'national security'

that "a majority of domestic terrorism cases" under investigation "are motivated by white supremacy," the problem is too bloody to ignore.

"America is under attack," said Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg, mayor of South Bend, Indiana. "I'm not sure if this is fully understood. America is under attack by lethal, violent, white nationalist terrorism. And if we're serious about confronting it, that means we have to have a different conversation…. This is a national-security emergency." until the dissolution of the Soviet Union 44 years later. Any communist party anywhere - and any political force with communist allies - was defined as a danger to Americans. So "national security" justified expeditionary wars (from Korea to Vietnam), interference in democratic elections (from Italy in 1948 to Honduras in 2009), and the massacre of democratic movements that included communist partners (from Indonesia in 1965 to El Salvador in the 1980s).

The violence of white supremacists directed against Americans was a different - and lesswas homegrown, the bomb he detonated was not felt as an existential threat. Under the reign of "national security," white terrorism did not belong in the same threat category as communism.

The imperative of repelling the jihadist threat was used to justify expeditionary wars (and massacres) in Afghanistan and Iraq and drone wars in Pakistan and Somalia, as well as torture and mass surveillance regimes. The notion that a white American might pose a comparable threat was dismissed as inconceivable

The notion persisted long after Jim Crow and communism were gone. After 9/11, the USA Patriot Act updated and expanded the doctrine of national security with the notion of "homeland security." America mobilized to protect its territory from another alien ideology - radical Islam. The imperative of repelling the jihadist threat was used to justify expeditionary wars (and massacres) in Afghanistan and Iraq and drone wars in Pakistan and Somalia, as well as torture and mass surveillance regimes. The notion that a white American might pose a comparable threat was dismissed as inconceivable.

Now the data don't lie. You're much more likely to be killed by a white-nationalist terrorist than by a jihadist ( much less an Iranian). The post- El Paso conversation about how to make America safe begins with identifying the racialized thinking built into national-security policy.

"Dear white national security practitioners and colleagues," tweeted Naveed Jamali, a former naval intelligence officer. "Many of you have spent the last decade looking for terrorists in MY community. Will you do the same for yours?" National-security professionals are falling over themselves to say yes. Former NSC staffer Sam Vinograd says, "Fighting white-nationalist terrorism will require sustained strategy, resources, and leadership."