They鈥檙e Back: Racist Music Sampler to be Distributed to Schools
Four years after a neo-Nazi record label by distributing hate rock to middle and high school students, one of the men behind that ambitious recruitment drive is at it again.
White power music broker , who uses the alias Byron Calvert, recently announced on his website that he had begun distribution last week of 30,000 CDs. The campaign is dubbed 鈥淧roject Schoolyard Volume II鈥 and targets teenagers with a 25-song sampler that features tracks such as 鈥淲hite Power鈥 and 鈥淪ome N------ Never Die.鈥 鈥淩emember,鈥 he wrote, 鈥渨e don鈥檛 just entertain racist kids, we create them.鈥
The CDs are on sale for 30 cents each, but Cecchini is including several free with each order from Tightrope, his Arkansas-based website that offers hate music and other racist merchandise. Cecchini鈥檚 website features a fist clasping a noose and the motto, 鈥淚t鈥檚 not illegal to be White 鈥 yet!鈥
Cecchini told the Intelligence Report that he has already shipped a few thousand of the CDs in batches of 50 to longtime acquaintances who, he says, will hand them out to children at malls, concerts, skate parks and schools. He said the CDs he鈥檚 mailed in bulk have gone to at least seven states 鈥 Alaska, Arkansas, California, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri and Pennsylvania 鈥 while the ones he鈥檚 packaged with customer orders have been sent nationwide. Cecchini said he also uses multiple MySpace accounts that are not overtly racist to reach white students at schools where racially charged incidents have occurred.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not a hard sell,鈥 he said of his CDs. 鈥淧eople don鈥檛 have to be besieged by blacks and Mexican gangs necessarily to just appreciate the music.鈥
Asked what he hopes to accomplish with Project Schoolyard Volume II, Cecchini at first sounded like a typical 鈥檚ixties hippie. 鈥淛ust rock and roll, man,鈥 he said. 鈥淲hy does anyone express themselves? Why does anyone do anything they do?鈥
But the 37-year-old Cecchini, who said he鈥檚 been a racist skinhead since he was 17, eventually conceded that the music serves as a hook to pull young people into the movement. 鈥淵our average kid really don鈥檛 give a damn about paint scrapings at Auschwitz,鈥 said Cecchini, who claims no one was gassed at the infamous Nazi death camp. However, 鈥淚f you put it to music, they鈥檒l listen to it twice before breakfast every day.鈥
Cecchini served 3陆 years in prison for a 1989 felony conviction and acknowledged that he has some regrets. 鈥淚鈥檝e told kids for years that if you think tattoos and felonies are cool, I wish I could give you some of mine, because they鈥檙e not.鈥
Yet the lyrics of many of the songs on the CD appear to call for violence against minorities, 鈥渞ace traitors鈥 and the American government.
A song titled 鈥淎ggravated Assault鈥 repeats the phrase 鈥淚t could happen to you,鈥 followed by the words 鈥渘----- boy,鈥 鈥渇ilthy jew,鈥 鈥渟lant-eyed g---,鈥 鈥渇------ f-----,鈥 鈥渞ace traitor,鈥 the 鈥淯.S. government鈥 and 人兽性交 co-founder Morris Dees, among others.
Isn鈥檛 there a contradiction between his telling children to avoid felonies and the violent lyrics on his CD? 鈥淗ell no,鈥 Cecchini replied. 鈥淎bsolutely not.鈥 People should be able to control their behavior after listening to or viewing violent CDs, video games or movies, Cecchini said. And given the prevalence of violent entertainment, there鈥檚 no reason he should be held to a different standard just because he鈥檚 racist.
Still, Cecchini didn鈥檛 seem too concerned that his CD could potentially cause someone to get hurt. After falsely claiming that the majority of hate crimes are committed by blacks against whites, he said, 鈥淚f this music did cause kids to go out and commit hate crimes, we鈥檝e got a lot of catching up to do.鈥
Project Schoolyard Volume II follows Project Schoolyard Volume I, which Cecchini organized with neo-Nazi Anthony Pierpont several year ago. Cecchini said the label he and Pierpont ran, Panzerfaust Records, distributed about 50,000 CDs in the fall of 2004. The project drew widespread media attention, including stories in The Boston Globe and on CNN. However, Panzerfaust Records didn鈥檛 achieve its goal of handing out 100,000 CDs because it in January 2005 after Cecchini went public about discovering that Pierpont鈥檚 mother was Mexican and that Pierpont had boasted about having sex with Thai prostitutes 鈥 both serious no-no鈥檚 in the world of Aryan supremacy. Pierpont was essentially drummed out of the movement after the disclosures, but has said since that .
Cecchini said he doesn鈥檛 plan on promoting his most recent venture in the media as much as he did with the first Project Schoolyard because his 40-acre farm and five home-schooled children keep him busy. Nonetheless, a leading racist forum, Stormfront, contains a thread on Project Schoolyard Volume II, and Cecchini has high hopes for the CDs.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e nice, they鈥檙e glossy, they鈥檙e shrink-wrapped,鈥 he enthused. 鈥淚t鈥檚 free music. Kids are going to come running.鈥