Expert on bigotry shines light on hate

For Randy Blazak, teaching is a performance.

“I like messing with people’s minds. I came from a world where everything is a performance, teaching intro [classes] is like a low-level performance art piece,” he said.

The sociology professor has been teaching at Portland State since 1995. He is also a chair of the Coalition Against Hate Crimes and the advisor to the Sociology Club on campus.

Blazak has experienced some national attention because of his expertise on skinheads and the research he has done on hate crimes since he was in college. He has appeared on The O’Reilly Factor, the Sally Jesse Raphael show and on a National Geographic television special.

“It’s been from the ridiculous to the sublime,” Blazak said about the shows he has appeared on. “It was my four minutes of shame,” he added about being on The O’Reilly Factor.

In 1988, Blazak heard of the murder of Mulugeta Seraw, an Ethiopian student who resided in southwest Portland, by members of the White Aryan Resistance. He was working in Florida at the time, researching another skinhead group, but decided to move to the Northwest and study racism after he heard of that crime.

Blazak, a Ph.D. graduate from Emory University in Atlanta, has researched white pride groups by seeking out their hangouts and infiltrating their groups.

“It’s pretty easy to blend in,” he said.

The national media attention has taken a toll on how well he can work undercover, he said. Three years ago he showed up to an event called “Aryan Woodstock” in Yelm, Wash., but by that time people were already starting to recognize him.

“I was about fine for 30 minutes, then somebody asked if I was who I was and I said ‘I’m just here to rock,'” Blazak said.

This summer Blazak will be heading to Bosnia to set up a research project involving Bosnia’s long-standing fascist movement.

On Feb. 22, the Sociology Club will show a movie called Ballot Measure 9 at 5th Avenue Cinema, which is about Oregonians signing petitions to deny protection for minorities.

“It looks at what happens when the Electoral College gets hijacked by bigots,” Blazak said about the movie. “I am really excited to be showing it. We are dealing with these folks all over again,” he said, referring to national legislation banning gay marriage.

Blazak, who used to manage a rock band, chose to pursue a life exploring hate crimes because he said he wants to examine how bigotry has become mainstream.

“One of the reasons I do this on campus is I get to look at these attitudes and how they affect people, including in myself,” he said.