Afro-Punk: The ‘Rock n Roll Nigger’ Experience

Afro-Punk: The ‘Rock n Roll Nigger’ Experience is a documentary following the rare subculture within a subculture, black punk rockers. Although I used to be a fan of punk music and still am to some degree, I have always thought punks, especially contemporary punks, are the biggest nihilistic losers around. Whenever going to a punk show I sometimes felt the urge to vomit seeing so many bourgeois punk “rebels” with strategically placed punk patches and ugly piercings in one room. Since the punk rock sub-“culture” is in itself small, it was very rare that I would see a Negro sporting a fro-hawk at any given punk show. Afro-Punk is a documentary featuring black punks and their experience in being part of what they call a “Eurocentric” movement.

The first black punk I ever saw personally was at a skateboarding contest. He had a spiked-Afro hairdo and an army jacket covered in The Misfits patches. Before the contest began, the rebellious homeboy grabbed a microphone and shouted, “I ain’t no nigga!” I thought that was a profound moment in my life and it has stuck in my mind ever since. A lot of the black punks in Afro-Punk seem to have a similar attitude. Virtually all the individuals in the documentary reject gangsta black degeneracy. Politically, the individuals range from punk black supremacists (talk about oxymorons) to completely self-loathing blacks that don’t even associate with their kinsman. All in all, I found all the perspectives interesting yet sometimes embarrassing.


Afro-Punk also looks at how both blacks and whites have responded to the subjects of the documentary being black punks. I found it hilarious when some of the blacks make fun of whites for wanting a “multicultural” punk subculture that is “colorblind.” Few things are funnier than when a Negro calls out a white liberal on their fake ass “we are the world” anti-racist idealist garbage. Unsurprisingly, some of the black punks featured in the documentary are your typical victims of cultural Marxism that plagues most modern day liberal arts colleges. One black punk brings up “white” privilege showing her own ignorance to the socio-economic situation of the average white American. Afro-Punk makes it clear that black punks face the most criticism from other blacks. Beatings that result in hospital visits from other blacks is one of the more extreme situations a young black punk faced. Being called “Satanic,” “Dyke,” and “wanting to be white” are verbal attacks some of these black punks face.


It becomes apparent watching Afro-Punk that many of the subjects in the documentary obtained their “black identity” due to their lack of blackness. Being the odd-(black)man-out at punk shows, made many of the Afro-punks realize that they really have nothing in common with their people. Of course, a lot of these individuals overcompensate for their blackness by playing “black power” hardcore music which speaks of a “black revolution.” Many prominent political blacks seem to use their own racial background as a tool in improving their career and/or power. President Baracky Obama is the perfect example, a person of partial black descent, who has virtually nothing in common with the black collective, yet has relied on the black community (whether for white liberal guilt or black votes) to get where he is at. One of the black power punks in the documentary does say something that does stand true however. If a “revolution” does happen, blacks will have other black's backs just as any other race should support their own people. I guess that means white liberals will be the first dead in the gutter.


Afro-Punk is a watchable documentary but has very amateurish production to say the least. Director James Spooner, who is himself a mulatto punk, has also directed another film White Lies, Black Sheep which looks embarrassing to say the least. This feature-length film follows a young black punk in the almost exclusively white punk scene. One could say that Spooner’s film career is of an autobiographical nature. I get the feeling that despite making two films on race relations, James Spooner is even more confused about black identity and race relations than before he sought out to direct films.

-Ty E