Decades of pent-up anger feed white nationalist crusade
Movement tailors tactics to a ripe political climate
This summer’s seemingly overnight arrival of the self-described “alt-right” and white nationalist groups — marked most prominently by a deadly car attack at a “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Va., in August — drew worldwide headlines, but the movement simmered for decades before it burst into public view.
Underlying that shift from society’s fringes to center stage is a new strategy that taps into the frustrations of white people angry at a society they say has marginalized them.
President Trump’s election became a major rallying point for white nationalists as the Republican repeatedly amplified some of their views in campaign rallies and tweets.
“It just absolutely electrified this community,” said Keegan Hankes, an analyst for the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hates groups, including the Ku Klux Klan. “They really felt like they had someone to rally behind.”
The Charlottesville attack that heads to a grand jury Monday has done little to dim the movement. White nationalists have orchestrated controversial public appearances, fought and won high-profile legal battles with universities and dominated the airwaves.
Building on this newfound interest, white nationalists deployed tactics
borrowed from the generations-old KKK and today’s far-left groups and adapted media techniques often used against them.
Kyle Bristow, a self-described “alt-right” activist and attorney for highprofile white nationalist Richard Spencer, said corporations, the government and academia that “relentlessly” attack the nation’s traditional values have only prompted the movement’s growth.
“Middle America is rallying to the flag of the alt-right,” he said. “Older generations recognize that America is no longer the place that it once was or could be, and people of this generation tend to be more conservative in trying to reclaim the America that was lost.”
The term “alt-right” covers a loosely defined group whose far-right ideology includes racism, populism and white nationalism. It is embraced by white supremacists, who believe white people should dominate all other races, and white nationalists, who say whites are a distinct nation that needs special political and legal protections.
Opponents accuse white nationalists of being white supremacists in disguise and say the term “alt-right” is a euphemism to hide racist goals.
Regardless of what name these groups choose, estimates on how many people associate with the movement are difficult to come by. Many followers say they’re reluctant to be publicly identified because they fear losing their jobs or being attacked for their beliefs.
The Southern Poverty Law Center says the murkiness serves a purpose: It allows white nationalists to conceal whether their movement is truly a groundswell or just a highly effective but tiny group of people.
Online followings provide a glimpse of white nationalists’ reach. The law center says more than 300,000 people are registered as users on the oldest white nationalist site, Stormfront, which bills itself as “the voice of the new, embattled white minority.” Spen- cer’s Twitter account has more than 80,000 followers, not all of whom necessarily connect with the movement.
Online communities have played a major role in modern white nationalist movements, and the Foundation for the Marketplace of Ideas plays a key role in sharing those voices. The foundation lists freedom of speech, religion and equality among its tenets, then adds, “We are engaged in a total war in a fight for the existence of our people, and scorched earth tactics is morally proper in this existential struggle.”
Opponents say that agenda poses a danger to values of individual freedom, equality and tolerance.
“White nationalism is inherently an ideology of violence,” Hankes said. “There’s no peaceful path to that.”
Despite lip service to scorched-earth tactics, white nationalists have left behind many of the deeply controversial and condemned symbols of the past in favor of more subtle messages to lure new members.
They use many of the KKK’s tactics, such as invoking the protection of white culture and values, while avoiding the white hoods, cross-burnings and torch- es of the past. They also use strategies borrowed from left-wing groups and anarchists, including mass protests and lawsuits.
White nationalists have effectively used media coverage to spread their message, move into the mainstream and gain members.
Such rebranding of white nationalist ideas has allowed more Americans to feel comfortable publicly supporting at least some of the movement’s goals, experts say. After all, it’s hard to argue against personal liberty, freedom of speech and law and order.
“This is stuff that’s right out of the playbook of white nationalism from decades prior,” said Brian Levin of the Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism at California State University in San Bernardino. “It’s not just connected to race, but also morals and culture. Whenever we’re at an inflection point … when people feel change and fear, they are more likely to revert back to arguments that may be biased and comforting, as opposed to truthful. And I think what we’re seeing — people are amped up.”