“Defining a country or a region by white radical identity, which seeks to promote the interests of whites exclusively, typically at the expense of other backgrounds,” this is the definition of white nationalism as suggested by the Anti-Defamation League. White nationalism or white supremacy is a re-emerging crisis that has hit the west violently. The crisis which evolved with the Christchurch massacre in New Zealand and the many copycat attacks that followed in the US, was a trigger to a national political act against such violent moves. And with the rising wave of nationalist attacks hitting the US, we might be witnessing a move towards an international recognition of “White Nationalism or Supremacy” as a very dangerous type of terrorism. It was for this reason that a number of senators suggested introducing a “law” to criminalize the terrorism of white nationalists.
White nationalism as known to the modern world came to light by the end of the civil war in the United States, with some calling for the need to protect the “American Protestants” from other ethnicities, especially the Chinese people, Irish Catholics, southern Europeans and Jews. It was Madison Grant’s novel “The Passing of the Great Race”, which merged nativist sentiment with eugenics to produce a theory of “White Supremacy” and “race suicide”, that Adolf Hitler considered his “Bible”. After getting discredited, white nationalism experienced resurgence towards the end of the 20th century. In 1988, “The White Genocide Manifesto” by David Lane came to light with a new cry to “secure the existence of our people and a future for white children”. [1]
In 2017, the “Unite the Right” rally brought the world to a new encounter with a violent type of nationalism. That rally, which turned into a deadly clash, witnessed a new emergence of alt-right, neo-Confederates, neo-fascists, white nationalists, neo-Nazis, Klansmen, and various right-wing militias.[2] Though President Donald Trump did not see this deadly incident as very warning, he was accused by many of the Americans as a “white nationalist” sympathizer, and calls were high for an immediate action before the US falls into a worse situation. This was an “unbelievable” prophecy that came true with the US suffering some of the deadliest white nationalist attacks like: Aztec High school attack, Tree of Life Synagogue attack and the most recent ElPasso attack. All of these attacks’ perpetrators claimed –in some online manifestos- that their actions were for the sake of protecting the White “Nordic” race from extinction.
Despite this active white nationalist action pervading the west, the more alarming is the recruitment of teens into these nationalist violent movements. It all starts via the Internet and the online forums spreading sexist and racist memes. Young teens start sharing such memes as mere jokes but it grows bigger and more dangerous into a racist ideology they believe in. White supremacists know that internet is the best and safest way to reach teenagers and make an effective impact on them, and thus engage them into their racist ideologies.
This year, the FBI issued many warnings against violent white nationalist movements and called for an urgent action to combat these movements and their activities within the American society. Reiterating such calls –in May, a number of Democratic senators called for a more adequate effort to combat violent white nationalism; a threat they knew might bring to end the fundamental American principles. Last month, Senator Bernie Sanders vowed to “go into war against white nationalism and racism”. Another move has been made by GOP Senator Martha McSally who made a statement about introducing a new legislation to consider domestic terrorism a punishable federal crime, with the aim to close a loophole in the federal authorities’ capabilities to prosecute domestic terrorism criminals.
Lives are lost, families are torn apart and communities are undermined and still voice doubt about the danger of white supremacy, which makes it necessary to take up an international stance against white nationalism, hoping that it would be eradicated.