Autobiography of a Recovering Skinhead (42 page)

 

AOR
While most names are changed in this book, all the characters are real people. Are you worried about the reaction people in the book will have to its publication?

 

JMR
Of course. But the folks I’m most concerned about on that count probably won’t read it for about ten years, Frank’s kids. Some people might mistake this book as an exposé of the movement, but if they take the time to read it, they’ll very quickly realize that’s not the case – Frank reveals nothing about the movement that isn’t available on the internet with two clicks of a mouse. He’s talking about stuff that happened twenty years ago, and the book is about one young man’s particular experience in sub-corners of the movement. Still, Frank had no intention to out anybody from the movement who isn’t already a public figure or, for that matter, to bring unwanted attention to other people in his life. Most names, some descriptors, are changed – of individuals and groups. Frank never did “rat anybody out.” He doesn’t do it here, either.

Some people might read the book as a testament to recovery from substance abuse, and there is that element. The book is truly Frank’s fourth step, a searching and fearless moral inventory. We put in a lot of miles in cars and airplanes to take this particular fourth step. But it’s also a family history for his kids, because Frank doesn’t have that – as he said, the pictures are missing from the photo albums for a decade or so – and Frank’s kids were very much in my mind at times writing the book.

 

AOR
This book has a cinematic quality to it. Can you see this book being turned into a movie?

 

FM
I absolutely do. From the people who I’ve talked to about it, some see it more as a dark comedy because of the way I am about the mistakes I’ve made in life, how I’m willing to mock myself. And I don’t see it happening so I become a big, rich person. But it’s a great story and it’s true and of course I didn’t live my life to make it into a movie, but then I look back on it, and I know it can entertain someone and get a positive message across. I’d be fooling myself if I thought I could have a great message without entertaining. My story, for whatever reason, is entertaining. People like looking and saying, “Thank God I’m not that guy.”

JODY M. ROY, PH.D., IS A PROFESSOR OF COMMUNICATION and Assistant Dean of Faculty at Ripon College. The recipient of more than a dozen awards for teaching and community activism, Roy was named Jeanne Robertson Outstanding Professor by the National Speakers Association in 2004, Wisconsin Professor of the Year 2005 by the Carnegie Foundation and CASE, and received a 2004 VOICES Award, honoring her as one of 100 American women changing communities with social activism.

Since the late 1980s, Roy’s research has explored the diverse ways in which hatred is communicated within American society. Her scholarly studies have included analysis of organized hate movements in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as well as critique of the roles hatred and violence play within American popular culture. Her publications include
Love to Hate : America’s Obsession with Hatred and Violence
(Columbia University Press, 2002).

Inspired by the shooting at Columbine High School, Roy determined to translate her work as a scholar into accessible hate-prevention resources for K -12 teachers and parents. She developed the educational and community action guide which accompanies New Light Media’s award-winning documentary,
Journey to a Hate-Free Millennium
. Roy has also developed film-based educational resources for the Matthew Shepard Foundation and CIRE Foundation.

In 2001, Roy founded Students Talking About Respect (STAR),
a non-profit organization that offered schools free access to hate-prevention resources. In 2004, STAR merged into the National Association of Students Against Violence Everywhere (SAVE); through SAVE, the STAR hate-prevention materials are now available to more than 1,800 American schools. In 2008, Roy was elected Chair of SAVE’s Board of Directors.

 

IN RECENT YEARS, Frank Meeink has worked in a support position for professional hockey teams. He has been on the national lecture circuit for nearly a decade, speaking to various groups on the topic of racial diversity and acceptance. This is his first book.

Copyright ©2009 Jody M. Roy, PH.D.

 

 

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage-and-retrieval systems, without prior permission in writing from the Publisher, except for brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

 

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

 

 

Meeink, Frank.

Skinhead:The Frank Meeink Story/

as told to Jody M. Roy.

1st Hawthorne ed.

p. cm.

eISBN : 978-0-979-01889-3

(alk. paper)

1. Meeink, Frank.

2. Skinheads—United States—Biography.

3. Neo-Nazis—United States—Biography.

4. White Supremacy Movements—United States.

I. Roy, Jody M. PH.D.

II. Title

[HV6439.U5M44 2010]

320.5’6 – DC22 [B]

2009027527

 

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