White nationalism is a type ofracial nationalism orpan-nationalism which espouses the belief thatwhite people are arace[1] and seeks to develop and maintain a white racial andnational identity.[2][3][4] Many of its proponents identify with the concept of awhite ethnostate.[5]
White nationalists say they seek to ensure the survival of the white race and the cultures of historically whitestates. They hold that white people should maintain their majority in majority-white countries, maintain their political and economic dominance, and that their cultures should be foremost in these countries.[4] Many white nationalists believe thatmiscegenation,multiculturalism,immigration of nonwhites andlow birth rates among whites are threatening the white race.[6]
Analysts describe white nationalism as overlapping withwhite supremacism andwhite separatism.[7][4][6][8][9][10] White nationalism is sometimes described as a euphemism for, or subset of, white supremacism, and the two have been used interchangeably by journalists and analysts.[8][11] White separatism is the pursuit of a "white-only state", while supremacism is the belief that white people are superior to nonwhites and should dominate them,[6][8][9] taking ideas fromsocial Darwinism andNazism.[12] Critics argue that the term "white nationalism" is simply a "rebranding", and ideas such aswhite pride exist solely to provide a sanitized public face for "white supremacy", which white nationalists allegedly avoid using because of its negative connotations,[13][14] and that most white nationalist groups promote racial violence.[15]
According toMerriam-Webster, the first documented use of the term "white nationalist" was 1951, to refer to a member of a militant group that espouses white supremacy andracial segregation.[16] Merriam-Webster also notes usage of the two-word phrase as early as 1925.[17] According toDictionary.com, the term was first used in the title of a 1948 essay bySouth African writer and ecologistThomas Chalmers Robertson titledRacism Comes to Power in South Africa: The Threat of White Nationalism.[18]
According to Daryl Johnson, a former counterterrorism expert at theDepartment of Homeland Security, the term was used to appear more credible while also avoiding negative stereotypes about white supremacists.[11] Modern members of racist organizations such as theKu Klux Klan generally favor the term and avoid self-describing as white supremacist.[19]
Some sociologists have used white nationalism as an umbrella term for a range of white supremacist groups and ideologies, while others regard these movements as distinct. Analysis suggests that two groups largely overlap in terms of membership, ideology, and goals.[20] Civil rights groups have described the two terms as functionally interchangeable. Ryan Lenz of theSouthern Poverty Law Center has said "there is really no difference",[21] andKristen Clarke of theLawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law has said "There is no defensible distinction that can be drawn between white supremacy, white nationalism or white separatism in society today."[7] News reports will sometimes refer to a group or movement by one term or the other, or both interchangeably.[8]
White nationalists claim that culture is a product of race, and advocate for the self-preservation of white people.[22] White nationalists seek to ensure the survival of the white race, and the cultures of historically white nations. They hold that white people should maintain their majority in mainly-white countries, maintain their dominance of its political and economic life, and that their culture should be foremost.[4] Many white nationalists believe thatmiscegenation,multiculturalism,mass immigration of non-whites andlow birth rates among whites are threatening the white race, and some argue that it amounts towhite genocide.[6]
Political scientistSamuel P. Huntington described white nationalists as arguing that the demographic shift in the United States towards non-whites would bring a new culture that is intellectually and morally inferior.[22] White nationalists claim that this demographic shift bringsaffirmative action,immigrantghettos and declining educational standards.[23] Most American white nationalists say immigration should be restricted to people of European ancestry.[24][25][26]
White nationalists embrace a variety of religious andnon-religious beliefs, including variousdenominations ofChristianity, generallyProtestant, although some specifically overlap with white nationalist ideology (Christian Identity, for example, is a family of white supremacist denominations),Germanic neopaganism (e.g.Wotanism) andatheism.[27]
Most white nationalists definewhite people in a restricted way. In the United States, it often—though not exclusively—impliesEuropean ancestry of non-Jewish descent. Some white nationalists draw on 19th-centuryracial taxonomy. White nationalistJared Taylor has argued thatJews can be considered "white", although this is controversial within white nationalist circles.[28] Many white nationalists opposeIsrael andZionism, while some, such asWilliam Daniel Johnson and Taylor, have expressed support for Israel and have drawn parallels between their ideology and Zionism.[29][30] Other white nationalists such asGeorge Lincoln Rockwell exclude Jews from the definition but includeTurks, who are atranscontinental ethnicity.[31]
White nationalist definitions of race are derived from the fallacy of racial essentialism, which presumes that people can be meaningfully categorized into different races by biology or appearance. White nationalism and white supremacy view race as a hierarchy of biologically discrete groups. This has led to the use of often contradictoryobsolete racial categories such asAryanism,Nordicism, or theone-drop rule.[32][33] Since the second half of the 20th century, attempts tocategorize humans by race have become increasingly seen as largely pseudoscientific.[33]
TheWhite Australia policy was semi-official government policy in Australia until the mid twentieth century. It restricted non-white immigration to Australia and gave preference to British migrants over all others.[citation needed]
TheBarton government, which won thefirst elections following theFederation of Australia in 1901, was formed by theProtectionist Party with the support of theAustralian Labor Party (ALP). The support of the Labor Party was contingent upon restricting non-white immigration, reflecting the attitudes of theAustralian Workers' Union and other labor organizations at the time, upon whose support the Labor Party was founded. The firstParliament of Australia quickly moved to restrict immigration to maintain Australia's "British character", passing thePacific Island Labourers Act 1901 and theImmigration Restriction Act 1901 before parliament rose for its first Christmas recess. The Immigration Restriction Act limitedimmigration to Australia and required a person seeking entry to Australia to write out a passage of 50 words dictated to them in anyEuropean language, not necessarilyEnglish, at the discretion of an immigration officer. Barton argued in favour of the bill: "The doctrine of the equality of man was never intended to apply to the equality of the Englishman and the Chinaman."[34] The passage chosen for the test could often be very difficult, so that even if the test was given in English, a person was likely to fail. The test enabled immigration officials to exclude individuals on the basis of race without explicitly saying so. Although the test could theoretically be given to any person arriving in Australia, in practice it was given selectively on the basis of race. This test was later abolished in 1958.[citation needed]
Australian Prime MinisterStanley Bruce supported the White Australia policy, and made it an issue in his campaign for the1925 Australian federal election.[35]
It is necessary that we should determine what are the ideals towards which every Australian would desire to strive. I think those ideals might well be stated as being to secure our national safety, and to ensure the maintenance of our White Australia Policy to continue as an integral portion of the British Empire.[35] We intend to keep this country white and not allow its peoples to be faced with the problems that at present are practically insoluble in many parts of the world.[36]
At the beginning ofWorld War II, Prime MinisterJohn Curtin (ALP) expressed support for White Australia policy: "This country shall remain forever the home of the descendants of those people who came here in peace in order to establish in the South Seas an outpost of the British race."[37]
Another (ALP)Leader of the Labor Party from 1960 to 1967Arthur Calwell supported the White European Australia policy. This is reflected by Calwell's comments in his 1972 memoirs,Be Just and Fear Not, in which he made it clear that he maintained his view that non-European people should not be allowed to settle in Australia. He wrote:
I am proud of my white skin, just as a Chinese is proud of his yellow skin, a Japanese of his brown skin, and the Indians of their various hues from black to coffee-coloured. Anybody who is not proud of his race is not a man at all. And any man who tries to stigmatize the Australian community as racist because they want to preserve this country for the white race is doing our nation great harm ... I reject, in conscience, the idea that Australia should or ever can become a multi-racial society and survive.[38]
He was the last leader of either the Labour or Liberal party to support it.
TheParliament of Canada passed theChinese Immigration Act of 1923 to bar all Chinese from coming to Canada with the exception of diplomats, students, and those granted special permission by the Minister of Immigration.Chinese immigration to Canada had already been heavily regulated by theChinese Immigration Act of 1885 which required Chinese immigrants to pay a $50 fee to enter the country (the fee was increased to one hundred dollars in 1900 and to five hundred dollars in 1903).[39] Groups such as theAsiatic Exclusion League, which had formed inVancouver,British Columbia, on 12 August 1907 under the auspices of the Trades and Labour Council, pressured Parliament to halt Asian immigration.[40] The Exclusion League's stated aim was "to keep Oriental immigrants out of British Columbia."[41]
TheCanadian government also attempted to restrict immigration fromBritish India by passing anorder-in-council on 8 January 1908.[42] It prohibited immigration of persons who "in the opinion of the Minister of the Interior" did not "come from the country of their birth or citizenship by acontinuous journey and or through tickets purchased before leaving their country of their birth or nationality." In practice, this applied only to ships that began their voyages inIndia, because the great distance usually necessitated a stopover in eitherJapan orHawaii. These regulations came at a time when Canada was accepting massive numbers of immigrants (over 400,000 in 1913 alone), almost all of whom came fromEurope. This piece of legislation has been called the "continuous journey regulation".
White nationalist "Awakening" conference is held annually in Finland, attracting some hundreds of white nationalists from around the globe. The event has been attended by white supremacists from around the world;Jared Taylor ofAmerican Renaissance,Kevin MacDonald, representatives of theNational Corps and others.[43] Some of the founders of the influentialSuomen Sisu anti-immigration organization were members of the pro-Aparheid "Friends of South Africa" organization.[44]
In a survey conducted byIltalehti, one-third of the voters of the far-rightFinns Party, the second biggest party in parliament, thought that "the European race must be prevented from mixing with darker races, otherwise the European native population will eventually become extinct".[45] Finns Party Minister of the InteriorMari Rantanen wrote that if Finns remain naive on immigration, Finns "will not remain blue-eyed" and shared writings referring to refugees as "parasites".[46][47] Toni Jalonen, at the time deputy-chair of the Finns Party Youth, posted a picture of a black family with the text "Vote for the Finns, so that Finland's future doesn't look like this".[48]
TheThule Society developed out of the "Germanic Order" in 1918, and those who wanted to join theOrder in 1917 had to sign a special "blood declaration of faith" concerning their lineage: "The signer hereby swears to the best of his knowledge and belief that no Jewish or coloured blood flows in either his or in his wife's veins, and that among their ancestors are no members of the coloured races."[49]Heinrich Himmler, one of the main perpetrators of theHolocaust, said in a speech in 1937: "The next decades do in fact not mean some struggle of foreign politics which Germany can overcome or not ... but a question of to be or not to be for the white race ..."[50] As the Nazi ideologistAlfred Rosenberg said on 29 May 1938 on the Steckelburg inSchlüchtern: "It is however certain that all of us share the fate of Europe, and that we shall regard this common fate as an obligation, because in the end the very existence of White people depends on the unity of the European continent."[51]
At the same time, theNazi Party subdivided white people into groups, viewing theNordics as the "master race" (Herrenvolk) above groups like Alpine and Mediterranean peoples.[52] Slavic peoples, such as Russians and Poles, were consideredUntermenschen (subhumans) instead of Aryan.[53]Adolf Hitler's conception of the AryanHerrenvolk ("Aryan master race") explicitly excluded the vast majority ofSlavs, regarding the Slavs as having dangerous Jewish and Asiatic influences.[54] The Nazis, because of this, declared Slavs to beUntermenschen.[55][56] Hitler described Slavs as "a mass of born slaves who feel the need of a master".[57] Hitler declared that because Slavs were subhumans that theGeneva Conventions were not applicable to them, and German soldiers inWorld War II were thus permitted to ignore the Geneva Conventions in regard to Slavs.[58] Hitler called Slavs "a rabbit family" meaning they were intrinsically idle and disorganized.[59] Nazi Germany's propaganda ministerJoseph Goebbels had media speak of Slavs as primitive animals who were from the Siberian tundra who were like a "dark wave of filth".[59][60] The Nazi notion of Slavs being inferior was part of the agenda for creatingLebensraum ("living space") for Germans and other Germanic people inCentral and Eastern Europe that was initiated during World War II underGeneralplan Ost, millions of Germans and other Germanic settlers would be moved into conquered territories of Eastern Europe, while the original Slavic inhabitants were to be exterminated and enslaved.[61] Nazi Germany's ally theIndependent State of Croatia rejected the common conception thatCroats were primarily a Slavic people and claimed that Croats were primarily the descendants of the GermanicGoths.[62] However the Nazi regime continued to classify Croats as "subhuman" in spite of the alliance.[63]Roma andSinti were also racially discriminated by the Nazis.[64][65][66]
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Hungarian Prime MinisterViktor Orbán stated in 2018 that "we do not want to be diverse and do not want to be mixed: we do not want our own colour, traditions and national culture to be mixed with those of others."[67] In 2022, he stated that "we do not want to become peoples of mixed-race," praisingThe Camp of the Saints and referring specifically to the admixture of Europeans and non-European migrants, commenting that racially mixed countries "are no longer nations."[68] Two days later in Vienna, he clarified that he was talking about cultures and not about race.[69] Laura Barrón-López ofPBS described his ideology as white nationalist.[70] White nationalists of the Americanalt-right and the Europeanidentitarian movements enthusiastically support Orbán's policies. Some have personally migrated there and collaborated with the political partyJobbik.[71]
Following the example of anti-Chinese poll taxes enacted by California in 1852 and by Australian states in the 1850s, 1860s and 1870s,John Hall's government passed the Chinese Immigration Act 1881. This imposed a £10 tax per Chinese person entering theColony of New Zealand, and permitted only one Chinese immigrant for every 10 tons of cargo.Richard Seddon's government increased the tax to £100 per head in 1896, and tightened the other restriction to only one Chinese immigrant for every 200 tons of cargo.[citation needed]
The Immigration Restriction Act of 1899 prohibited the entry of immigrants who were not of British or Irish parentage and who were unable to fill out an application form in "any European language".[72] The Immigration Restriction Amendment Act 1920 aimed to further limit Asian immigration into theDominion of New Zealand by requiring all potential immigrants not of British or Irish parentage to apply in writing for a permit to enter the country. The Minister of Customs had the discretion to determine whether any applicant was "suitable". Prime MinisterWilliam Massey asserted that the act was "the result of a deep seated sentiment on the part of a huge majority of the people of this country that this Dominion shall be what is often called a 'white' New Zealand."[73]
One case of a well known opponent of non-European immigration to New Zealand is that ofwhite supremacistLionel Terry who, after traveling widely to South Africa, British Columbia and finally New Zealand and publishing a book highly critical of capitalism and Asian immigration, shot and killed an elderly Chinese immigrant inWellington. Terry was convicted of murder in 1905 and sentenced to death, but the sentence was commuted to life incarceration in New Zealand psychiatric institutions.[citation needed]
A Department of External Affairs memorandum in 1953 stated: "Our immigration is based firmly on the principle that we are and intend to remain a country of European development. It is inevitably discriminatory against Asians—indeed against all persons who are not wholly of European race and colour. Whereas we have done much to encourage immigration from Europe, we do everything to discourage it from Asia."[74]
InParaguay, the New Australian Movement foundedNew Australia, a white supremacistutopian socialist settlement in 1893. Its founder,William Lane, intended the settlement to be based on a "common-hold" instead of a commonwealth, life marriage,teetotalism,communism and a brotherhood of Anglophonewhite people and the preservation of the "colour-line". The colony was officially founded asColonia Nueva Australia and comprised 238 adults and children.[75]
In July 1893, the first ship left Sydney, Australia for Paraguay, where the government was keen to get white settlers, and had offered the group a large area of good land. The settlement had been described as a refuge for misfits, failures and malcontents of the left wing of Australian democracy.[76] Notable Australian individuals who joined the colony includedMary Gilmore,Rose Summerfield andGilbert Stephen Casey. Summerfield was the mother ofLeón Cadogan, a noted Paraguayan ethnologist.
Due to poor management and a conflict over the prohibition of alcohol, the government of Paraguay eventually dissolved New Australia as a cooperative. Some colonists founded communes elsewhere in Paraguay but others returned to Australia or moved to England. As of 2008[update], around 2,000 descendants of the New Australia colonists still lived in Paraguay.[77][78]
InSouth Africa, white nationalism was championed by theNational Party starting in 1914, when it was established as a political party to represent Afrikaners after theSecond Boer War byJ. B. M. Hertzog in 1914.[79][80][81] It articulated a policy promoting white "civilised labour" above African "swart gevaar," and some radical nationalist movements such as theAfrikaner Broederbond,D. F. Malan'sPurified National Party, andOswald Pirow's New Order openly sympathized with Nazi Germany. In 1948, theReunited National Party under Malan won theSouth African general election against the more moderate United Party and implemented the segregationist social system known asapartheid.[82]
ThePromotion of Bantu Self-Government Act, 1959 established homelands (sometimes pejoratively referred to asBantustans) for ten different black African tribes. The ultimate goal of the National Party was to move all Black South Africans into one of these homelands (although they might continue to work in South Africa as"guest workers"), leaving what was left of South Africa (about 87 percent of the land area) with what would then be aWhite South African majority, at least on paper. As the homelands were seen by theapartheid government as embryonic independent nations, all Black South Africans were registered as citizens of the homelands, not of the nation as a whole, and were expected to exercise their political rights only in the homelands. Accordingly, the three token parliamentary seats that had been reserved for White representatives of black South Africans inCape Province were scrapped. The other three provinces—Transvaal, theOrange Free State, andNatal—had never allowed any Black representation.[citation needed]
Coloureds were removed from the Common Roll of Cape Province in 1953. Instead of voting for the same representatives aswhite South Africans, they could now only vote for four White representatives to speak for them. Later, in 1968, the Coloureds were disenfranchised altogether. In the place of the four parliamentary seats, a partially elected body was set up to advise the government in an amendment to theSeparate Representation of Voters Act.[citation needed]
During the 1960s, 1970s, and early 1980s, the government implemented a policy of "resettlement", to force people to move to their designated "group areas". Millions of people were forced to relocate during this period. These removals included people relocated due toslum clearance programs, labour tenants on White-owned farms, the inhabitants of the so-called "black spots", areas of Black owned land surrounded by White farms, the families of workers living in townships close to the homelands, and "surplus people" from urban areas, including thousands of people from the Western Cape (which was declared a "Coloured Labour Preference Area")[83] who were moved to theTranskei andCiskei homelands. The best-publicised forced removals of the 1950s occurred inJohannesburg, when 60,000 people were moved to the new township ofSoweto, an abbreviation for South Western Townships.[84][85]
Until 1955,Sophiatown had been one of the few urban areas where Blacks were allowed to own land, and was slowly developing into a multiracial slum. As industry in Johannesburg grew, Sophiatown became the home of a rapidly expanding black workforce, as it was convenient and close to town. It could also boast the only swimming pool for Black children in Johannesburg.[86] As one of the oldest black settlements in Johannesburg, Sophiatown held an almost symbolic importance for the 50,000 Blacks it contained, both in terms of its sheer vibrancy and its unique culture.[tone] Despite a vigorousAfrican National Congress protest campaign and worldwide publicity, the removal of Sophiatown began on 9 February 1955 under the Western Areas Removal Scheme. In the early hours, heavily armed police entered Sophiatown to force residents out of their homes and load their belongings onto government trucks. The residents were taken to a large tract of land, thirteen miles (21 km) from the city center, known asMeadowlands (that the government had purchased in 1953). Meadowlands became part of a new planned Black city calledSoweto. The Sophiatown slum was destroyed by bulldozers, and a new White suburb named Triomf (Triumph) was built in its place. This pattern of forced removal and destruction was to repeat itself over the next few years, and was not limited to people of African descent. Forced removals from areas likeCato Manor (Mkhumbane) inDurban, andDistrict Six inCape Town, where 55,000 coloured and Indian people were forced to move to new townships on theCape Flats, were carried out under theGroup Areas Act 1950. Ultimately, nearly 600,000 coloured, Indian andChinese people were moved in terms of the Group Areas Act. Some 40,000 White people were also forced to move when land was transferred from "White South Africa" into the Black homelands.[citation needed]
Before South Africa became a republic, politics among white South Africans was typified by the division between the chieflyAfrikaans-speaking pro-republic conservative and the largely English-speaking anti-republicanliberal sentiments, with the legacy of theBoer War still constituting a political factor for sections of the white populace.[87] Once South Africa's status as a republic was attained,Hendrik Verwoerd called for improved relations and greater accord between the two groups.[88] He claimed that the only difference now was between those who supported apartheid and those who stood in opposition to it. The ethnic divide would no longer be between white Afrikaans-speakers and English-speakers, but rather White and Black South Africans. Most Afrikaners supported the notion of unanimity of White people to ensure their safety. Anglophone white South Africans voters were divided. Many had opposed a republic, leading to a majority "no" vote inNatal.[89] Later, however, some of them recognized the perceived need for White unity, convinced by the growing trend ofdecolonization elsewhere in Africa, which left them apprehensive.Harold Macmillan's "Wind of Change" pronouncement lead the Anglophone white South African population to perceive that the British government had abandoned them.[90] The more conservative Anglophones gave support to Verwoerd; others were troubled by the severing of ties with Britain and remained loyal tothe Crown.[91][92] They were acutely displeased at the choice between British and South African nationality. Although Verwoerd tried to bond these different blocs, the subsequent ballot illustrated only a minor swell of support, indicating that a great many Anglophones remained apathetic and that Verwoerd had not succeeded in uniting the White population in South Africa.[93]
TheBlack Homeland Citizenship Act of 1970 was adenaturalization law passed during theapartheid era of South Africa that changed the status of the inhabitants of the Bantustans (Black homelands) so that they were no longercitizens of South Africa. The aim was to ensure that white South Africans came to make up the majority of thede jure population.
TheNaturalization Act of 1790 (1 Stat. 103) provided the first rules to be followed by the United States government in granting national citizenship. This law limited naturalization to immigrants who were "free white persons" of "good moral character." In 1856, theU.S. Supreme Court ruled in theDred Scott v. Sandford decision thatfree blacks descended from slaves could not holdUnited States citizenship even if they had been born in the country.[94]
Major changes to this racial requirement for US citizenship did not occur until the years following theAmerican Civil War. In 1868, theFourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was passed to grantbirthright citizenship toblack people born in the US, but it specifically excluded untaxedIndians, because they were separate nations. However, citizenship for other non-whites born in the US was not settled until 1898 withUnited States v. Wong Kim Ark,169 U.S. 649, which concluded with an important precedent in its interpretation of theCitizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. This racial definition of American citizenship has had consequences for perceptions of American identity.[95]
Following the defeat of theConfederate States of America and theabolition of slavery in the United States at the end of theAmerican Civil War, theKu Klux Klan (KKK) was founded as aninsurgent group with the goal of maintaining the Southern racial system throughout theReconstruction Era. Although the first incarnation of the KKK was focused on maintaining theAntebellum South, its second incarnation in the 1915-1940s period was much more oriented towards white nationalism and American nativism.[96] The second KKK was founded inAtlanta, Georgia, in 1915 and, starting in 1921, it adopted a modern business system of recruiting. The organization grew rapidly nationwide at a time of prosperity. Reflecting the social tensions of urban industrialization and vastly increased immigration, its membership grew most rapidly in cities and spread out of the South to the Midwest and West. The second KKK called for strict morality and better enforcement ofprohibition. Its rhetoric promotedanti-Catholicism and nativism.[97] Some local groups took part in attacks on private houses and carried out other violent activities. The violent episodes were generally in the South.[98]
The second KKK was a formalfraternal organization, with a national and state structure. At its peak in the mid-1920s, the organization claimed to include about 15% of the nation's eligible population, approximately 4 to 5 million men. Internal divisions, criminal behavior by leaders, and external opposition brought about a collapse in membership, which had dropped to about 30,000 by 1930. It faded away in the 1940s.[99]
Starting in the 1960s, white nationalism grew in the US as the conservative movement developed in mainstream society.[100] TheImmigration and Nationality Act of 1965 had opened entry to the US to immigrants other than traditional Northern European andGermanic groups, and as a result it would significantly, and unintentionally, alter the demographic mix in the US.[101]
A movement calling forwhite separatism emerged in the 1980s.[102] During the 1980s the United States also saw an increase in the number ofesoteric subcultures within white nationalism. According toNicholas Goodrick-Clarke, these movements cover a wide variety of mutually influencing groups of a radicallyethnocentric character which have emerged, especially in theEnglish-speaking world, sinceWorld War II. These loose networks use a variety of mystical, occult or religious approaches in a defensive affirmation ofwhite identity againstmodernity,liberalism,immigration,multiracialism, andmulticulturalism.[103] Some areneo-fascist,neo-Nazi orThird Positionist; others are politicised around some form of whiteethnic nationalism oridentity politics,[103] and a few havenational anarchist tendencies.[104]
In the 2010s, thealt-right, a broad term covering many differentfar-right ideologies and groups in the United States, some of which endorse white nationalism, gained traction as an alternative to mainstreamconservatism inits national politics.[105]
In 2016, theAmerican National Election Studies survey conducted duringDonald Trump's campaign for the presidency found that 38% of Americans expressed "strong feelings of white solidarity", 28% "strong feelings of white identity", 27% that whites suffer from discrimination in American society, while 6% agree with all these propositions.[106]
In 2020, it was reported that white nationalist groups leaving flyers, stickers, banners and posters in public places more than doubled from 1,214 in 2018 to 2,713 in 2019.[107][108][109]
According to journalistDavid D. Kirkpatrick, as of mid-2024, scholars of the far right estimate that 100,000 Americans "actively participate in organized white nationalist groups".[110]
Numerous individuals and organizations have argued that ideas such as white pride and white nationalism exist merely to provide a sanitized public face forwhite supremacy. Kofi Buenor Hadjor argues thatblack nationalism is a response to racial discrimination, while white nationalism is the expression of white supremacy.[111] Other critics have described white nationalism as a "... somewhat paranoid ideology" based upon the publication of pseudo-academic studies.[112]
Carol M. Swain argues that the unstated goal of white nationalism is to appeal to a larger audience, and that most white nationalist groups promotewhite separatism and racial violence.[113] Opponents accuse white nationalists of hatred, racial bigotry, and destructiveidentity politics.[114][115] White supremacist groups have a history of perpetratinghate crimes, particularly against people of Jewish and African descent.[116] Examples include thelynching of black people by theKu Klux Klan (KKK).
Some critics argue that white nationalists—while posturing ascivil rights groups advocating the interests of their racial group—frequently draw on thenativist traditions of the KKK and theNational Front.[117] Critics have noted theanti-semitic rhetoric used by some white nationalists, as highlighted by the promotion of conspiracy theories such asZionist Occupation Government.[118]
White nationalist movements have achieved prominence around the world. Several have achieved representation in the governments of their country, and three have led governments:
Other notable organisations are:
Notes
Civil rights groups applauded the move. 'There is no defensible distinction that can be drawn between white supremacy, white nationalism or white separatism in society today,' Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said Wednesday in a statement.
{{citation}}:|first3= has generic name (help)Then there's the white supremacist group known as the Russian Imperial Movement, or RIM, which the State Department designated a terrorist organization in 2020 (an effort led by one of the authors here, Nathan Sales). With the Kremlin's tacit approval, the group operates paramilitary camps near St. Petersburg in which neo-Nazis and white supremacists from across Europe are trained in terrorist tactics.
Bibliography
Media related toWhite nationalism at Wikimedia Commons
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