13 • DELIVERING HATE: How Amazon’s Platforms Are Used to Spread White Supremacy, Anti-Semitism, and Islamophobia and How Amazon Can Stop It
Streaming “Hatecore” Celebrates Violence and Racism
Music has long been a recruitment tool for organized white supremacists. As the ADL reported in 2012, “white power music is
not simply entertainment. It is music with a message, a medium used to express an ideology suused with anger, hatred and
violence.”
117
The SPLC describes white power or “hatecore” music as a “multimillion-dollar, worldwide industry that is a primary
conduit of money and young recruits to the radical right.”
118
The explosion of digital music distribution has bolstered the hate music world in recent years.
119
Devin Burghart, a researcher
who has tracked white supremacy in music for more than 20 years, says that racist musicians have been “emboldened” since
Trump rose to power. White power bands are playing more frequently, and white power ideologies are showing up in more
genres.
120
As of June 2018, Amazon is oering streaming music and digital downloads
from least 11 bands identied as making hate music (see Appendix C for a
full list of bands and titles available to stream or download). For example,
Amazon oers 21 songs from racist band Max Resist, including “Romantic
Violence” and “Boot Party,” which celebrate physical violence.
121
Among the
30 titles from Brutal Attack is one called “Unity,” which includes the lyrics
“European unity, white power, pride and dignity.”
122
This song is titled “European Unity” elsewhere,
123
and the title may have
been shortened on Amazon Digital Music in order to make use of the mainstream distribution channel. Similarly, a number of
titles from racist band Chingford Attack have been altered on Amazon streaming, but their content remains virulently racist,
anti-Semitic, and misogynist. These titles include “C. Hunt,” where C stands for a racist epithet for Black people; “Dirty B Bastard,”
listed elsewhere as “Dirty Black Bastard” and containing that lyric; “J Lies,” for “Jewish Lies”; and “Dirty W Whore,” for “Dirty White
Whore,” a song about white women married to Black men.
124
The digital samples of Chingford Attack’s songs available on
Amazon include explicitly racist lyrics like those in the song titles.
125
In addition to identifying specic bands, the SPLC identies a number of record labels that produce and distribute hate
music,
126
and at least four have a cumulative 48 albums available on Amazon to stream or download as of June 2018. Nineteen
albums from Elegy Records are available digitally on Amazon.
127
The album art for Bitter Peace’s Ashes of Oppression shows a
man carrying what resembles an Imperial German ag.
128
According to the ADL, some neo-Nazis use this ag because Germany
117
“The Sounds of Hate: The White Power Music Scene in the United States in 2012,” Anti-Defamation League, accessed June 18, 2018, https://www.adl.org/sites/default/les/documents
/assets/pdf/combating-hate/Sounds-of-Hate-White-Power-Music-Scene-2012.pdf.
118
“Hate Music,” Southern Poverty Law Center, accessed June 18, 2018, https://www.splcenter.org/ghting-hate/extremist-les/ideology/hate-music.
119
“Music, Money and Hate,” Southern Poverty Law Center, accessed June 18, 2018, https://www.splcenter.org/ghting-hate/intelligence-report/2014/music-money-hate-0.
120
Cristina Maza, “How to Avoid Accidentally Booking a White Power Band,” CityLab, November 13, 2017, accessed June 18, 2018, https://www.citylab.com/life/2017/11/so-you
-accidentally-booked-a-white-supremacist-band/545594/.
121
Max Resist and the Hooligans, “Boot Party” lyrics, FlashLyrics, accessed June 18, 2018, https://www.ashlyrics.com/lyrics/max-resist-and-the-hooligans/boot-party-25; MaxResist,
“Romantic Violence” lyrics, Genius, accessed June 19, 2018, https://genius.com/Max-resist-romantic-violence-lyrics.
122
Brutal Attack, “European Unity” lyrics, FlashLyrics, accessed June 18, 2018, https://www.ashlyrics.com/lyrics/brutal-attack/european-unity-27.
123
Ibid.
124
“Chingford Attack,” Digital Music, Amazon, accessed June 18, 2018, https://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=sr_adv_m_digital/?search-alias=digital-music&unltered=1&eld
-keywords=&eld-author=Chingford+Attack&eld-title=&eld-label=&eld-browse=&sort=relevancerank&Adv-Srch-MP3-Submit.x=0&Adv-Srch-MP3-Submit.y=0; Chingford Attack, Reds
Better Run When We’re on the Attack, ISD Records, 2012, accessed June 18, 2018, https://www.discogs.com/Chingford-Attack-Reds-Better-Run-When-Were-On-The-Attack
/release/8472537; Chingford Attack, “Dirty White Whore” lyrics, FlashLyrics, accessed June 18, 2018, https://www.ashlyrics.com/lyrics/chingford-attack/dirty-white-whore-41.
125
Samples from “Dirty B Bastard” and “C. Hunt” by Chingford Attack, Amazon, accessed June 18, 2018, https://www.amazon.com/Reds-Better-When-Attack-Explicit/dp/B00FGLKFIA/ref
=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1529420015&sr=8-1&keywords=Chingford+Attack.
126
“Hate Music,” Southern Poverty Law Center.
127
Search results for “Elegy Records,” Digital Music: Albums, Amazon, accessed June 20, 2018, https://www.amazon.com/s?rh=n%3A163856011%2Cp_33%3A%22Elegy+Records
%22%2Cp_n_feature_browse-bin%3A625150011&sort=relevancerank&unltered=1&ie=UTF8&qid=1529505702.
128
Bitter Peace, Ashes of Oppression, Elegy Records, 2015, accessed June 20, 2018, https://www.amazon.com/Ashes-Oppression-Bitter-Peace/dp/B0142YXY5C.
Among the 30 titles from Brutal Attack is one
called “European Unity” which includes the
lyrics “European unity, white power, pride
and dignity.”