When it comes to nostalgia, nothing beats the Internet.
Once-impossible childhood dreams can be fulfilled. For instance, in only a few days worth of downloading, it's possible to have a digital copy of every single Nintendo, Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis game.
However, with the computer know-how necessary for copying an old game from a cartridge also comes the skills to alter those classic games. Thus, we get various "hacks" of iconic games.
Some are pretty mundane - give Mega Man a blue ponytail and it's "Mega Girl." Others are playful and funny, like "Super Afro Mario," in which Mario is sporting a giant afro. Some are a tad racy, as is the "anatomically correct" version of Mario.
Then there are some that fit best in a category described by Bruce Willis in "Sin City" when he says, "There's wrong, and there's wrong, and there's this."
Boy, was it shocking and horrifying to stumble across "Super KKK Brothers" buried in the collection of thousands of games. Imagine the original Super Mario Bros., but with Mario as a skinhead. There are swastikas everywhere and all the enemies have been replaced with racist black caricatures. Instead of a mushroom, Mario snags a white sheet. Instead of grabbing a fire flower, there's a cross which gives him a red Grand Wizard robe. The most chilling power-up of all, though, is the replacement of the invincibility star with a noose.
For some reason, the corruption of something as innocent and pure as Super Mario just strikes my the soul as particularly wrong.
At least "Super KKK Brothers" is obscure and unlikely to be played by children, so it's not a tool of indoctrination.
That's not the case with all racist media, though.
ABC News recently highlighted the "white nationalist" folk music group Prussian Blue, whose two members are 13-year-old twins Lamb and Lynx Gaede. The pair sing songs praising Nazi leaders, romanticizing their European heritage, and urging whites to turn their fear into hate.
Lamb and Lynx's mother, April, is the primary source of their racist worldview. She home-schools the girls, teaching her own version of history that includes holocaust denial. The teens told ABC absurdities, such as that 6 million Jews didn't die in the Holocaust because there "weren't that many Jews alive at the time."
In addition to the girls' parents, Prussian Blue has the support of Erich Gliebe, the owner of racist music label Resistance Records, which has put out Prussian Blue's debut album. He said, "11 and 12 years old. I think that's the perfect age to start grooming kids and instill in them a strong racial identity."
One happy element, though, to the story of Prussian Blue - something that may hinder their parents' and boss' quest to use the girls to spread their ideology - their "music" is atrocious. They can't sing. It's nails on a chalkboard.
Even if we ignore this stuff, I doubt it will go away. As a result of the ABC Primetime profile, Prussian Blue is bound to draw more CD sales. People will probably go in search of "Super KKK Brothers" because I wrote about it. So what is the proper way for our society to respond to racist media, whether it be music or video games?
Racist ideas can be easily rebutted with facts and reason, but as far as converting racists, one cannot reason out something that wasn't reasoned in.
Perhaps we can only wait, keep winning the war in the marketplace of ideas and hope the number of proud, vocal racists will keep declining.
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