When Identity Politics Meets the Punk Scene

“But to me, an observer with intimate knowledge of punk’s radical history, much of today’s woke rhetoric feels like a throwback.”

“Punk ain’t no religious cult

Punk means thinking for yourself”

—Dead Kennedys, “Nazi Punks Fuck Off” (1979)

Punk has taught me a great deal about independent thought and action. But, in recent years, I have seen large segments of the scene fall prey to the same divisive identity politics, crippling political correctness, and self-righteous social bullying that have increasingly come to dominate mainstream culture. In fact, many of the underlying ideas and attitudes—subsumed under the term “wokeness”—existed in punk long before they entered the mainstream. That punk culture is still around and functioning suggests a resilience to ideological usurpation which is urgently needed today.

Punk, it is safe to say, has always been ahead of the curve on progressive issues. Veganism, for example, has been discussed and practiced in pockets of the punk scene since the 1980’s. Similarly, many of the issues surrounding race, gender, and sexuality prevalent in society today have been staples of punk’s political discourse for decades, as demonstrated in songs such as Minor Threat’s “Guilty of Being White” (1981)—“You blame me for slavery a hundred years before I was born”—and Propagandhi’s “Refusing to Be a Man” (1996)—“I’m a hetero-sexist tragedy/And potential rapists all are we.”

It makes sense, though, that fringe ideas would first take hold in fringe subcultures.

It may be surprising to some readers that punk bands addressed such issues decades ago. After all, it has only been in recent years that concepts such as white guilt, rape culture, and toxic masculinity have taken center stage in our public discourse. It makes sense, though, that fringe ideas would first take hold in fringe subcultures. Under the correct conditions, these ideas can find their way into the mainstream, often in tandem with countercultural aesthetics. It is likely not a coincidence that many of today’s young woke activists don a punk style: brightly colored hair, facial piercings, punk attire. Many of their ideas, too, have precedents in punk.