Metalcore Drummer Running for Office as Part of Racial Separatist Party
Apparently, there’s a metalcore band/crunkcore band/Attack Attack clone out there named The Paramedic, which is kind of a lousy name (though when you see how these guys dress, you’ll understand that the name is the least of their problems). Anyway, this band’s former drummer, Tony Hovater, is running for a city council position in New Carlisle, OH, just outside their hometown in Dayton.
The problem? Hovater is running as part of the Traditional Worker’s Party, which was created by bigot and racial separatist Matthew Heimbach.
Heimbach is one of these not-racist racists whose whole thing is, “I don’t hate anyone, I just believe they should be separated by color and kept in their place.” Here’s a sample of his ideology from a recent Al Jazeera article on him:
“I support white power, black power, brown power and yellow power,” Heimbach says. “All races should be the dominant political force in their region. That is why America needs to be divided into smaller, ethnically and culturally homogenous states. In countries where races are mixed, one race will always dominate the others. That is why we need separation. Not because the white race is better than the black race. We need to stop the hate and separate.”
This is an interesting stance to take, basically calling for the dissolution of the United States. It’s also racist at its heart — the basic implication is that we’re all xenophobic children and therefore can’t live together.
And then, of course, there’s Heimbach’s rampant anti-Semitism:
He firmly believes that the Jews are working diligently behind the scenes to eradicate the white race, faith and culture. “We can’t win against them by arguing,” he said at the Stormfront conference. “You can’t out-Jew the Jew. It’s like playing chess with a pigeon. No matter how good you are at chess, eventually someone’s going to knock the board over and poop on it. Let’s stop worrying about out-Jewing them or outsmarting them. Let’s just stand for what we believe in, which is faith, family and folk — the three things that make us a nation.”
Sorry, so, are Jews the pigeons in this situation? Are YOU the pigeon? Who’s doing the pooping? Is that what Judaism is — a bunch of angry board-throwing and floor-shitting? I’m not sure how a group takes over the world when all they do is crap on the floor, man.
Sorry, back to The Paramedic. The band has released a response regarding this matter on their Facebook page:
How can we be a white supremacist band when our vocalist isn’t white? Don’t feed into the bullshit. Some companies just have to stoop that low to get people to click on their stories. It’s a shame, really. There is so much going on in music that won’t get covered. There are so many amazing bands that deserve attention for all the right reasons. And no one will ever know, because these music “news” magazines are too busy trying to shit on hard working bands just to get people to buy their new issue. We’re just going to say what’s up to our haters real quick and keep making music for the fans to love.
First of all: just because you have a black dude in the band doesn’t mean you’re not racist. According to the Traditional Worker’s Party’s beliefs, all that matters is that he goes back to his appointed Black Nation after band practice.
Second: The Paramedic went about this the wrong way if you ask me. They should have written a post about the bands that deserve credit, or at the least just confronted the racism allegations and be done with it. The whole, “Here’s what you should REALLY be looking at!” thing never comes off as truly noble, it just feels like passing the buck.
BUT, third: Hovater isn’t in the band anymore. And unless The Paramedic come out to stand with him at a TWP rally, his former presence in the band doesn’t really reflect on them. He was the fucking drummer, for Pete’s sake — it’s not like he was writing most of the lyrics.
That said, The Paramedic aren’t necessarily the most sensitive band anyway, as demonstrated by this charming piece of merch (ah, metalcore). Thankfully, their music is just awful, so it’s no great loss.
