Singing for a White ‘City upon a Hill’: White Power Music and the Myth of Regeneration Through Violence

Abstract

This article examines how the discursive construction of white power identities draws on US American hegemonic narratives and foundational myths. In particular, I analyze the myths at play in the music produced and promoted between the 1990s and 2010s by some members of the American white power movement. Basing my argument on Richard Slotkin’s conceptualization of the myth of regeneration through violence, I observe in white supremacist lyrics the recurring construction of the white power activist as a captive (or oppressed victim) who is turned into a hunter (or ‘racial warrior’), and regenerated after a ‘racial war.’ This analysis of white power lyrics provides insight into not only how the white power discourse legitimizes violence but also how it celebrates it.