The following essay was the handout for the workshop of the same title at the Bay Area Anarchist Conference 2001 in March, which was added due to the fact there wasn't a single workshop/discussion on the issue of race/diversity in the schedule of the conference. http://www.infoshop.org/rants/race_punk_rock.html

Race, Anarchy, and Punk Rock:
The impact of cultural boundaries within the anarchist movement.
by Otto Nomous

"Yes that's right, punk is dead ... Punk became a fashion just like hippy used to be and it ain't got a thing to do with you or me."

- lyrics by Crass, The Feeding of the Five Thousand(1978).

Ever since the historic protests against the WTO in Seattle at the close of the last millenium, anarchism as a revolutionary theory has been sought after by an increasing number of people from wide ranging walks of life than ever before in recent memory. However, the undeniable fact remains that the make-up of the anarchist movement in the U.S. for the last couple of decades has been a largely homogenous one, i.e. predominantly white and middle class. It also happens to be the case that the vast majority of people who identify themselves as anarchists in the U.S. today are connected to “alternative