was regained.
And now there was no doubt that the trees were really moving - moving in and out through one another as if in a complicated country dance. ('And I suppose,' thought Lucy, 'when trees dance, it must be a very, very country dance indeed.')
s1m0n wrote:Henry Ford's support for OT fiddle and dance music as an expression of white pride wiped out a whole regional scene in the early dacaeds of last century...
Henry Ford, the car manufacturer was a racist?
Didn't seem to hurt the Automobile industry...
s1m0n wrote:Henry Ford's support for OT fiddle and dance music as an expression of white pride wiped out a whole regional scene in the early dacaeds of last century...
Henry Ford, the car manufacturer was a racist?
Didn't seem to hurt the Automobile industry...
Wasn't it the founder of Marlboro who was a KKK member as well? Don't know if it's just a rumour, but people have showed me various hidden symbols and stuff on the Marlboro boxes which relate to KKK.
Anyway, it didn't hurt the tobacco industry.
Henke wrote:Wasn't it the founder of Marlboro who was a KKK member as well? Don't know if it's just a rumour, but people have showed me various hidden symbols and stuff on the Marlboro boxes which relate to KKK.
Anyway, it didn't hurt the tobacco industry.
s1m0n wrote:Henry Ford's support for OT fiddle and dance music as an expression of white pride wiped out a whole regional scene in the early dacaeds of last century...
Henry Ford, the car manufacturer was a racist?
Didn't seem to hurt the Automobile industry...
Google "ford" and the nazis, and you might be surprised what you find.
And now there was no doubt that the trees were really moving - moving in and out through one another as if in a complicated country dance. ('And I suppose,' thought Lucy, 'when trees dance, it must be a very, very country dance indeed.')
I've heard of this recently, from one of our local sessioneers.
We joked about the silliness of a white supremacy group latching onto Irish trad music. Have they lost track of their long list of hated ethnic groups?
Over the years, however, the social concept of "race" has simplified to phenotypes that can be clearly seen. In the old days, Anglo-Saxon and Gaelic were different races. Nowadays, those are all "white" people, and racial divisions are determined mostly by skin color and facial features. Maybe white nationalists are adapting their bigotry to these new ideas.
In any case, there is no biological basis for racial classification. If tomorrow we decided that blue-eyed people were a separate race, that division would have as much biological basis as the separation between white and black people.
This leaves one a little queazy. Although the historical irony is hard to miss. For them to exploit a culture with such strong ties to the Catholic church either demonstrates a more narrowed focus or total ignorance of the history of their cause.
But turning a blind eye for sake of hatred is not new. Case in point would be the Grand Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini who allied with Hitler and became the general of Muslim units in the SS. All he had to do was have a doctor tell Hitler that the Grand Mufti was not an Arab. Many political historians link his influence to modern jihadists and even the rise of Saddam Hussein.
Like Simon, I hope the music we love doesn't become tainted in public opinion because of these activities. Hopefully the spotlight will discourage such groups from further exploiting Irish and other European cultures.
The funny part about this story is how clueless the perpetrators of this hate thing are. At the Irish sessions I’ve been to (in the US) the diversity of races, religions and nationalities are extraordinary. The same is true of the dance schools. At a small session I was at Monday night 4 of the 6 players were Jewish.
