Racist Music Just a Download Away on Mainstream Music Sites
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}You're unlikely to find CDs by groups like Skrewdriver and Brutal Attack sold alongside the latest hits from Rihanna and the Jonas Brothers at your local retailer.
But the white-power punk bands' ballads are just a click away online.
With song titles like "Skinhead Superstar" and "White Warriors," white-power bands and other hate-music recording artists have found a home in places like Apple's iTunes and Amazon.com.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}And with nothing more than a credit card, users can purchase — among other offerings — CDs by the proudly racist country singer Johnny Rebel, with songs such as the catchy little ditty "Coon Town."
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Critics of hate music are appalled to see lyrics such as Skrewdriver's:
Are we gonna sit and let them come?
Have they got the White man on the run?
Multi-racial society is a mess
We ain't gonna take much more of this
What do we need?
or Johnny Rebel's:
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Roses are red and violets are blue,
And n——-s are black.
You know thats true.
But they dont mind, cause What the heck?!
You gotta be black to get a welfare check!
But there is a market for it — which leads to the question of whether online music retailers should screen what they sell, or if it should be up to the buyer to decide what's suitable.
"There's always somebody out there who thinks something is politically incorrect," said Jeff Schoep, head of the National Socialist Movement and its affiliated record label, NSM88 Records. "But this is America. We have freedom of speech and expression. If people want to express political messages in song, they should be able to do that."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Schoep, who said his label has seen a recent "uptick" in sales despite a worsening economy, said the songs distributed by his label are no different from those of more popular acts like Rage Against the Machine.
"If you're going to be able to carry that hard-core Marxist stuff, what is the problem with someone saying, 'White pride, worldwide?'" Schoep asked.
"You can't have a double standard. If pro-white voices can't be heard, what about rap artists who say it's time to kill cops and drag them through the streets?"
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Patti Smyth, a spokeswoman for Amazon.com, said the offensive tracks were offered by unidentified third-party companies.
She declined to elaborate and did not return repeated requests for comment on any plans to limit sales of objectionable music.
Apple declined comment.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Nora Flanagan, a spokeswoman for the activist group Turn It Down, which lobbies against objectionable music, said the companies have every right — and a social obligation — to remove the songs from being sold on their sites.
Citing a "tag system" on the retail sites that links them to mainstream bands like U2 and Motorhead, she said the purveyors of hate music have benefitted greatly from their online exposure.
"The racist right is really taking advantage of the room Amazon is giving them," Flanagan said. "We're not talking about a First Amendment issue here. They're a business and they have a right not to sell whatever they want. It's a business decision they're making ...
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"It's absolutely their right to sell it," she said, "but it could be their choice not to — if they wanted to take a stand on it."
Schoep, who claims pro-white music is "going more mainstream," said removing bands like Skrewdriver and Brutal Attack would be "un-American" and would amount to outright censorship.
"The minute they start censoring, then we're not living in America anymore," he told FOXNews.com. "If people don't like it, don't listen to it, or don't buy it. But some people out there want it."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Tim Lynch, director of the Cato Institute's Project on Criminal Justice, said the term censorship is "thrown around" too loosely.
"Censorship should only be applied when the government tries to censor someone," he said. "Otherwise, we're just talking about the choices that entrepreneurs and businesses make in a free society. When [companies] decide they're not going to accept their product, that's not censorship — that's just choices that they make."