Anti-emo pogroms rage throughout Mexico

Brock Thiessen at Exclaim reports on the anti-emo backlash said to be sweeping through Mexico:

According to Daniel Hernandez, who’s been covering the anti-emo riots on his blog Intersections, the violence began March 7, when an estimated 800 young people poured into the Mexican city of Queretaro’s main plaza “hunting” for emo kids to pummel. Then the following weekend similar violence occurred in Mexico City at the Glorieta de Insurgents, a central gathering space for emos. Hernandez also reports that several anti-emo riots have now also spread to various other Mexican cities.
Via the Austin American Statesmen, several postings on Mexican social-networking sites, primarily organising spot for these “emo hunts,” have been dug up and translated. One states: “I HATE EMOS!!! They are not even people, they are so stupid, they cry over meaningless things… My school is infested with them, I want to kill them all!”
Another says: “We’ve never seen all the urban tribes unite against one single tribe before… Emos, their way of thinking is for crap, if you are so depressed please do us all a favour and kill yourselves!”

Link (via Jesse Walker at Reason, thanks Coop!)

Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

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jgriffiths

@28

I agree that this news story does kind of scream slow news day / moral panic.

As did the original mods/rockers news story.
agoodsandwich

no. This has to be a joke, right? In poor taste, but a joke, still.

right?
scottfree

Also, little do the attackers know, but not only will an emo kid save humanity from giant terrifying monsters in his robot powered by his mothers love, but he will then afterwards turn us all into tang. And he will still be miserable.
SamL

Just a little warmup for this years Punch an Emo Day.
ahaman85

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dw9yEuwohkk
klobouk

Oh, snap.
Emo Godwin.
OM

…Actually, it goes much further than chulo kids ganging up to beat up the emos. In the San Antonio strip clubs, this has actually spread to the dancers! After reading this, I spoke with a couple of friends down in SA who are dancers, and they readily admitted that for the past several months:

“Every tejano, rock & roll and/or hip-hop dancer has been ganging up on the goth chicks and chasing them away. It’s not that we’re really against them, but their depressing music and their fucked-up lifestyle. We’re here to make money and have fun, not make everyone feel sad and depressed and suicidal and all that shit! They want to be like that, let them open their own club! Call it the Body Bag or something like that! Jeesus!”

Guess I’d better call down to Perfect 10 San Antonio and tell my DJ buddies to erase all that Bauhaus I loaded on the hard drives before I went into the hospital…:P
BadKittyM

@ #85. Choking oneself is hardly ‘new.’ I am 44 years old – when I was in elementary school (5th grade, to be exact), I was shown how to do this while in class. There was a group of us kids sitting by the movie screen, as we had just finished watching one of those silly school-sponsored filmstrips…and they were taking turns leaning back, and cutting off the blood flow to the brain via placing one’s hands about one’s neck (thumbs touching larynx) and squeezing. I myself tried it a few times. Makes you dizzy, makes your hearing start to fade into a “rushing” sound, your vision starts to fade around the edges and your heart beat seems very, very loud.

In short…new? Not remotely. The difference is back then, nobody found it remarkable that I ever saw or heard of, and it certainly never rated coverage in any sort of media outlet. Our teacher certainly didn’t say a thing, though we were not hiding and she saw what we were doing. Kids will try anything, provided they see another kid doing it first and it looks interesting. Wondering what the consequences might be, is not usually even a second, let alone first thought.

In regards to the whole Emo thing, I have no answer. I can’t imagine having so much dislike for another group of fellow humans, based off nothing that affects me personally in any way, shape or form. Oh, wait…that kinda covers most of humanity’s negative history, doesn’t it? Irrational hatred, blind condemnation, physical attacks. It can be dangerous to be seen as both “Other” and especially in conjunction with appearing weak. It brings forth the worst in human nature, alas.
jgriffiths

This is an ongoing story, but sickeningly relevant –

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/mar/27/goth.murder
Antinous

My friend’s brother died of auto-erotic asphyxia circa 1973.
el_beardo

Gee, thanks, Myspace! Now the entire WORLD looks like a horrible, girl-ish, mutant spawn of The Munsters! Damn internets… whatever happened to Geographical Isolation?!
doktor tchock

oh, morrissey, what have ye bred.
Trent Hawkins

#71 – wow, hold on there. Homophobia in Metal culture? You’d think that the tight pants and studded leather would be a dead giveaway.

Maybe you mean Nordic Metal?
Calvin Lawson

I wish my lawn was emo, so it would cut itself.
OM

“oh, morrissey, what have ye bred.”

…If the reports are any indication, it takes Girlfriend In A Coma and makes it a case of life imitates art! :-)
Kieran O’Neill

@ Mindysan: Yeah, I’m still a bit confused as to the distinction between “emo” and “goth”.

One clue might come from a guy a I know from South London who was into the scene in the 80′s: “Where I grew up, the goffs used to sit outside the school gates and frow bricks at people.”

I see emo (and late 90′s/21st century goth) as being the watered down version of the 80s stuff. Hence the death rock resurgence in the last few years, and the late nineties “cybergoth” branching into the hard house/dance scene.

It amazes me that the subculture has survived this long, far better than most – I guess it represents something fairly primal/archetypal, and is intrinsically anachronistic, where most other subcultures are tied to circumstances, be they temporal, social, political or some combination of these.

Emo is just what happened when the marketing/song writing departments from the big record companies got hold of it.

That all said, I still tend to enjoy hanging out in “trad” goth clubs, myself…

Meh. I’m a little tipsy, and have spent way too much time in dark clubs thinking about this when I should have been having fun. Don’t mind me.
mindysan33

#65- DCFC is considered emo? I thought they were… er…like… um… indie rock, or the new adult indie rock… or something? They seem pretty good, actually. I liked SDRE first album, the one that was on Sub-pop. At some point we just got to get over these labels, and just like what we like, but that’s just me. I’m drawing a blank on the others. My emo cred is shot- I’ll never be cool… thank god for Mindy cred, though (see Homestar Runner for that- teen girl squad… the valentines one- 7? or 9?)!

#66- “Oh yeah Oh no, it doesn’t have to be so
Forces of the creative mind are unstoppable!”

#72- Goth is now apparently passe while Emo is not, at least that’s what I gather. The music is also different, and I get the sense that most Emo kids are not into philosophical theory and romantic writers like many of the goths I used to hang with. It comes off to me as really being a created youth subculture, but perhaps that’s just my old lady crotchiness kicking in. Perhaps I’m wrong? Like I said I don’t know much about the emo kids running around these days. I’m unhip and out of the loop.

Mindy
eti

Gotta hate someone, I guess.

“First they came for the emos…”
jgriffiths

@73

Tolerance, what a wonderful thing!
Tenn

At the end of my freshman year, I was leaning on my locker talking to my best friend, and I looked up at commotion (commotion that was more than the usual commotion, I mean) and saw an emo boy, hauling ass, down Main Hall.

A jock running after him. Slip-on skull print Vans hitting the industrial tile floor, followed by thudding tennis shoes. Emo boy wars with his summer coat of tight jeans and studded belt impeding his movement, thin chest heaving under a skin-tight shirt. Half-bangs obscure his vision, eyes rimed by traditional Emo markings.

And the hunting call of the jock.

“DON’T RUN LITTLE EMO BOY! DON’T RUN! I WANT TO GIVE YOU A HUG! DON’T BE SAD!”

He caught him, grabbed his shoulder- spun him around and swept him up in what must have been a bonecrushing hug.

It was surreal, because the boy hugged him back tightly before being set down like a child and walking away. Not that it hadn’t started out surreal.
Wickedashtray

My 17 yr old is into “scene” looks (he despises the term “Emo”). For 99% of these kids its simply a fashion and music thing and has nothing to do with romanticising depression and suicide. I also laugh when he (my son) gets posts on his myspace site when he’s accused of being a “homo”. The kid has 16 pages FULL of nothing but hot chicks who want to hook up with him.

He’s gotten more girls at 17 than I’ve had in my entire life. Dammit.
anthony

I’m too late again, but here goes:
I’m 37 so “emo” for me has to do with splinter groups rom the Dischord DC hardcore scene in the Eighties (Rites of Spring in particular). And even back then everyone hated the term, even the “emocore” kids.
Cutters and the like are not popular at all as far as I can tell. People love to put down emos at the school where I teach. I can’t tell where the animosity comes from, but basically if you are emo that means you are too sensetive, too emotionally fragile, and worthy of nothing but contempt. Hide, ye poets, artists, and vegans!
markfrei

Why am I still giggling? Oh well…

Anyhow Morrissey has an unexpected Mexican cult following:
http://www.believermag.com/exclusives/?read=article_veltman

And Morrissey has nothing to do with Emo anyhow – the original Rites of Spring version or its pop sell out mutant off spring.

Oh yeah – read Cannetti. That book rocks!
gATO

#75 Heh… you’re right, I forgot Rob Halford ;)

but seriously… that emo-bashing “riot” in MÃ©xico D.F. was surreal, but the one in Queretaro, which I saw before this one, was a bit, ehm, darker:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMp7Nnn7VbY

A mob circling one guy, chanting “he wants to cry!”, and the guy @1:05 saying that it bothers him that they “look more like girls than boys”… yay, tolerance! Funny, i bet that most of those mobbers would crap their pants if they were confronted by a gang of hip-hoppers, heh!
gATO

#86: yes, sure.

translation of the video @78:

(shouting)

Reporter: This is how dozens of young people intended to finish off a group of kids in Plaza de Armas, Queretaro

(shouting)

Reporter: The aggressors congregated there with a sole purpose: to expel the so-called “Emos”.

Reporter: Days before, through the Internet, a call was made to rescue Plaza de Armas. An “anti-Emo” movement requested to end with a group of kids who gathered there; kids who are characterized, amongst other things, for dressing in black and covering their faces with bangs.

(crowd chanting “he wants to cry! he wants to cry!”)

Reporter: The call was succesful, hundreds of people were about to lynch the Emos.

Kid in trenchcoat: They don’t bother me, the Emos, in and by themselves… what bothers me is that they take a spot for them, that they want to have the square just for themselves, so to speak… it also bothers me that they look more like girls than boys.

Reporter: Fortunately, the intervention of some young people and the police prevented a fatal ending.

Man in blue shirt: We make a kind request to these kids’ parents, to be more aware of their activities…

Reporter: It was anounced that in the coming weekends, security will be tightened in downtown Queretaro, in response to a new call against Emos.

(Reporter signs off)
Takuan

patient lad. I’d have had his nose off in one bite.
dculberson

@mindysan33: You won all kinds’a Mindycred with that Gogol Bordello quote. First one I’ve ever seen dropped anywhere, other than between me and my wife. (“Monkeys clapping…”)
Takuan

like my makeup?
http://www.african-safari-pictures.com/image-files/mandrill-baboon.jpg
Gorrika

I hope to god that the next war isn’t fought with missiles and guns–it should be fought with eyeliner and tears.
xxxxxx

TRANSLATION OF VIDEO:

newscaster: it happend again this weekend, a call to attack emos, only this time they defended themselves. lets watch the story.

reporter: the appointment was at 3 in the afternoon, teenagers who identify themselves as ‘emos’ gathered to represent and defend their lifestyle.

Carlos A. Soto: they have received various aggressive threats from other groups online.

Rodrigo: we received threats on the internet claiming they would lynch us.

reporter: the threats were made by another group of youths calling themselves “punks” (or punketos in spanish) and they arrived at the scene chanting. The emos responded by throwing bottles at the Punks and Police officers. The punks responded by charging the emos and fighting broke out.

police: we have groups of different cultures clashing, we intervened and prevented more aggression against each other.

reporter: 2 hours later another confrontation began among the girls of the groups. boys later joined yielding belts as weapons.

punk kid: we are fighting against the emos (among other groups which i cant translate) because they are stealing our style.

reporter: the police responded again, sending in 150 security forces who seperated the groups. later, like some kind of joke or a scene from a surrealist film, a group of singing hare krishna emerged between the groups and helped to dissipate the anger.
greenshinobi

Let people be who they are for f*** sake. If they aren’t hurting anyone, let them be.

Those who get annoyed and even hate others for being different has the real issue.

Humans are a great species yeah?
mindysan33

@#91- DCulberson, you just tripled your Mindycred for getting that! What an amazing band! I’m all about me some Gogol Bordello lately. I’m always quoting songs. I already have a song (well, song related- it’s a Woody Guthrie quote on Mermaid Avenue) for my thesis! And my senior paper was named after a KMFDM song. And a paper I wrote about the holocaust was named after a joy division song. I can’t help myself.

As for corporate music that so much music becomes:

“I’m gathering new generation
That’s gonna stand up to it
To this karaoke dictatorship
Where posers and models with guitars
Boogie to the shit for beats
I make a better rock revolution
Alone with my dick!”

Mindy
jgriffiths

@90 GATO

Brilliant, thanks.

Now feel more disturbed about it than I did before hand however.

The intervention of ‘some young people’ is the only vaguely positive note I can draw out of it, I’m always impressed when people stand up to a group that size (or that openly dangerous).
Takuan

jeez, my copy of Crowds and Powers sat on the shelf for a coupla decades anyway. Guess I’ll haul it out again……

oooh, table of contents looks tasty.. thanks Mr. Free.

didn’t they make a movie of this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoot_Suit_Riots
emo_kidd90

This is seriously stupid. I’m not afraid to admit I’m emo. But I don’t cut myself, yeah I suffer of great depression and death crosses my mind but I find ways to feel better NOT EVERY SINGLE EMO IN THIS PLANET THINKS OF SIMPLY KILLING THEM SELVES. I write my feelings because I know my pen and notebook will never judge me. And wtf??? its stupid how people can be soo heartless and hurt emos. We are the way we are because we have gone through a lot, and yeah everyone struggles through life but not everyone is strong.

After I found out how most Mexicans attack EMOS I refuse to go down there to visit my family. I don’t want to deal with dumb ignorant people. this is the way I like to be, i express my self in a way no one will ever understand so don’t even bother trying. well if you have any questions or concerns email me

lil.mizz.maybelline@gmail.com
or use my email to search for me on myspace. I do not accept people who judge me for who I am.

by the way I have a job sooo don’t be stupid and think that emos are useless. Before you judge some check you self.. AND NO ONE IS PERFECT SO MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS IF YOU’RE NOT GOING TO HELP US GET OUT OF HERE.
Kieran O’Neill

Tak-kun, you are remarkably full of it with the image links tonight. ;)
Loose_Change

After years of reading BB I finally register because of this thread. So hi.
On to business:
Has anyone seen much about what the government plans to do to keep this from escalating? It may be my imagination running away with me here, but I don’t think that The Warriors, in all its infinite awesomeness as a movie, is all that great a scenario to have in real life. Social tribes fighting between themselves. So enough of the social spectrum has rallied support against emo’s today. What about tomorrow? Then we’re going to take out the punk rockers? Mexico should stop the ball before it gets rolling.

And don’t forget about the US. You know how we just love to embrace subcultures.
Takuan

winning smile,ne?
absimiliard

Awesome! Emo-kids get beat up in Mexico?? Totally awesome!

Anyone know the immigration laws for Mexico? I won’t have to climb over some border fence will I?

-abs (who’s actually pretty non-violent in non-hypothetical situations.)
Lodi

I knew that emo kids were bullied by their non-emo peers. But I laughed at them anyway.

Now, whenever some emo is beaten it is to my shame.

How can I not think that the total and unanimous internet derision of Emo has attached to its constituents a “risk-free target” sign that is all the enticement pleasure-seeking bullies need to justify physical battery.
jgriffiths

First they came for the Emo’s, and I did not speak out – because I was not an Emo.

Then they came for the gays, and I did not speak out – because I was not homosexual.

Then they came for the liberals, and I did not speak out – because I was of a vaguely central, wishy washy political disposition.

Then they came for me – and there was no one left to speak for me.
dredgeyourshit

I thought Latin Americans loved Morrissey? How much more emo can you get?

Anyway, thats awesome that the Hare Krishnas showed up. Where was Ray Cappo?
giantnegro

Maybe this will spur a renewed interest in the Austin punk group the “Fuckemos”. It’s a reference to a club and not a style, but they’re awesome anyway.
DreadLetterDay

I don’t understand why we’re not all coming together to fight coming g-emo-cide in Mexico.

Mexico = IC X EMO

Coincidence? I think not.

Zeitgeist ahoy.
lilbacon3

Has anybody taken into consideration the fact that “emo” no longer exists in its true form? These kids are modern-day SCENESTERS! Emo music died around the time everybody was freaking out because the computers of the world weren’t going to be able to handle the change from “99″ to “00.” …FUPA!
absimiliard

“g-emo-cide” Sweet. Wish I’d thought of that.

-abs
bodieman

How do you say Quadrophenia in Spanish?
scottfree

First they came for the emos, and I said nothing because I was not an emo.
jonathanpeterson

Cutters are funny, but mikesum’s news report is funnier, even if I am 42. It was right up there with a woman at a party telling me all about the teen jelly bracelet sex code (OMIGOD!).

http://www.snopes.com/risque/school/bracelet.asp
DreadLetterDay

Emocaplypse Now
billtheburger

i reckon you’d be depressed if you’d spent years with Rod Hull’s hand up your rear only for him to fall off the roof in a tragic arial adjusting accident.

Ooops sorry i thought this was about EMU
DreadLetterDay

-that p, obviously. gah.
redsquid

oh boy- here we go-
#11 posted by mindysan33… I’m a dumb American who knows no Spanish…

-This comment annoys me. Are they dumb Mexicans because they don’t speak english?

#94 Has anyone seen much about what the government plans to do to keep this from escalating?

-Oh please great gubermint- save us from ourselves!

#76 etc.- Ah yes- the great Gogol Bordello! If only those Mexican kids had some gypsies to beat on…

Kids are more scene conscious than ever! That is sad. Why don’t we realize earlier that our labels are our limits? As disenfrachised youth they reach out for identity and community and end up pigeon holing themselves. Now I’m on the backside of thirty and I can go from Skrewdriver to Steely Dan to Bubba Sparxxx to Merle Haggard on the same evening with no appologies. As Jello said “A hairstyle’s not a lifestyle, imagine Sid Vicious at 35.”
GRCurley

Maybe I’m getting old, but I really don’t get how a report about kids getting beat on for how they look or their music or their depressed attitude becomes funny.

Yeah, the music and the attitude annoy the crap out of me, but was every Mutant on here a cool kid who never got picked on? Gimme a break.
xochi

This is Machismo at work.

Itâ€™s been going on for a while and many groups have called for the lynching of emos in Mexico. This is a homophobic issue.

Xochi
jonathanpeterson

I love youtube related videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjmOK4TTvwg

Go, go Emo Rangers
mindysan33

#96- Ah, come on, don’t be annoyed! It was a joke… ha, ha? And at my own expense, too. And sort of mocking the whole “Americans are dumb crowd” (I have a prof who is one- always bitching about no one having any language skills outside there native one here). I mean, years of German, and I know hardly any (spreche sie deutch… sehr kleine deutch). So, I’m pretty dumb, at least when it comes to languages. I can mock my own country, can’t I? Jello quotes are always outstanding, and that is right on the money! I agree- outside appearances meaning nothing, right? Did I make that point somewhere in this mega long thread? If not, I should have. Yay Jello, for whom there is always room. Skrewdriver? Really? Just curious. And what’s wrong with Gogol Bordello? They are pretty much a good time, if you ask me, while having a good poltical slant as well. And I’m not sure if kids are really more scenesterish, or if it just seems like it from our post-30 vantage point. Could be both. One does not preclude the other.

#101- Glad I’m not the only one. “Back in my day… we made do with manic panic that we got once a year when going to the big city, walking both ways up hills… and we liked it, we loved it… we had to order our London After Midnight cassette tapes from them mail order catalogs! And make mixed tapes. And shop at thrift stores. None of this intertubes nonsense… These kids today, got it too easy!!!” Yeah, I see lots of this being 80′s nostalgia too. I was just wondering the other day why all the freshman (well, not all, but some) at my university looked as if they just stepped out of a John Hughes film. Isn’t there a Mike Watt song about that kind of nostalgia- but about the 70s? didn’t Eddie Vedder sing in it? I really never dug the newer “goth” music that some places started playing back when we still went out. It’s like it’s… not spontaneous or something? People are trying to sound like somebody else instead of… I don’t want to say doing their own thing… I don’t know. I’m bad at well defined scenes, being part of them. I was never able to get it right, and I never just wanted to hang out with one sort of people, who ever they were. I think this has to do with the scene I hung out in when I was a teenager- it was full of just odd balls with all sorts of taste in music/culture/politics/religion/sexual orientation/etc. I like variety, and talking to people who are different from me. Trad goth clubs were always fun, though. Those were the days!!!

Anyway- one day I’ll write a book that has a grand unified theory of all this stuff, and I’ll call it “My supertheory of supereverything” and everyone will hate it and Eugene Hutz will either sue me or think it’s great. Give me another 20 years or so, when it’s all irrelevant anyway… ;-P

Mindy
vjinterkosmos

What’d be the point of bashing emos anyhow? Personally I find emo kids extremely entertaining. The more they whine the harder I has lulz.

… I must say the rags are cool though.
absimiliard

Hey GRCurley,

It’s partly because some of us were beaten up in school. By making a joke of it we can defuse how we might react if we seriously thought about it.

And since I would happily drop 10 grand a piece to have two of the kids who beat me up every day in 10th grade assassinated when I let myself get worked up about stuff like that I try not to get worked up about it.

Thankfully I don’t normally have 20 kilobucks laying around, and thankfully I don’t usually think about my childhood at all. I suppose I should probably be grateful that my father died when I was young and that seems to have traumatized me enough that most of childhood is a blank slate, but I don’t think I will since I really wish I could remember what his face looked like.

Basically, I laugh because the only two choices are laugh or cry. I’m tired of crying.

-abs
DreadLetterDay

@#61 That’s what I’m trying to get at man, we’ve got to get these kids out of their miserable situation.

How can we, freaks and geeks of yore, slouch idly by as our barely pubescent brethren are cast down by the physically able, socially adjusted oppressors?

Have we forgotten our pain so soon?

*lights candle, just to watch it burn*

But seriously folks, make up is bad.

Did you see the hair on the other side? Goodness me.
Takuan

mods versus rockers, throw in some Latin fascism
jahknow

As Mexico goes, so goes the nation.
eigengrau

This is so ridiculous I thought it must’ve been the Onion at first. Sure, I think guys wearing girl jeans and who own hair straighteners are kind of odd, but I can’t imagine widespread violence based on little more than clothing.
Is there something more at play here – do the emos violate some kind of cultural norm? I could imagine they wouldn’t sit particularly well with the male machismo types, but still, I just don’t get it.
scottfree

Bizarre. Why would you give them something else to cry about?
mindysan33

#82- I’m curious actually- in your opinion, what is a true form of a scene anyway? Any scene, not just emo? When does it cross that line from being an authentic artistic expression to being just another youth culture sold at hot topic or target that all the scenesters are into? Can we define a scene as more than just a local community? Does it become an “Imagined community” that crosses national boundaries? Or does it need to be a fact to face particpatory experience to be a real scene? I’m not saying you’re wrong, but how do you think we should define these things in the first place. What about punk? When did that end- when it got big in England- what about the LA and DC scenes, or Boston, or Belgrade, or Paris? Are they not punk because they came after the Sex Pistols and the Clash? What about Gogol Bordello? Are they not punk? Isn’t much of this about self-definition more than anything else? It also seems to me that much of this is defined looking backwards, after the fact- “Oh, THAT was goth, or THAT was punk…” I’m just curious how others define this stuff. I have my own theories, really.

BTW- I’m amazed at how long and how contentious this thread is. We can really talk about some emo can’t we?

Mindy
Stolia

@ 22 & 33 – Mindysan33 & Gert1033 –

When I was 18 I was given a mixed CD of unquestionably emo music – Death Cab for Cutie (album – We Have the Facts and We’re Voting Yes), Sunny Day Real Estate, Hefner, Denali, American Analog Set, Kind of Like Spitting, The Good Life….

That was 6 years ago. This music was pretty okay – the current stuff going around, as far as I can tell, is terrible. I think it’s really sad that music is secondary, and now “emo” means the clothes and attitude.

Also –

Has anyone mentioned yet that CUTTING is “in”??? Teenagers, many of those who declare themselves emo, at least, are cutting themselves like it’s in vogue.

See the wikipedia article on “self-harm”:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-harm

This emo stuff is way beyond anything I ever experienced in high school. I remember autoerotic asphyxiation (no time to spellcheck, sorry) but this is much more out there.
clifford

Is this the “Disco Sucks” for a new generation? I say more power to you. Rock forth!
EH

Outsiders are always sacrificed for group solidarity.
trueblue2

I can’t say I’m surprised by this. Like others said it’s the same as past generations. Emo kids are definitely the target of harassment to be sure. For example, I did a quick search on Facebook and found 412 groups whose title either involves “death to emo” or specifically wishes emo kids were dead. I have worked with teens who are both the aggressors and targets of such attitudes and wouldn’t say it’s uncommon.

I don’t understand why anyone thinks this is funny, minus the Hare Krishnas showing up. That kinda came out of nowhere. (Oh yeah, and why are cutters funny, 58? There is nothing funny about self-harm, and I think it’s terrible that it’s become “fashionable.”)

65 and 68 – I think you guys are thinking of the “choking game.” It’s the most popular with middle schoolers but happens with high schoolers too. Two kids I’ve worked were injured attempting to play this “game” at school. How this is something that caught on with kids is beyond me.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_choking_game
acb

Could this be the Night of the Broken Glasses? (Do Mexican emo kids wear those?)
jgriffiths

@78 GATO

That video’s pretty disturbing, I know I had (and I can see in the comments that quite a few people did as well) a ‘haha that’s pretty funny … no … wait … that’s pretty terrible … no it’s really terrible … the world is pretty fucked up’ moment, this second video represents the zenith of this, as did the article I posted.

Any chance of a full translation of the video?
darue

oh shit! HERE COMES EVERYBODY! RUN LIKE HELL!

Self-defense against ad-hoc mobs is done how exactly?
clifford

Oh nevermind, now after watching the video I realize its just way a terrible way overboard reaction to a youth culture that is absolutely harmless.
phillamb168

Great, thanks emo kids, you brought back the Hare Krishnas.
Rick.

I don’t condone violence against anyone. Still, this gives me the giggles.
mellowknees

I can’t help but think this is just the same as goth kids getting spit on and beaten up when I was in high school…except it’s more organized.

Too bad people don’t see that targetted violence against any group is only going to end with more violence. Way of the human world, I guess, which is really unfortunate. There are crappy people everywhere.
mindysan33

Damn it, Takuan beat me to it! But right on the $$ as always.

Is it just me, or does the whole world just keep missing the point of “alternative communities” or whatever we want to box it up as (counter-cultures, sub-cultures, hippies, punks, goths, emos, mods, rockers, Str8 edgers, skinheads, oi boys, glam kids, beats, flappers… you get my point- are they discreet historical events, or are they an interconnected phenomenon? Opinions?)? “Look at me, I dress a certain way- I’m soooo different, don’t hate me for being different, cause everyday is halloween, ya know- look, someone who is different from me- I’m gonna go beat the crap out of them now, cause anyone who is not like me sucks- cause they aren’t like me!”. Huh? I think I’m just sick of boxes, even self imposed ones to some extent. I think these are some of the issues I’m interested in looking at in my academic work, anyhow- self-definition vs. outsider definition, that sort of nonsense.

Blah… I’m just avoiding homework now.

Mindy
mindysan33

Holy crap, the Hare Krishna’s at the end were great! Anyone know what is being said by the newscasters? I’m a dumb American who knows no Spanish…

Mindy
DreadLetterDay

Auto-erotic asphyxiation in high school?

Which high school was this? Do a high percentage of those who indulged in the practise all those years ago still reside in the vicinity?

Oh, and, err, of course, are they mostly female and hot?

*prays to the God of the geek-perve*
Takuan

Who were they?

I’m One

Every year is the same
And I feel it again,
I’m a loser – no chance to win.
Leaves start falling,
Come down is calling,
Loneliness starts sinking in.

But I’m one.
I am one.
And I can see
That this is me,
And I will be,
You’ll all see
I’m the one.

Where do you get
Those blue blue jeans?
Faded patched secret so tight.
Where do you get
That walk oh so lean?
Your shoes and your shirts
All just right.
But I’m one etc.

I got a Gibson
Without a case
But I can’t get that even tanned look on my face.
Ill fitting clothes
I blend in the crowd,
Fingers so clumsy
Voice too loud.

But I’m one.
gATO

#83, you say: “Quadrophenia”

although, knowing the way they translate movie titles around here, I’m willing to bet that they called it something like “Salvaje Juventud en Ruedas”

(“Wild Youth on Wheels”)
Hunty

“Anti-Emo Riot” is totally gonna be the name of my new Emo band. It’s brimming with emo-irony!

@#67: “the Night of Broken Glasses” is full of win. Terrible, terrible win. :)
scottfree

#3

have you ever tried shopping for jeans that actually fit? Women’s jeans fit way nicer; you just have to sew in a crotch.
mutantcarrot

Hmm. Well I went to an elementary school populated mostly by hispanics and they weren’t too fond of the emo scene either. I can’t say I’m not surprised that it’s this much of a problem.
Anonymous

i’m from mexico i live in tijuana and similar actions will supposedly take place march 7th, emails are being send to unite people against “emos”, i truly donÂ´t understand any of this nonsense. hearing the “punk” guy talking about stealing their ideology (i donÂ´t know what ideology) makes me wonder if itÂ´s that really the reason or just a justification for a violent act against someone that they donÂ´t know, but was always “teach” to hate for no reason but the way they look. Who cares if they wanna become sterile, who cares how they dress, or if they paint their hair pink; itÂ´s that reason enough to beat someone?, of course not we all know that but itÂ´s just a glim’s of our decadent society or what ever… this guys should be uniting against things that are way more important and that are happening in this country, but their bubble is far from bursting and from letting them see that this fight itÂ´s way far from being an important issue wort getting to jail for or sending someone to the hospital.
just another thing
#28 this happens before spring brake

and in the queretaro thing the guys beating up the “emos” where “normal” if there is such a thing.

besos. adios
Pliskin5146

The mexicans know how to do it
ive been beating up emos for the past 2 years and ive gotten nowhere… NOWHERE!!!!!
well done my little taco country
Trnck

I find this kinda funny but… Anti-Emo demonstration? You can dislike them but not to hate them… It’s like Hitler sweeping the “inferior” races.
Anonymous

Since I’m guessing these hunts are for emo-boys only, it’s all about their subverting of the traditional sense of masculinity. I guess a generation of young men are so repressed from machismo that they’re attracted to emo-boys and therefore must destroy them. It would be funny if it weren’t so goddamn sad.
Milo Minderbender

Kids in high school have to have some reason to be beat up. If it isn’t one thing it’ll be another.

Los Hari Krishnas!
scottfree

Am I the only one who thinks kids will be kids?

I remember living with two teenagers for a while not too long ago, and it blew my mind how serious they took these things. Its puzzling how very narrow their spectrum of acceptable behaviour was. Its the problem with any scene, and it ends around the time you find a proper job.

I think the irony is only last year there was full scale rebellion in Oaxaca after the government went ape shit on civilians, and kids in the city can only et upset over music and clothes. I suppose it isn’t irony, but tragedy. Still, I would bet anything the whole anti emo/I’m emo! bit will blow over fairly quickly.
Ceronomus

Put two people on a plant and they will become friends. Put three people on a planet and they will choose a leader. Put four people on a planet and they will have someone to hate.

The concept of beating people up for their choices in fashion and/or music is rather sad. But then again, so is attacking people for their race, religion, or sexual preference.

Really, attacking people in general is rather sad.
slywy

The interesting thing is that the Chinese are having a similar reaction to Tibetans — the “Why aren’t you satisfied to be like us?” syndrome. The expectation of conformity as not just the norm, but the required norm, has always disturbed me.
Tenn

Scottfree:

Sure kids will be kids, but kids need to have enough restraint not to take belts and prepare to beat the life out of another person.

When you have massive groups of teenagers fighting like this, there are problems. They are problems that need to be addressed. My school is more violent and drug filled by the year- the school is taking a definite turn for the worse.

I don’t care if my fellow peers want to be stupid. They can face the consequences for that stupidity. Else, they’ll continue in that vein forever.

I’ve been slammed into the wall during a fight that took spontaneous combustion place in the hallway at school because somebody pulled colors. The same because someone said something someone else didn’t like. At the age these people are, that’s leaving the realm of ‘childhood fights’ and ‘possible felony’. Yes, in another thread you’ll hear me saying that teens make bad decisions- but that doesn’t mean those decisions don’t have consequences. And when their actions are this planned, there’s a problem.
Jake0748

Scottfree

Women’s jeans don’t have crotches?
balexander667

what ever happened to the good ole’ fashioned punks vs. skinheads, I mean come on at least their girl pants had dead kennedy patches on them.
Glossolalia Black

It’s like the screeds against my “art fag” friends back in the 80′s. Same shit, different day. Both subcultures include makeup-wearing men, so I’m thinking that it’s mostly indicative of a misogyny that hasn’t gone away at least since then.

“It’s all just a little bit of history repeating…”
Rodriguez

Those of you who weren’t blessed by Quetzacoatl with the holy gift of Spanish skills really are missing out on quite a bit of the fun. Here are some highlights:

*The cop saying that the kids were fighting because they “belonged to different cults, or beliefs, something like that.”

*The “punk” kid saying that they wanted to beat up the emos because “they are stealing our style”

and

*The fact that it wasn’t the police action that dissipated the crowd, but the Hare Krishna’s chanting.

God, I miss Latin America. Sometimes.
MarlboroTestMonkey7

In our more enlightened Panama, there are only anti Elmo pogroms.
eigengrau

@ Scottfree -

I can’t say I have ever tried on women’s jeans, but I think I’d have a hard time – I’m 6’4″.
Gert1033

So maybe in my thirty-something state I’m past the point of commenting, but this just seems odd-in that rising up against emo is like rising up against McDonalds or Colgate. For the most part, didn’t emo start out being co-opted? Is there really a difference between (insert current hot emo band here) and the Pussycat Dolls? It’s not like punk, for example, where its origination occurred wherein individuals actually represented an aesthetic the rest of society shunned/didn’t understand/found disturbing.

I’m pretty sure anyone’s grandmother, upon hearing virtually any emo song, would instantly think of any number of bad TV promos, multiple commercials, etc. And upon looking at one of these individuals, might, at best, consider them a bit fey.

Am I wrong?
scottfree

I highly recommend Elias Canettis Crowds and Power, although I believe it is out of print in English. The only unifying identity of the mob here is /not emo/. Not being emo has sublated all other aspects of their identities, and so it is interesting that they attack their very raison d’etre, that which defines them as members of a mob.
scottfree

The problem is boredom. Find work.
Mister N

When the journalist ask one of the punks about the reason of their attack against the emos, the answer was: “because they’re copying our style”.

Insecurity about their own identity, that they had to “defend” it.

The newscaster said that when the Harry Krishna’s got there , the tension reduced between the two groups.
LucasSheehan

I find this very sad. (no emo intended)

Historically young people and people in general separate naturally in to groups of like minded individuals, for safety, support and general fun. However this focused and somewhat organized aggression towards other groups and at such a young age make me worry that lessons of the past have been forgotten and/or poorly taught in Mexico.

Bullies ganging up on the weak or different always happens and likely always will but organizing 800 people in a common goal is far more than an extreme example its flat out war against another group. For nothing more than a perceived difference. Bummer.
Michael Brutsch

12,000 years ago, all mankind lived in perfect harmony. They were all “emo”. Then, somewhere, a terrible mutation sprang up, and a dangerous, irrational, violent human was born. Natural selection allowed this human to have many children, whose numbers grew until they could band together, and wipe out the “emos”. This continued, and thus began “civilization”. They continue to rule today, mostly because the emos, who continue to be born, are too afraid of their insane neighbors to do anything about it. Just be quiet, hope you don’t get noticed.
patricio

I’ve worked in the Mexican news business for the past five years.

Last week was easter, so most people were on vacation.

People on vacation = less news.

Ridiculous overexagerated news stories = SLOW NEWS DAY.

I can just hear the debates going on all over the country last week:

“Is there anything interesting today?”

“Well there are these kids… called Emus or something… some of them got into a fight with some Punks… remember punks? from when we were young in the 70s?”

“Oh yeah… we can sell that…”
mikesum32

Do you really think I care
what you eat or what you wear ?
Qozmiq

Anti-Emo Graffiti in Munich
anthropomorphictoast

Funny they don’t target goths en masse. I guess they’re afraid of being verbally emasculated or something. :P (And yes there IS a difference. Emo is the bastard child of goth, even though both parties will virulently say to the contrary. Which makes sense because we’re subcultural relatives. :D)

But yeah, this is pretty pathetic and jumps right back to the old “OMG SOMETHING DIFFERENT, LET’S KILL IT!” shtick. We really are no more civilized than animals sometimes.
h3llc4t

Something about the constant use of the term “the emos” just grates on me incessantly.
Really, the term just needs to die.
death_worm

On emo not being a real scene “because it’s so commercialized”: It’s not like punk rock didn’t eventually become commercialized. I mean, heck, Malcolm McLaren organized the Sex Pistols so he could sell more clothes. As for exhibits B,C and D: Blink 182, Good Charlotte, and Green Day. And yeah, mopey high schoolers are annoying, but they don’t really deserve to be beaten up for it.
Tenn

Do all those kids have jobs?

No.

Do they have the reasoning skills to not sit and text in a job? Not from what I’ve seen.

I’m not going to go out and beat the homeless or the fashionless. I’ve held a job. How are you going to get those kids to get jobs and stop being bored and act mature?

Probably will never happen.

I still think there need to be some sort of critical thinking, getting to work with groups camps or something. Or consequences for people that try to beat the life out of others because they’re different. It’s the only way for some folk to learn. Including youngTenn.
pepsi_max2k

what… the hell?!? is this a weird kind of joke? a few chavs taking out some emos i can understand, but whole riots? and punks vs emos? lines of riot police? and then the buddhists turn up and that’s where it got far too surreal for me… have they all completely lost it over there?
mindysan33

@#20-
Oh…. so much thanks for the translations. And see… I told you guys Hare Krishna’s were awesome!!!

#22
Also being in the thirty something state, I have to say that your not past the point of commenting! These aren’t just “youth cultures”- that’s just the way they are marketed… it’s something you do in your “indiscreet” youth, that way people like Jello Biafra can be categorized as being childish, when he is a smart social critic (but he’s just an aging rocker, right?). That’s an interesting point about the difference between Punk and Emo. The views of punk at the time were pretty harsh- Sex Pistols couldn’t play in the UK at all for a while. I don’t know much about emo, but it seems much less about social commentary as an aesthetic/artistic choice then punk was- but I’m unclear if this was always the case (was Sunny Day Real Estate Emo- I seem to remember them having that designation?). I think that sub-cultures are now being actively co-opted, and maybe even created, much earlier (as soon as they became “named” and spread to wide audiences) and being stripped of any originality and social commentary context in the process by the major labels, hot topics, etc- probably intentionally so. It’s become about the thing that counter-cultures have often been about.

#23-
Elias Canettis Crowds and Power- is it similar to Laclau’s “On Populist Reasons” or is it more about the psychology of crowds?

Mindy
Pieface

I hate anyone wearing tapered jeans. Emo, Punk, Hipster whatever! NUTS HANG FOR A REASON. Come on man… really do you need to walk around with your dick stuff in your ass crack
archcvd

That newsanchor is *hot*.
mindysan33

@#27-
I think we have a new theory of history!!! Congratulations. When is this ground breaking thesis going to be complete! ;-)

@#28-
Awesome. I can so see that conversation going down in any news room anywhere.

Mindy
xx_emo_luvrrr_xx

okay well first thing, emo stands for EMOtionaly disturbed, most REAL emos, that actually have brain issues, cut themselves before they hear about cutting from anyone else. The one’s who hear about it from other people, are usually called “posers” who just want attention, but that’s why we do it in the first place, because we crave attention because it makes us feel better, like someone actually cares about us. See emos are NOT ALL homosexuals, a large population of us are bi or gay or lesbian, but a lot of people are heterosexual. So emo’s don’t just cry over stupid shit, a lot of us acctually DO have problems. It is unhealthy to be emo, SO WE NEED HELP, NOT PEOPLE WANTING TO KILL US FOR BEING MENTALLY ILL!!!!! ‘m trd f ll ths whnng frm stpd btchs wh r lk:
â€œI HATE EMOS!!! They are not even people, they are so stupid, they cry over meaningless thingsâ€¦ My school is infested with them, I want to kill them all!â€

â€œWeâ€™ve never seen all the urban tribes unite against one single tribe beforeâ€¦ Emos, their way of thinking is for crap, if you are so depressed please do us all a favour and kill yourselves!â€

They don’t know the half of it, Hitler hated the Jews and we had the Halocaust, it might sound stupid but we must be aware that history DOES repeatitself and this COULD happen, The Jews didn’t believe it and look what happenend to 9 million of them…
mikesum32

BTW, if you are wondering what emo is check this link out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEJDGLF-e18

And if you’re over, say, 40, look at this one instead.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ri6ySOHoDfk
figment88

While this certainly seems to be organized violence against a particular group, it does not seem like the scale of the violence rises to a “pogrom.”
jgriffiths

From my own (limited) personal experience, I have noticed the ‘emo’ culture being a lot more encompassing than any youth movements when I was in school.

When I was in secondary school (pre-6th form, start of high school in American terms I think?), we had punks, grunge kids, skaters, goths, jocks (though we didn’t call them that), chavs and everything in between.

I’m 19, this was only 3 years ago.

And yet now, when I see kids (and I have friends still in sixth form at my old school), apart from very few exceptions, they’re either emo kids or chavs. It really is that cut and dry.

Anyone in the UK, go to Crewe (I’ve seen from first hand experience) or Mold (I’ve been told by friends) and you will see huge groups of chavs and emos wandering around town, all huddled together in their separate tribes.

Kids these days eh?
scottfree

#33

Very different from Laclau; Crowds and Power is basically a survey of the common elements of a mob, and yes, mob psychology, specifically in opposition to Freud’s Mass Psychology and Civilization and Its Discontents.

Also a very pleasant read. More literary than theoretical, and I believe Canetti won the Nobel Prize for his efforts.
gATO

I went through a lot of “phases” in my life, which involved dabbling in several subcultures, including both Metal and Goth, and I gotta say, I find Emo-hating somewhat disturbing… I understand making fun of it, it is as fair a target as any other human expression, but hating, truly hating people for being whiny and wearing makeup? What should be despised is the fascism, machismo and homophobia inherent in Metal culture. I understand that these metalheads are mostly teenagers, but sadly, not all of them outgrow those ideas, certainly not in Latin America.
Jamie Sue

I’m confused… where does goth end and emo begin?