Anti-Defamation League Apologizes To HATEBREED For 'White Power' Mislabeling

The Anti-Defamation League has written a letter of apology to Connecticut hardcore/metal masters HATEBREED after the director of the organization's Upper Midwest Region wrote an article for CNN's web site which erroneously listed HATEBREED as one of "white power" bands whose names "defiantly express feelings of hate or violence."

After it was revealed that the white supremacist responsible for the massacre last week at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin was a white supremacist skinhead who played in two white power music bands, END APATHY and DEFINITE HAT, Anti-Defamation League's Lonnie Nasatirwrote an opinion piece for the cable news channel urging members of the media to "shine the light of day on the hateful lyrics and subculture, so that more people will speak out and reject their disturbing and sometimes violent message." In the article, he named less than a dozen of "about 100 to 150 white power bands" that exist in the United States, and included HATEBREED in the list.

Speaking to Metal Hammer at this year's edition of the Bloodstock Open Air festival, which was held August 9-12 at Catton Park, Derbyshire in the United Kingdom (see video below),HATEBREED frontman Jamey Jasta stated about the incident, "It was just a really dumb mistake on [CNN's] part. And I've gotta hand it to them. Dealing with the lawyers and everything, they took it off within 30 minutes."

He added, "It's just silly. The whole thing… Because the band has [name] the word 'hate' in it… Why does the word 'hate' have to be strictly used by racists? That's a fucking crock of shit. Let's take our words back. It's the English language. 'Oh, a hamburger doesn't have ham in it.' Get a fucking clue! You know what I mean?! Think about it. That's what we're dealing with here. And anybody that wants to Twitter me or Facebook me and say, 'Oh, well, you should have thought twice before you named your band HATEBREED.' What are you talking about? We have a fucking Grammy nomination, we've been in major motion pictures, we've toured all over the world with OZZY [OSBOURNE] and SLAYER… It's an awesome name. The fucking name rules! The logo is legendary and synonymous with so many fucking great things. So fuck all these people that wanna say differently; I'm over it. And the ADL [Anti-Defamation League], they issued us a really nice letter of apology [see below]. And they said, 'We know that HATEBREED has never had any sort of racist idealogy, and we regret the error and we're sorry.' And they apologized to our fans. So what more could you ask for? You know what I mean?!"

After removing HATEBREED's name from the list, CNN included the following message at the bottom of Nasatir's article: "A previous version of this commentary incorrectly included the band HATEBREED in a list of white power bands. HATEBREED is a self-described 'hardcore metal' band. CNN regrets the error."