Guilty of Being White
| Guilty of Being White | |
|---|---|
| Minor threat | |
| publication | 1981 |
| length | 1:18 |
| Genre (s) | Hardcore punk |
| Author (s) | Ian MacKaye |
| Publisher (s) | Dischord Records |
| album | In My Eyes |
| Cover version | |
| 1996 | Slayer |
Guilty of Being White is a song by the hardcore punk band Minor Threat and appeared on their EP In My Eyes in 1981 .
song lyrics
The fast-paced hardcore punk piece deals with racism from the perspective of a 19-year-old. Like most Minor Threat songs, it was written by singer Ian MacKaye and has autobiographical traits. In the lyrics of the song, the speaker describes that he is being held responsible for something he has never done. He'd accused someone lynched to have and the slavery to be guilt. After the refrain "Guilty of being white" ( dt. : Guilty of being white '), he declares that he is the prisoner of a racist crime and to have served only 19 years of his life (MacKayes age at the time of writing).
Ian MacKaye had to justify the text several times. In the documentary American Hardcore , he claims to still stand by his song. There he described the song as an "anti-racism song". The text resulted from his own experience. He grew up in Washington, DC and was one of the few whites there. At his school he was one of 20%. He was beaten after a history lesson discussing slavery. In addition, the television series Roots had just run on television and he was beaten up for being the "Massa". From his point of view, it would have been clear that he had written about racism. However, the song has been reinterpreted in other contexts. In Poland, young people approached him and proudly told him that the Guilty of Being would like white because they were “ white power ”.
Cover version of Slayer
Slayer covered the song in 1996 for their cover CD Undisputed Attitude . The last line of text was changed there to “Guilty of being right” (Eng .: 'Guilty in the right to be'). Ian MacKaye described this as "offensive" (German: 'offensive', 'offensive' or 'disgusting' '). Slayer later justified himself by saying that the amendment was intended ironic and should not be understood in a racist way. Kerry King stated that it was a minor threat problem. You should stand by your text, which would not get a different message through the change.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Text reprint in Minor Threat : Complete Discography , Dischord Records , re-release 2003.
- ↑ a b American Hardcore , DVD, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment 2007.
- ↑ “I got beat up, because I was the 'massa'”, quoted from Steven Blush: American Hardcore. A tribal history . Feral House, 2001, ISBN 0-922915-71-7 , pp. 30 .
- ↑ Steven Blush: American Hardcore. A tribal history . S. 30-31 .
- ↑ Steven Blush: American Hardcore. A tribal history . S. 31 .
- ↑ Alpha69 Productions, Perceptive Minds, SERANO: Slayer interviews (audio, mp3, video). (No longer available online.) Toazted.com, archived from the original on December 8, 2008 ; Retrieved December 10, 2008 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
