OTTAWA – The band NOFX’s song “Kill All the White Man” isn’t racist, but does sanction violence, the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council said today.
The punk band’s cut was broadcast on CJKR-FM (Power 97, Winnipeg) in November 2004 and subsequently, a listener complained.
“The Prairie Regional Panel concluded that the song was not abusive or unduly discriminatory on the basis of race but that it did promote or sanction violence contrary to the terms of the industry Code of Ethics,” says the release.
The song contains, as the title suggests, the refrain “Kill All the White Man”, as well as lyrics such as “The white man come to pillage my village” and “He rape my people as he rape my country”. A listener complained that the song was racist.
The Prairie Panel examined the complaint under the Human Rights clause of the CAB Code of Ethics, which requires that broadcasters ensure that their programming does not contain any abusive or unduly discriminatory material which is based on matters of race, and the Radio Broadcasting clause of the CAB Code of Ethics which requires that broadcasters ensure that their programming does not contain any material that sanctions or promotes violence.
While the Panel concluded the song was about the performers’ political criticism “of what they saw as the imperialistic policies of the white establishment,” it said the song’s solution, killing the white man, was too violent.
