Tag: white supremacy

Scholar explains how the conservative movement transmits ‘sanitized versions of white supremacist ideology’

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As the longest sustained period ofracial justice protests in American history segues into the heat of election season, dark shadows have appeared, from the vigilante killing of protesters in Kenosha, Wisconsin — and widespread conservative defenses of the teenage accused murderer — to ludicrous charges against protesters, including “terrorism,” to the Trump administration’s crackdown on federal antiracism training, calling it “anti-American,” and Attorney General Bill Barr’s call for protesters to be charged with sedition. 

So much for the notions that Donald Trump has no ideology, or, for that matter, that getting rid of him will make America great again. In July of 2016, I wrote about why such views were myopic: “Trump advances core paleoconservative positions,” researcher Bruce Wilson told me, including “rebuilding infrastructure, protective tariffs, securing borders and stopping immigration, neutralizing designated internal enemies and isolationism.”

Trump’s record as president has been surprisingly consistent for such an erratic figure, with his purely rhetorical support for infrastructure as the most notable exception. And therein lies a key to the current moment: With infrastructure removed from the equation — the most broadly popular position Trump’s ever embraced — the remaining white nationalism stands out in stark relief, highlighted in the frenzied push toward violent confrontation around the election, and beyond. Continue reading.

Historian explains the huge mistake ‘increasingly desperate’ evangelicals make in backing Trump

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The latest Pew Research poll shows that 72% of white evangelical Protestants approved of Donald Trump’s work as president in June, and 59% strongly approved. That number was slightly lower than his approval earlier in the year. But about 82% of white evangelicals said they would vote for Trump, even higher than the proportion who voted for him in 2016. 35% say that Trump has been a “great President” and 34% say he has been “good”. No other religious subgrouprates Trump positively.

His pronounced support for the evangelical political agenda has been obvious since he became a candidate. In January 2016, he told Iowa evangelicals at Dordt University, a Christian college in Sioux Center, in his typically egotistical phrasing, “We don’t exert the power that we should have. Christianity will have power. If I’m there, you’re going to have plenty of power, you don’t need anybody else.”

Why didn’t an irreligious and publicly immoral candidate present moral difficulties to a religious group which has traditionally emphasized the close connection of faith and character? Many skilled researchers and analysts have tried to understand how people who profess such devotion to Jesus and the Bible could see Trump as their prophet. I have no better explanation than anyone else. Continue reading.

How white supremacy infected Christianity and the Republican Party

Washington Post logoRobert P. Jones, chief executive and founder of the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI), is fast becoming the leading expert in the values, votes and mind-set of White Christians. His work has explained how loss of primacy in American society fueled a white-grievance mentality — the same mind-set President Trump so effectively read and manipulated.

His latest book, “White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity,” is a masterful study documenting how white supremacy came to dominate not just Southern culture, but White Christianity. In it, he argues that “most white Christian churches have protected white supremacy by dressing it in theological garb, giving it a home in a respected institution, and calibrating it to local cultural sensibilities.” He also recounts ways in which White churches are moving to account for their past and explore their history with Black Americans.

Jones posits that it is not simply intermingling a celebration of the “Lost Cause” and religion that has led White Christians who do not think of themselves of racists to harbor views that reinforce racism; he also points to the theological worldview of White Christians, including “an individualist view of sin [which ignores institutional racism], an emphasis on a personal relationship with Jesus, and the Bible as the protector of the status quo.” If you want to know why White Christian ideology is the best predictor of racist attitudes (a shocking revelation for the author and likely many readers), the book is essential reading. Continue reading.

Fox News’ Tucker Carlson horrifies viewers with a message disturbingly similar to a white supremacist slogan

AlterNet logoPresumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s campaign accused Fox News host Tucker Carlson of “hate speech” as he came under fire for appearing to echo a white supremacist slogan on Tuesday’s broadcast.

Twitter users widely circulated a screenshot of a chyron which aired on Carlson’s show below images for Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., who is of Asian descent, and Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., who is one of the first Muslim women elected to Congress.

“We have to fight to preserve our nation & heritage,” the chyron read. Continue reading.

How White Supremacy Returned to Mainstream Politics

Center for American Progress logoIntroduction and summary

The United States is living through a moment of profound and positive change in attitudes toward race, with a large majority of citizens1 coming to grips with the deeply embedded historical legacy of racist structures and ideas. The recent protests and public reaction to George Floyd’s murder are a testament to many individuals’ deep commitment to renewing the founding ideals of the republic. But there is another, more dangerous, side to this debate—one that seeks to rehabilitate toxic political notions of racial superiority, stokes fear of immigrants and minorities to inflame grievances for political ends, and attempts to build a notion of an embattled white majority which has to defend its power by any means necessary. These notions, once the preserve of fringe white nationalist groups, have increasingly infiltrated the mainstream of American political and cultural discussion, with poisonous results. For a starting point, one must look no further than President Donald Trump’s senior adviser for policy and chief speechwriter, Stephen Miller.

In December 2019, the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Hatewatch published a cache of more than 900 emails2 Miller wrote to his contacts at Breitbart News before the 2016 presidential election. Miller, who began his role in the Trump administration in 2017, is widely considered the president’s most ideologically extreme and bureaucratically effective adviser. Miller has been careful not to talk openly about his political views, so this correspondence proved to be revealing.

In the emails, Miller, an adviser to the Trump campaign at the time, advocated many of the most extreme white supremacist concepts. These included the “great replacement” theory, fears of white genocide through immigration, race science, and eugenics; he also linked immigrants with crime, glorified the Confederacy, and promoted the genocidal book, The Camp of the Saints, as a roadmap for U.S. policy. Anti-Semitism was the only missing white nationalist trope in the emails—perhaps unsurprisingly, as Miller himself is Jewish. Continue reading.

St. Louis couple point guns at peaceful crowd of protesters calling for mayor to resign

Washington Post logoThe protesters marching through St. Louis on Sunday evening were armed only with posters and chants, all meant to put pressure on Mayor Lyda Krewson to redirect city funds away from law enforcement.

“Resign Lyda, take the cops with you,” they shouted on the way to the mayor’s house in the Central West End, banging on drums and carrying signs that said, “Respect us.” The first-term Democrat had publicly released the names and addresses of some fellow activists, and now they wanted to bring their demonstration to her door.

But as the peaceful crowd of about 500 walked along a private, gated street, a white couple who emerged from a marble mansion had something else in mind. Continue reading.

A man tied to the far-right Boogaloo movement is accused of killing 2 officers amidst Black Lives Matter protests

AlterNet logoIn Northern California, a man with alleged ties to the far-right Boogaloo movement is facing murder charges in connection with the shootings of two law enforcement officers: Damon Gutzwiller, a sergeant in the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s office, and David Patrick Underwood, a 53-year-old federal security officer.

On May 29, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, Underwood was guarding the federal building in Oakland when a drive-by shooting occurred. Steven Carrillo, a U.S. Air Force sergeant, is accused of the shooting, and Robert Justus is alleged to be his accomplice. Gutzwiller was killed in a separate shootout in Ben Lomond, California.

In a criminal complaint, the Special Agent Brett Woolard of the FBI claimed to find evidence linking Carrillo to the far-right Boogaloo movement. In particular, a search uncovered a patch, shown below, he said was “associated with the ‘Boogaloo’ movement.” Continue reading.

More than 100 Democrats sign letter calling for Stephen Miller to resign

The Hill logoMore than 100 Democratic lawmakers on Thursday signed on to a letter calling for President Trump to fire senior adviser Stephen Miller as a civil rights group details hundreds of controversial emails he sent prior to his time in the administration.

“Given Mr. Miller’s role in shaping immigration policy for your administration, his documented dedication to extremist, anti-immigrant ideology and conspiracy-mongering is disqualifying,” the lawmakers wrote.

The Democrats wrote that Miller’s ideology manifested itself in the form of several policy decisions, including a travel ban on citizens of several Muslim-majority countries, a decrease in refugee admissions and the decision to end Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).

View the complete November 21 article by Brett Samuels on The Hill website here.

The White Nationalist Websites Cited by Stephen Miller

New York Times logoNewly released emails show President Trump’s chief immigration adviser was a young Senate aide who promoted his anti-immigrant views by referring to the sites.

WASHINGTON — Peter Brimelow, the founder of the anti-immigration website VDARE, believes that diversity has weakened the United States, and that the increase in Spanish speakers is a “ferocious attack on the living standards of the American working class.”

Jared Taylor, the editor of the white nationalist magazine American Renaissance, is a self-described “white advocate” who has written that “newcomers are not the needy; they are the greedy.”

Their websites were among the sources cited by Stephen Miller, the White House aide who is the driving force behind President Trump’s immigration policies, in emails and conversations with conservative allies at Breitbart News when he was a young Senate aide. A cache of those emails, obtained by the Southern Poverty Law Center, provides new insight into the ideas that have shaped Mr. Miller’s thinking and suggest he has maintained deeper intellectual ties to the world of white nationalism than previously known.

View the complete November 18 article by Katie Rogers and Jason DeParle on The New York Times website here.

White House backs Stephen Miller amid white nationalist allegations

The Hill logoThe White House is standing by senior adviser Stephen Miller as he faces calls from dozens of Democrats to resign after newly released emails showed he circulated material linked to white nationalism to conservative media before joining the administration.

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has published summaries of hundreds of emails Miller sent to Katie McHugh, a former editor at Breitbart News. The emails contain links and references to far-right websites, with much of the focus on immigration. The SPLC is planning to release additional emails in the coming days.

Democrats have reacted to the emails with outrage, decrying Miller as a white nationalist and calling for his resignation. But the White House has scoffed at the source of the documents, painting the SPLC as a discredited group and defending Miller in an indication that one of Trump’s longest tenured and most influential aides will weather the controversy.

View the complete November 16 article by Brett Samuels on The Hill website here.