Afro Punk

Afro Punk was a documentary that was meant to display the subculture of punk rock fans and the blacks that were infatuated in its predominantly White fan base. The documentary was used to display the pitfalls of being a person of Black descent whom was consumed with the punk rock culture and the oppression that they felt from Whites and also Blacks for doing so.

The documentary eventually became a message board for Black punk rock lovers to express themselves through the mediums of particular issues such as religion, race, self-awareness, regional location, musical taste, etc. There are thousands of members on Afro Punk and I have recently noticed that with very great idea (such as Afro Punk as a documentary or website), there will always be a a part of its audience that isn't depicted in a great way. In this documentary, the focus group is definitely blacks whom love the punk rock culture, but the audience of this film was meant for those of a middle-class upbringing and status quo. The film follows and documents the lives of several different kids that grew up consumed by the punk rock subculture, but it is evident that the kids in the documentary were from "suburbia." Within the first few minutes of the film, these kids were complaining and whining about how hard it was for them to grow up being the only black kid in their neighborhood or the only black kid at the rock show. They continued to grumble about how other black kids would ridicule them for listening to rock music.

My point is this, there is a much greater difference for a black person to be from a predominantly White neighborhood and a black person from the inner city whom have the same similarity in loving rock music. It is much more difficult for someone from an inner city upbringing to love rock and get ridiculed by a lot more people than some kid from suburbia. The suburban kids have someone to confide in when it comes to their love of rock music where as the inner city kids are generally surrounded by other people whom don't generally listen to rock music and have usually no one near them to share their appreciation of rock with.

There are two types of blacks in America: black rich and black poor. You can have blacks that may have the same interests and similarities, but it's sad how something as unsubstantial as status quo can effect their interaction. But, hey...that's how they programmed us.