On the night of January 22, 2016, a myriad of notable Rock and Metal musicians gathered in Hollywood, CA for the fifth annual Dimebash charity event. The event pays tribute to late ex-Pantera guitarist Lance “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott, who was shot and killed while performing onstage in 2004.

Proceeds from the event go to the Ronnie James Dio's Stand Up and Shout Cancer Fund, named after the legendary Heavy Metal singer, Ronnie James Dio (frontman of various acts including Rainbow, Black Sabbath, Dio and Heaven and Hell), who passed away as a result of stomach cancer in 2010.

All in all – it’s a great event for a worthy cause, with an all-star lineup performing some covers of timeless Metal classics.

However, this year’s show came with quite a bit of controversy. As Phil Anselmo, former singer of the long-since defunct Pantera, finished the show with a cover of Pantera’s hit classic, “Walk”, he went on to raise a Nazi salute and scream “white power” before leaving the stage.

The clip was originally uploaded to YouTube without the controversial ending, but later uploaded again as a separate video and garnered an enormous amount of attention. Anselmo himself addressed his actions by posting this response in the comments,

"Ok folks, I’ll own this one, but dammit, I was joking, and the “inside joke of the night” was because we were drinking f—ing white wine, hahaha…Of all f—ing things. Some of y’all need to thicken up your skin. There’s plenty of f—ers to pick on with a more realistic agenda. I f—ing love everyone, I f—ing loathe everyone, and that’s that. No apologies from me. PHA ’16," he said.

Since then, many have rejected his “white wine” excuse and demand he be held accountable for his actions, leading many musicians in the Metal community to issue their own public responses to the events that occurred, the very first being Rob Flynn, the guitarist for Machine Head.

Flynn posted an 11-minute video to YouTube addressing Anselmo's actions. Blabbermouth.net, the primary source for Metal news and interviews, produced a full transcript of his video, and I've abridged it to provide you with the essential points.

"And there you have it. The final words of 'Dimebash 2016': 'White Power'. Which was apparently just a joke, because they were drinking white wine backstage. [Laughs] Get it? White wine, white power. 'We were listening to 'White Christmas backstage, so I decided to throw out 'White Power.' [Laughs] I was there, and I can tell you for a fact that there was not a Chardonnay or a Pinot Grigio in sight backstage. In fact, the only thing that you were drinking, Phil Anselmo, was Beck's — German beer. Maybe that's where the joke came from, huh? Get it? German beer. White power. F---ing hysterical stuff there…

And, you know, the crazy thing is that out of all the things that are being said, the majority of people are just, like, 'Oh, give him a break. Here comes the PC police now and social-justice team.' And, 'You all just need to thicken your skin and stop being such pussies when somebody screams out 'white power' and 'sieg heils.'' 'Liberal this' [and] 'liberal that. Only in the metal community is something like this so, so brushed off. If this was Chad from Nickelback, if this was Justin Bieber, if this was Tom Brady, if this was Lars f---ing Ulrich, heads would roll. Holy s--t! The goddamn s--tstorm that would fly around if Lars Ulrich screamed 'White Power' from the stage. Or, s--t, maybe he'd get a bunch of supporters: 'Good for you, dude! White pride!' And all the same silly arguments: 'Why is it okay for a black man to say, 'black pride,' but it's not okay for a white man to say 'white pride'?’…

You know, do I think we should go and lynch Phil Anselmo and f---ing call for his head? No. You're more than welcome to say all of that s--t. You live in America. Freedom of speech. You're free to say 'white power' and 'sieg heil' all you want. But that freedom of speech doesn't allow you freedom from the criticism of that speech. Because that s--t's wrong. It's f---ing wrong. And for somebody to sit there and go, 'Oh, if you were offended by this… blah blah blah.' If you weren't offended by that, f--k you. F--k you! F--k you!

There's no place for that in metal. And if there is a place for that in metal, count me out.”

Personally, I back Flynn's statement 100%, being that I'm a Metalhead of color. My family is from Trinidad, and even further back from India and the Middle East. However, that's not my only reason for supporting these words. Flynn simply points out the most logically and morally upright way to view the situation given the context of modern American society. People admire Phil Anselmo and the old Pantera material from the 90’s, I do as well. But actions like this are inexcusable and do nothing but destroy reputations and turn away young fans looking for inspiration to become the next big thing in Metal – and as for myself, I’ve lost essentially all of what little respect I still had for Phil.

Flynn may also be correct in asserting that if it had been anyone else, anyone generally disliked by the Metal community, people would all be in agreement that it was an action to be looked down upon. However, as Anselmo is one of the most revered singers in Metal because of his run with Pantera, fans would be quick to stand with him and attempt to defend his actions.

And Flynn’s last point really hits the nail on the head here. You’re free to say what you want because your First Amendment right protects that, you're entitled to it. But if what you say is just plain wrong and outright racist, you’re just as entitled to be ostracized for what you choose to say, and I will return to this topic later. In the parts of Flynn’s response that I omitted, he goes on to say that people of color are the ones who have been oppressed in this country, not white people. And he’s entirely correct. I can assure you the majority of comments defending Anselmo are from white Metalheads, who clearly cannot understand how jarring it must be to be a person of color and watch someone you look up to yell “white power”, but this opens up a larger topic of discussion that I’m not going to cover.

Britney Scott is a Marketing major at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and while her stance on the situation is understandably "on the fence", she agrees with Rob Flynn's argument regarding how different the scale of reaction would have been had it been someone other than Anselmo, and how it affects opinions of the Metal community.

"I honestly have some mixed feelings about it. I'm not one to write off any blatant racism, but I'm also not one to understand the intention of humor behind things and I have no idea what he was thinking when he did this so I don't know, I just don't have a strong opinion either way. The only thing that really bothers me about this is the fact that if this was someone like Justin Bieber or Taylor Swift or some other hugely popular white person, the reaction would have been so incredibly different. I feel like not many people even know about this incident, whereas everyone would had it been someone else. I don't know, that's just kind of offputting to me. But to be honest, I think Metal is, overall, a very accepting and relatively diverse genre, but I definitely think that this is exactly what people think of when they think of Metal. It's these things that people make a huge deal out of, and since Phil is such a big name, I definitely think it's going to negatively impact the community and create even more "sterotypes," I guess you could say, about Metal. But like I said, I personally don't have a strong view one way or another, I think he just made a stupid choice.

I think the strongest thing I feel is anger that Phil's actions, being a relatively significant person in the Metal community, are going to be what people think of when they think of Metal. I don't think my individual opinion, or anyone else's for that matter, is as significant here as the opinions of the people who aren't within our community."

Being that Pantera’s origins reside in the South, this isn’t the first time Pantera, or Phil Anselmo, have been in the same sentence as the word “racism”. In March of 1995, Anselmo infamously gave a “white pride” speech during a Pantera set.

Now, I'm not condoning such behavior, nor am I saying "you're not allowed to like the fact that you're white." But it's obscene in nature, and quite frankly pointless, to publicly assert your pride for being white, when white people have clearly been the socio-politically dominant race in American society, oppressing people of color for the longest time -- exactly as Rob Flynn discusses in his public statement. It's just baffling to see when a white person has the gall to ask "If black people can have black pride, why can't I have white pride?" when that should be fairly obvious because it's far too easy to conclude the extent of pride among your race -- it's implied by the oppression of millions of people. But again, this is a broader discussion topic that I'm not delving too far into.

Returning to the topic of Pantera's run-ins with racist allegations, Dimebag Darrell’s signature Dean Razorback guitar featured a Confederate Flag paint design, which came into question during the Summer of 2015, following the murder of nine Black churchgoers at the hands of a White shooter in South Carolina, who acted with the intent of racially-fueled violence, calling for the removal of the Confederate Flag from all government buildings in the South.

This is being brought into light again this year, after Beyonce's Superbowl Halftime Show performance featured references to the Black Panthers. People are attacking Beyonce's performance for presenting symbols of racial strife in popular music, to which people are fighting back by bringing up artists like Kid Rock, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Pantera, all of whom used the Confederate Flag in one way or another. I can't say anything about the first two, but Phil Anselmo and Vinnie Paul both spoke last year concerning the removal of the flag.

Phil’s reaction creates a slightly different image of him than what this recent incident portrays him as. He stated that he wouldn’t want to be associated with the Confederate Flag after what occurred in South Carolina, and that he didn’t buy into the “Heritage Not Hate” slogan being run at the time by people defending the flag as a symbol of Southern pride. Meanwhile ex-Pantera drummer (and the late Dimebag's brother) Vinnie Paul, thought the argument about the flag itself was blown a bit out of proportion. The band's general consensus concerning the flag was that they had never used it as a symbol of hatred, but to show their Southern pride. The band was then willing to comply with popular opinion and removed all merchandise featuring the flag from their official site. The manufacturer still sold the merch through online retailers like Amazon, but the band then had no direct association with the selling of such merchandise.

Now, just to be clear, the question I intend to raise here isn’t about Phil Anselmo or Pantera harboring racist ideals or not, but the stance on racism taken by the Metal community as a whole. Phil and Pantera's experience with racial allegations simply serve as a jumping-off point for the analysis being conducted. The focus here is to demonstrate how racism plays a very detrimental role in our society and, sadly enough, has reared its ugly head into the arts. Racism has absolutely no place in the Metal community.

Personally I find it quite difficult to stomach the fact that Metalheads can openly defend Phil Anselmo’s actions and act as if it were no big deal. The Metal community is often under fire from itself regarding subjects like homophobia, in the manner of referring to others as “faggots” simply for taste in music or for not seeming “Metal” enough. Now, again, this may end up leading into a whole different discussion, which I’ll save for another day – but the main point here is that there’s no real way to disguise what Phil did and that it was wrong. The big names in Metal clearly have the right idea, in agreeing that Phil was wrong and that racism has no place in a subculture that built itself upon accepting outsiders, that’s flat out counter-intuitive.

Since that night, Anselmo has gone on to issue multiple public apologies for his actions, although he still receives heavy criticism. Scott Ian, guitarist for Anthrax, had this to say on his personal website,

“Friends,

Hate speech. Racism. Inflammatory rhetoric.

All dangerous no matter what the context. I have ZERO TOLERANCE for any of this and to not speak out against them is as dangerous as the acts themselves.

Philip’s actions were vile and that should be the focus here, anything else is just noise.”

Being that Ian is of the Jewish faith, he also encouraged Anselmo to donate money to the Simon Weisenthal Center, an organization dedicated to education about the Holocaust. There’s been no word yet on if Anselmo has actually taken up that offer.

At this point, you may also be asking yourself, “But what does Corey Taylor think about this?” Well look no further, because the Slipknot/Stone Sour vocalist finally released a statement in an interview with UK publication, "The Guardian".

“This is a bigger problem than what happened that night. Slipknot has dedicated itself to bringing people together, to fighting racism, to fighting hate in general since the day we were started. I don’t have time for people who judge other people by the color of their skin. If that in itself offends some of my fans, then I’m sorry, you’re wrong. I don’t ever want our fans to feel like we’re judging them because of color, religion, culture, upbringing, etc. We welcome everyone, we always have and we always will… I’ve not only played a lot of metal shows, I’ve been to a lot of metal shows, and I know for a fact they are quite diverse and they always have been. We welcome the tribe of misfits — we’re the island of misfit toys, and we always have been. It will take very little to eradicate racism from metal because the majority of it isn’t racist.”

Taylor’s statement especially speaks to me as I’ve been to quite a few shows, mostly local ones, and I’ve moshed with everyone from the ages of 10 to 60. People of all races, religions, and identities look to Metal for a sense of belonging and to do what Anselmo did is a big step backwards in terms of what the Metal community stands for. Metal thrives on being a culture of outsiders and it only makes sense it'd be far more accepting and diverse than the communities surrounding other genres of music.

Simon Ross is a literature major at SUNY Purchase of Italian, Irish and French descent, and is an avid lover of Black Metal. He had this insight to offer regarding the views of the artist versus the views put forth by their music, and how nationalism plays a role in European Metal communities.

“It's not unexpected to see Anselmo show this kind of prejudice, as he worked with several artists including Eyehategod and the infamous Noisecore act AC. Racism in metal isn't a new thing nor is it really that uncommon. Even though their music is for the most part in good moral standing, their lyrics are intentionally crude and offensive to show the brutality, insanity and fault in their values as well as playing the typical card of "offensive humor". These two bands are pretty closely related to Anselmo, him being in side projects with many of the members and featuring Seth Putnam's harsh growls on Pantera’s “The Great Southern Trendkill” (1996).

The reason why Phil's attitude about it is so negative, is because not only is he a public figure, he spoke his views instead of containing them within his art, as many artists such as Nick Cave do, but he instead said some very insulting things that show his prejudice. On top of that Pantera's music was never really about darkness, inferiority and self-hate, instead dealing with brutal honesty, aggression, rebellion against authority and machismo which leaves very little defense from an artistic standpoint.

Music that compels darkness, mystery and most importantly human flaws and despicable characters saying offensive or disgusting things is kind of acceptable due to the intent being different from what's said. While contained within catchy, angry, honest music, its intent lies obvious. It's important to realize that Metal as a genre works in many different directions, resonating with so many across the world that community upon community have taken it in and created great music despite the attitudes of those who make it. It really isn't a surprise that outside of strange alternative music, Metal has been the most fertile ground for combining world music with its sound, with numerous Chinese, Indian and even Botswanan bands merging their indigenous sounds with metal, just like what happened in the Brazilian scene 30 odd years ago.

In short, while racism exists in metal, metal isn't the cause of it and in fact, there's a brighter future where almost every culture and sub-culture can do its own style of this large and surprisingly flexible genre.”

It’s definitely true that racism is very much prevalent in most communities across the world and within the various subgenres of Metal for various reasons – whether they be to intentionally provoke others, to enlighten listeners to the struggle of a certain group, or simply because of genuine hateful ideals.

But it doesn’t end with just Metal. Corey Taylor also mentioned in his interview how saddening it is to see that racism permeates all genres of music, and describes his efforts to accept all of his fans with the goals of eradicating racism within the community.

“I thought we were close to phasing it out, but unfortunately I was proven wrong. So I just dedicate myself to fighting it. It’s across the board in music, though – it’s not a specifically metal thing. But it has come up in the metal community. It’s risen its ugly head because of the incident we’re talking about.”

Cara Jones is a high school senior in Brooklyn, New York, and is of West African, British, Irish, French, Italian, and Swedish descent. She expressed that being a person of color within the Punk community can at times be uncomfortable because the scene is predominantly white.

"Due to white people being the majority that they are in essentially every genre except the Rap, Jazz and Reggae communities, the existence of white supremacy isn't all that surprising, but what is surprising is that someone would openly express those feelings. I've never experienced racism within the music community personally, but I do recognize that I'm definitely a minority, both socially and with respect to the music community, and that non-white people are drastically underrepresented. Maybe they just don't exist as much, I don't know, but it's sad that I get genuinely excited when I see another black person at a show because they're such a rare occurrence."

The mere fact that being a person of color in a predominantly white scene causes a sense of unease isn't something we should have to be dealing with in music, and this sense of discomfort may now be exacerbated by Anselmo's recent actions.

The responsibility for this "sense of discomfort" felt by people of color in music communities lies not only on musicians in Metal, but all musicians and their ability to influence the masses. And as Corey Taylor discussed, it's not a problem that only affects the Metal community, hate rears its ugly head within all genres and art forms.

Rahmel Robinson is a student at the University of Chicago. He very eloquently demonstrated to me these exacts ideas regarding how mindful artists must be towards an impressionable public, with Phil Anselmo being a prime example.

"I think the incident, and the fact that Philip Anselmo seems to have a history of saying wild things just serves as a testament to the type of person he is, and what his values are. Music is one of the most important art forms in my opinion because of the way that it moves people emotionally, phyisically, and idealistically. As a musician performing within any genre of music, you have put a serious burden on yourself to be put on a platform where your voice and influence can move the masses.

Thus, it should become your responsibility to be conscious of how you conduct yourself because whether you want it or not, people listen to and react to what you have to say. So, when you're engaging in behavior that can be considered anti-semetic or anything of that nature, you're cosigning deplorable behavior that someone that listens and follows you may replicate and use to attack or criticize someone else of a marginalized group. However, its hard to determine what "white power" means in the context of this situation. Historically, the term "white power" has been used to preach to anti-black, anti-asian, and anti-hispanic sentiments. To shout or exclaim "white power" to a group of people isn't really any joke to laugh at not only because it is historically paired with hate, but also because it's simply not funny point-blank-period.

As entertainers in the music industry a person needs to own up to their mistakes when they make them and not share any of their negative energy into their audience at the expense of the safety, comfort, and happiness of others."

Likewise, Naya Joseph, an undergraduate student at Boston College, believes that there is no excusing this behavior, and that the responsibility lies in Anselmo's hands.

"As a person of color living in a society that boosts Eurocentric standards of beauty, allows intelligence and articulation to be synonymous with “acting white”, and excuses racism because it is no longer 'de jure', I am offended by the actions taken by Phil Anselmo.

Jokingly throwing up a Nazi salute, a symbol that evokes memories of massacre in the name of creating the Aryan race, followed by shouting “white power”, seeks to poke fun at serious problems that exist for minorities in America. In fact, being able to laugh at the pain of minorities because it is not yours is in and of itself a white privilege.

What Phil Anselmo, and many others fail to see is that the experiences of minorities are not funny. Institutionalized racism, which seeks to create an ongoing cycle of poverty and segregation, is not funny. The mass incarceration of men of color that leaves many children fatherless is not funny. The public school system that is not supposed to leave any child behind, but continues to underserve many poor children of color, is not funny. These are problems that affect real people—people that don’t have much control over having these problems given that they often cannot choose their skin color, sexuality, gender, etc.

That is why I am offended— because we cannot choose whether or not to face these problems, but Phil Anselmo had a choice. Maybe next time, he should use his privilege and platform to promote education, awareness, and alleviation of these issues instead of making jokes that quite simply just aren’t funny."

Anselmo clearly carries a lot of weight in the Metal community and should be making better choices in an effort to aid people of color in America, suffering from institutionalized racism and oppression by a predominantly white society, because many of them look to the Metal community for acceptance and a community where they are not judged.

In a recent article by Wall Street Journal regarding the global appeal of Heavy Metal, Neil Shah describes Wacken Open Air, one of the biggest Metal festivals of the year, annually held in Germany, where you can easily find a diverse crowd all together to see their favorite bands. He goes on to mention that you can see that "Sunni and Shiite headbangers from Iraq enjoyed music just yards away from each other."

Much of the growing diversity both within the Metal scene in America and on a global scale is deterred by Anselmo's actions. One could even say he is making a mockery of the progress made by artists of color, and contributing to the lack serious consideration towards the struggles of racial minorities and other marginalized groups in America.

The article is an excellent read, if you have the time, as Shah goes on to allude to Metal culture as something of a "religion", due to it's acceptance of all people and unity among them under common values and ideals. And while many who come to his defense may hail from the United States, Europe is not about to let this slide. After issuing numerous public apologies, Phil Anselmo has gone on to assume a degree of responsibility and quit his current project, Down. The band is continuing on without him, as he wishes, but the effect of this incident still follows the band.

The Dutch festival FortaRock has cancelled Down’s appearance due to Anselmo’s recent debauchery, and the French government has gone as far as pulling the funding for Hellfest, the annual summer Metal festival, because the promoters for the festival would not drop Down, even though Phil Anselmo is reportedly no longer with the group, due to France’s zero-tolerance policy against public hate speech. Hellfest’s committee has responded to the French government telling them to “keep their grant”. The committee went on to defend Anselmo's actions, claiming that they also abhor Phil’s actions, but despite such, he has issued many public apologies and like many other musicians in the Rock and Metal community, pushed boundaries with provocative actions under the influence of drugs and alcohol.

Essentially what they're saying is: it's all cool because he was just super wasted and he already apologized. Everyone drinks and does drugs, so it must be ok to let this one go. In my opinion, that's an excuse that would have worked about 30 years ago, but shouldn't be acceptable nowadays. These musicians are clearly experienced enough to be held accountable for their actions, they're not children that need someone to step in and justify their wrongdoings as a "learning experience".

The president of the association for Hellfest ended their letter to the government with this summarizing statement,

“Ps. Forgiveness and understanding are not only Christian virtues. Those of us passionate about HELLFEST and extreme music are also people capable of debating and accepting differences of opinion. The doors of our “festival of hell” are always open to you, and I remain convinced that our hundreds of thousands of fans would be delighted to show you to what extent our event is just love and fraternity!”

However, the French government does not take these matters lightly, as they apprehended one of the most famous Black Metal musicians, Varg Vikernes, in 2013 after his wife purchased four hunting rifles. Given that Varg previously served a 21-year sentence for murder, and is connected to a Norwegian mass murderer, the French government acted upon their suspicions, and may very well be justified in asking that Down be removed from Hellfest in order to evade another incident similar to what happened last month.

Many other musicians in the Metal community have released statements regarding their views. Some do not approve of Anselmo's actions but also disagree with the idea that he is "racist". Regardless of whether or not he harbors racist ideals, he still shouldn't have done it.

The Metal community is heavily ostracized in certain regions of the world as it is, in particular the Middle East. In this case it's not so much a matter of preventing an incident everyone would judge to be heinous, but rather due to the militaristic government and state religious views. This isn't actually uncommon, as I've seen articles pertaining to this come up every now and again over the past few years. In fact, I woke up on the morning of February 10th to see an article from Loudwire.com on my Facebook feed.

Back in November of 2015, members of the Iranian Thrash Metal band, Confess, were detained (and eventually freed) with a bail equivalent to $30,000 USD on charges of blasphemy, writing "Satanic" styled music and advertising lyrics that were went against the government's values and religious beliefs. The law in Iran constitutes execution as a punishment for such crimes, which would seem completely radical and unfair in America, as we have our First Amendment right to free speech.

Situations like these really do put into perspective how much that right is taken for granted in the United States, especially with music. Take for example in 1985, when Dee Snider of Twisted Sister went to testify before Congress regarding interpretation of lyrical content, and the subjectivity of Metal. Snider argued for the right to be able to produce and put out music that may express something on the artist's behalf, but may be misinterpreted by a listener. This later resulted in the RIAA issuing "Parental Advisory" stickers on the covers of albums.

But regardless of what your beliefs are, the First Amendment protects your right to say it, and most Americans seldom realize that we are one of the few countries that gives that right to its people. So you could hypothetically go around spewing xenophobic, misogynistic, ideals (like a certain presidential candidate) and still be protected by the Constitution. However, that does not mean your ideals are agreed with, as we've made great strides in terms of race relations in America. And while recent incidents like police brutality seem to stymie such progress across the country, it's still comforting to see that diversity has indeed come a long way within the Metal scene.

The internet has gone to great lengths to advocate for diversity in Metal, reminding us all that some of our favorite Metal musicians are in fact people of color, given the fact that it is also Black History Month. Tosin Abasi of Animals As Leaders has proved himself as quite the innovator in Progressive Metal. Combining elements of Jazz and Metal to create astoundingly experimental music and develop a unique playing style on extended range guitars is no easy feat. Howard Jones, who provided the vocals in Killswitch Engage for a decade, is still an iconic vocalist to many Metalcore fans and an inspiration to many who struggle with depression and anxiety. Misha Mansoor, one of the guitarists of Periphery, has roots in a French Republic comprised of a multiethnic population, including Indian, Chinese, French and African people. Not to mention William Duvall has done an excellent job replacing the late Layne Stayley as the frontman of Alice in Chains, which was definitely not something just anyone could accomplish. And who could ever forget Body Count? The crossover Rap-Thrash band fronted by rapper Ice-T, whose lyrics covered gang violence and race relations in America during the 80's and 90's.

There’s a thick line between being politically correct and just having common decency. Many Metalheads seem to be afraid to be politically correct because it makes them seem less cool, because Metal is a culture built on rebellion and apathy towards establishment and authority. You don’t have to turn into a community that polices everyone’s behaviors, but treat your own with kindness. You claim Metal is a "brotherhood", yet you don't look out for one another, and seem to be fine with racism occurring right in front of you. Racism is a serious issue that sadly, about half a decade after the Civil Rights Movement, still affects us all, and it does more harm when you don't talk about it.

As I quoted Scott Ian earlier in this article, "All dangerous no matter what the context... to not speak out against them is as dangerous as the acts themselves." That's definitely the one thing, if anything, you take away from this article. Take the information presented here and use it to think and analyze the world around you. Use this to foster healthy discussion with your colleagues of all racial and ethnic backgrounds on what can be done to do away with racism. Until we can reach a point when music itself will be safe from racism, Metalheads are slowly killing the Metal scene.