Hate Hoax History III
"Skinheads" and Backward Swastikas
Mr. Nazi skinhead…remember that when mugging talk show hosts in airport bathrooms, swastikas go to the right, never to the left, always to the right.” - Slaughterama by Gwar
Like the Tawana Brawley hate crime hoax (see Hate Hoax History II), this hate crime hoax is from the 1980s. In those years, there were media-driven outrages over angry hardcore rap and “violent” hardcore punk and media-driven panics over “Satanic” heavy metal and racist “skinheads”.
There was a media-driven panic over hidden Satanic and suicidal messages in songs. Judas Priest’s music had been blamed for a suicide in 1985 and the band would be taken to court in 1990. Ozzy’s music was blamed for a fan’s suicide in a lawsuit in 1986. Casting a looming shadow on freedom of expression was the Parent’s Music Resource Center were seeking ways to censor what they deemed to be music that children should be protected from.
The evening news sometimes showed shock footage from hardcore punk shows of what looked like sustained brawling on the dance floor and people diving dangerously off the stage. They offered advice to parents to prevent their kids from becoming a punk or skinhead and going to one of these dance floor brawls and end up in the hospital.
If you were there, you know that in reality, you were just dancing aggressively with the understanding that you will slam into others but that you will avoid causing injury and that you will not let your feet, hands, elbows or knees hit anyone in the groin, the gut or above the neck. But, of course, to millions of TV watchers, it just looks like brawling.
Then there was the media-driven “skinhead” panic. The media adapted their outrage over hardcore’s violent dancing, obscene lyrics and shaved heads to outrage over Nazi skinheads and the threat of hardcore music turning your kids into Nazi skinheads.
It’s not that there weren’t racist skinheads and and groups of racist skinheads, even racist skinhead bands like Skrewdriver. There were and there still are.
It’s that in general, skinheads were not racist and often enough, not white.
At the time, we mostly called them “white power skinheads” because most of them used terms and symbols associated with “white power” rather than of Nazism. We knew they existed in pockets of the deep South and in Europe. We knew they wore white laces on their combat boots to show their white power stance but I never saw anyone with white laces at any shows. We knew there were racist skinheads who used straight-up Nazi symbols and wore red laces, but we knew they were even more rare. Not that it made a difference; they’re all racist “skinheads”. But we never referred to them as just “skinheads” because skinheads were not racist. They came in all colors. They liked bands of that came in different colors. They sang along with lyrics that urged racial unity. I know. I was there.
Skinhead subculture, it is rooted in ska music which started in Jamaica in the late 50s or early 60s and which was exported to the U.K. where the most popular ska bands such as the The Specials, The Selector and The Beat, were “two-toned” or “checkered” if you excuse the puns.
The term “two-toned” refers at once to the music, the graphic design and the racial makeup of some of the bands and of the fans. Many of the musicians and fans were skinheads.
Some of these UK Ska bands in the late 1970s leaned towards punk and in the 1980s, there was the oi punk skinheads in the UK and hardcore punk skinheads in the USA.
Then came the racist “skinheads” and the mainstream media very often used the term “skinheads” when they should have used terms like “white power skinheads” and “Nazi skinheads.” That, in itself was a hate hoax.
At the time, the mainstream media knew that stories about “skinheads” sold well because they had preconditioned people to think that skinheads were Nazis. Hold on…. I have Déjà vu, as if there was an other case in which the media trained people to think that all of group X are Nazis to sell more news to gullible idiots… hmm… well, anyway, back to the racist “skinheads”…
Big talk shows like Oprah and Richard Bey featured racist “skinheads” - calling them “skinheads” of course. Sally Jesse Raphael did her show, I Can't Believe My Kid's A Skinhead a few years later. The show was about racist “skinheads” but everyone on the show and indeed the show’s title used the term “skinhead” by itself.
It was huge news when a racist “skinhead” broke Geraldo Rivera’s nose in a brawl on his stage. I saw it on TV as a kid. It angered me that they were demonizing the music I loved and the people I slam danced with at shows just because they had shaved heads and therefore superficially resembled these racists who claimed to be skinheads. Even though their guests included anti-racist skinheads, even Jewish skinheads or racially mixed skinheads who tried to explain that real skinheads were not racist, they still referred to the racist “skinheads” as just “skinheads”. Thanks to that hate hoax, they still do it decades later. Here’s Oprah doing it in 2011. Here’s Geraldo doing it in 2015.
An other talk show host, Morton Downey Jr. cashed in on the hysteria. At first it paid off. But having whet his appetite, he wanted more and he bit off more than he could chew. Like the others, he did a show on racist “skinheads”. But he ramped up the racial tension by holding this show at the Apollo Theater. This is perhaps the most important theater in the history of black culture and still continues to be very culturally important. Ever see Showtime at the Apollo? Did I mention that it’s in Harlem? Audiences there tend to be mostly black and this show was no exception. It was tense. They had the racist “skinhead” set up at a podium in the audience rather than on stage with other guests and Morton.
Morton Downey Jr. was a loud champion for Tawana Brawley’s case which was the subject of Hate Hoax History II. He also had Al Sharpton on his show along with Roy Innes who pushed Sharpton backwards onto his ass on his chair and then backwards off the stage platform onto his back with his feet up in the air.
On April 24, 1989, Downey was in an airport the San Francisco International Airport.1 The Decider reported that his show’s senior producer recalls…
“Mort called me: ‘I just got jumped by a bunch of skinheads, I’m screwed, what you gotta do is, you gotta get a private jet to fly me back. I can’t fly commercial!’”
The New York Times reported…
Mr. Downey…said he was attacked by skinheads in a restroom at the airport
…and…
He said they tried to shave his head and scribbled swastikas on his face, sweatshirt and pants.
The Decider reported…
Airport authorities did find a pair of scissors and a felt-tip marker in one of the restroom’s toilet bowls
Back to the N.Y. Times…
A spokesman for ''The Morton Downey Jr. Show,'' John Murphy, was asked about the possibility of a publicity stunt. He said: ''I don't know. I don't know anything. There is no official comment right now.''
His story fell apart. According to the Decider…
In the immediate wake of the incident, Ron Wilson, spokesman at San Francisco International Airport, assured the Los Angeles Times that their preliminary investigation had left them highly skeptical of Downey’s claim. “‘His story does not at all prove out,’ Wilson said. ‘The witness said there was no scuffle. There were no skinheads in the area. As far as we have found, no such incident took place. Our preliminary investigation shows that this was self-inflicted for whatever reason we don’t know.”
He might not have known, but he did, however, have a guess: “We can only assume it was for publicity.”
If so, then he at least accomplished that much. Downey took his story to the media, talking to a number of journalists and fellow talk-show hosts, including Phil Donahue, on whose show Downey delivered a truly groan-worthy utterance: “I understand why a woman doesn’t report she’s raped anymore. I understand what you go through.”
Downey – who never filed a police report about the incident…
…which may be because according to the N.Y. Times…
filing a false police report is a misdemeanor in California.
The Decider continues that he…
never conceded that the “attack” was a hoax, but in the aforementioned documentary, Downey’s buddy Lloyd conceded that he and Mort had picked up the scissors and pen at a 7-Eleven, after which he revealed that he still had the shirt and pants that Downey had been wearing during the “attack.”
Though hate hoaxing paid off for his fiend Al Sharpton2, it was a death knell for Downey’s meteoric career. His ratings were already failing but within a few months, his show was cancelled.3 His hammy hate hoax hastened his demise.
Thanks for reading, ~ Justin Trouble Be sure to see... Hate Hoax History I - The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion Hate Hoax History II - The Tawana Brawly & Al Sharpton Hate Crime Hoax Hate Hoax History III - "Skinheads" and Backward Swastikas Hate Hoax History IV - Americans Believe Outrageous Lies About Racism in America Hate Hoax History V - When Sarah Silverman Lost Her Sense of Humor ...and subscribe to get future episodes and more! Thanks for reading! Please see my other reports, my videos, and consider donating.
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Liberty my right ∴ Truth my sword
Laughter my shield ∴ Knowledge my steed
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The Jussie Smollett Scandal Recalls The Infamous (And Very Fake) Neo-Nazi Attack On Morton Downey Jr. by Will Harris for Decider, Feb 26, 2019