White nationalism

See also:White ethnostate,White supremacy,andWhite pride

White nationalismis a type ofracial nationalismorpan-nationalismwhich espouses the belief thatwhite peopleare araceand seeks to develop and maintain a white racial andnational identity.Many of its proponents identify with the concept of awhite ethnostate.

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.Many white nationalists believe thatmiscegenation,multiculturalism,immigrationof nonwhites andlow birth ratesamong whites are threatening the white race.

Analysts describe white nationalism as overlapping withwhite supremacismandwhite separatism.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.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,taking ideas fromsocial DarwinismandNazism.Critics argue that the term "white nationalism" is simply a "rebranding", and ideas such aswhite prideexist solely to provide a sanitized public face for "white supremacy", which white nationalists allegedly avoid using because of its negative connotations,and that most white nationalist groups promote racial violence.

History and usage

According toMerriam-Webster,the first documented use of the term "white nationalist" was 1951, to refer to a member of a militant group which espouses white supremacy andracial segregation.Merriam-Webster also notes usage of the two-word phrase as early as 1925.According toDictionary,the term was first used in the title of a 1948 essay bySouth Africanwriter and ecologistThomas Chalmers RobertsontitledRacism Comes to Power in South Africa: The Threat of White Nationalism.

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.Modern members of racist organizations such as theKu Klux Klangenerally favor the term and avoid self-describing as white supremacist.

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.Civil rights groups have described the two terms as functionally interchangeable. Ryan Lenz of theSouthern Poverty Law Centerhas said "there is really no difference",andKristen Clarkeof theLawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Lawhas said "There is no defensible distinction that can be drawn between white supremacy, white nationalism or white separatism in society today."News reports will sometimes refer to a group or movement by one term or the other, or both interchangeably.

Views

White nationalists claim that culture is a product of race, and advocate for the self-preservation of white people.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.Many white nationalists believe thatmiscegenation,multiculturalism,mass immigrationof non-whites andlow birth ratesamong whites are threatening the white race, and some argue that it amounts towhite genocide.

Political scientistSamuel P. Huntingtondescribed 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.White nationalists claim that this demographic shift bringsaffirmative action,immigrantghettosand declining educational standards.Most American white nationalists say immigration should be restricted to people of European ancestry.

White nationalists embrace a variety of religious andnon-religiousbeliefs, including variousdenominationsofChristianity,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.

Definitions of whiteness

Most white nationalists definewhite peoplein a restricted way. In the United States, it often—though not exclusively—impliesEuropean ancestryof non-Jewish descent. Some white nationalists draw on 19th-centuryracial taxonomy.White nationalistJared Taylorhas argued thatJewscan be considered "white", although this is controversial within white nationalist circles.Many white nationalists opposeIsraelandZionism,while some, such asWilliam Daniel Johnsonand Taylor, have expressed support for Israel and have drawn parallels between their ideology and Zionism.Other white nationalists such asGeorge Lincoln Rockwellexclude Jews from the definition but includeTurks,who are atranscontinentalethnicity.

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 categoriessuch asAryanism,Nordicism,or theone-drop rule.Since the second half of the 20th century, attempts tocategorize humans by racehave become increasingly seen as largely pseudoscientific.

Regional movements

Australia

TheWhite Australia policywas 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.

TheBarton government,which won thefirst electionsfollowing theFederation of Australiain 1901, was formed by theProtectionist Partywith 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' Unionand other labor organizations at the time, upon whose support the Labor Party was founded. The firstParliament of Australiaquickly moved to restrict immigration to maintain Australia's "British character", passing thePacific Island Labourers Act 1901and theImmigration Restriction Act 1901before parliament rose for its first Christmas recess. The Immigration Restriction Act limitedimmigration to Australiaand 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."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.

Australian Prime MinisterStanley Brucesupported the White Australia policy, and made it an issue in his campaign for the1925 Australian federal election.

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.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.

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."

Another (ALP)Leader of the Labor Partyfrom 1960 to 1967Arthur Calwellsupported 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.

He was the last leader of either the Labour or Liberal party to support it.

Canada

TheParliament of Canadapassed theChinese Immigration Act of 1923to 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 Canadahad already been heavily regulated by theChinese Immigration Act of 1885which required Chinese immigrants to pay a fifty dollar fee to enter the country (the fee was increased to one hundred dollars in 1900 and to five hundred dollars in 1903).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.The Exclusion League's stated aim was "to keep Oriental immigrants out of British Columbia."

TheCanadian governmentalso attempted to restrict immigration fromBritish Indiaby passing anorder-in-councilon 8 January 1908.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 journeyand 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 eitherJapanorHawaii.These regulations came at a time when Canada was accepting massive numbers of immigrants (over 400,000 in 1913 alone—a figure that remains unsurpassed to this day), almost all of whom came fromEurope.This piece of legislation has been called the "continuous journey regulation".

Germany

TheThule Societydeveloped out of the "Germanic Order" in 1918, and those who wanted to join theOrderin 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."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... "As the Nazi ideologistAlfred Rosenbergsaid 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."

At the same timeNazi Partysubdivided white people into groups, viewing theNordicsas the "master race"(Herrenvolk) above groups like Alpine and Mediterranean peoples.Slavic peoples, such as Russians and Poles, were consideredUntermenschen(subhumans) instead of Aryan.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.The Nazis, because of this, declared Slavs to beUntermenschen.Hitler described Slavs as "a mass of born slaves who feel the need of a master".Hitler declared that because Slavs were subhumans that theGeneva Conventionswere not applicable to them, and German soldiers inWorld War IIwere thus permitted to ignore the Geneva Conventions in regard to Slavs.Hitler called Slavs "a rabbit family" meaning they were intrinsically idle and disorganized.Nazi Germany's propaganda ministerJoseph Goebbelshad media speak of Slavs as primitive animals who were from the Siberian tundra who were like a "dark wave of filth".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 Europethat 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.Nazi Germany's ally theIndependent State of Croatiarejected the common conception thatCroatswere primarily a Slavic people and claimed that Croats were primarily the descendants of the GermanicGoths.However the Nazi regime continued to classify Croats as "subhuman" in spite of the alliance.

Hungary

Hungarian Prime MinisterViktor Orbánstated 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."In 2022, he stated that "we do not want to become peoples of mixed-race," praisingThe Camp of the Saintsand referring specifically to the admixture of Europeans and non-European migrants, commenting that racially mixed countries "are no longer nations."Two days later in Vienna, he clarified that he was talking about cultures and not about race.Laura Barrón-López ofPBSdescribed his ideology as white nationalist.White nationalists of the Americanalt-rightand the Europeanidentitarian movementsenthusiastically support Orbán's policies. Some have personally migrated there and collaborated with the political partyJobbik.

New Zealand

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.

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".The Immigration Restriction Amendment Act 1920 aimed to further limit Asian immigration into theDominion of New Zealandby 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 Masseyasserted 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."

One case of a well known opponent of non-European immigration to New Zealand is that ofwhite supremacistLionel Terrywho, 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.

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."

Paraguay

InParaguay,the New Australian Movement foundedNew Australia,autopian socialistsettlement in 1893. Its founder,William Lane,intended the settlement to be based on a "common-hold" instead of a commonwealth, life marriage,teetotalism,communismand a brotherhood of Anglophonewhite peopleand the preservation of the "colour-line". The colony was officially founded asColonia Nueva Australiaand comprised 238 adults and children.

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.Notable Australian individuals who joined the colony includedMary Gilmore,Rose SummerfieldandGilbert 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,around 2,000 descendants of the New Australia colonists still lived in Paraguay.

South Africa

Main article:Afrikaner nationalism

InSouth Africa,white nationalism was championed by theNational Partystarting in 1914, when it was established as a political party to represent Afrikaners after theSecond Boer WarbyJ. B. M. Hertzogin 1914.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 Partyunder Malan won theSouth African general electionagainst the more moderate United Party and implemented the segregationist social system known asapartheid.

ThePromotion of Bantu Self-Government Act, 1959established 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 Africanmajority, at least on paper. As the homelands were seen by theapartheidgovernment 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 Provincewere scrapped. The other three provinces—Transvaal,theOrange Free State,andNatal—had never allowed any Black representation.

Colouredswere 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.

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 clearanceprograms, 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" )who were moved to theTranskeiandCiskeihomelands. 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.

Until 1955,Sophiatownhad 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.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.Despite a vigorousAfrican National Congressprotest 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 (19 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 SixinCape Town,where 55,000 coloured and Indian people were forced to move to new townships on theCape Flats,were carried out under theGroup Areas Act1950. Ultimately, nearly 600,000 coloured, Indian andChinese peoplewere 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.

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-republicanliberalsentiments, with the legacy of theBoer Warstill constituting a political factor for sections of the white populace.Once South Africa's status as a republic was attained,Hendrik Verwoerdcalled for improved relations and greater accord between the two groups.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.Later, however, some of them recognized the perceived need for White unity, convinced by the growing trend ofdecolonizationelsewhere 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.The more conservative Anglophones gave support to Verwoerd; others were troubled by the severing of ties with Britain and remained loyal tothe Crown.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.

TheBlack Homeland Citizenship Actof 1970 was adenaturalization lawpassed during theapartheidera of South Africa that changed the status of the inhabitants of the Bantustans (Black homelands) so that they were no longercitizensof South Africa. The aim was to ensure that white South Africans came to make up the majority of thede jurepopulation.

United States

Poster forThe Birth of a Nation(1915)

TheNaturalization Act of 1790(1Stat.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 Courtruled in theDred Scott v. Sandforddecision thatfree blacksdescended from slaves could not holdUnited States citizenshipeven if they had been born in the country.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 Constitutionwas passed to grantbirthright citizenshiptoblack 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 Clauseof the Fourteenth Amendment. This racial definition of American citizenship has had consequences for perceptions of American identity.

In a January 4, 1848 speech to theSenateregarding the issue of whether or not toannex the entirety of Mexicoafter theMexican-American war,John C. CalhounofSouth Carolinasaid, "I know further, sir, that we have never dreamt of incorporating into our Union any but the Caucasian race—the free white race. To incorporate Mexico, would be the very first instance of the kind of incorporating an Indian race; for more than half of the Mexicans are Indians, and the other is composed chiefly of mixed tribes. I protest against such a union as that! Ours, sir, is the Government of a white race."

Following the defeat of theConfederate States of Americaand theabolition of slavery in the United Statesat the end of theAmerican Civil War,theKu Klux Klan(KKK) was founded as aninsurgent groupwith the goal of maintaining the Southern racial system throughout theReconstruction Era.The creation of this group was able to instill fear in African Americans while, in some cases, filling white Americans with pride in their race and reassurance in the fact that they will stay 'on top'. The message they gave to people around them was that, even though the Confederate States did not exist anymore, the same principle remained in their minds: whites were superior. 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, with slogans such as "One Hundred Percent Americanism" and "America for Americans", in which "Americans" were understood to be white and Protestant. The 1915 filmThe Birth of a Nationis an example of an allegorical invocation of white nationalism during this time, and its positive portrayal of the first KKK is considered to be one of the factors which led to the emergence of the second KKK.

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-Catholicismand nativism.Some local groups took part in attacks on private houses and carried out other violent activities. The violent episodes were generally in the South.

Ku Klux Klan members march down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., in 1928.

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.

Starting in the 1960s, white nationalism grew in the US as the conservative movement developed in mainstream society.Samuel P. Huntingtonargues that it developed as a reaction to a perceived decline in the essence of American identity as European, Anglo-Protestant and English-speaking.TheImmigration and Nationality Act of 1965had 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.

The slogan "white power" was popularized byAmerican Nazi PartyleaderGeorge Lincoln Rockwell,who used the term in a debate withStokely Carmichaelof theBlack Panther Partyafter Carmichael issued a call for "black power".Rockwell advocated a return to white control of all American institutions, and violently opposed any minority advancement. He rejected the Nazi idea of "master race",however, and accepted all white European nationalities in his ideology, includingTurks.

One influential white nationalist in the United States wasWilliam Luther Pierce,who founded theNational Alliancein 1974.

In the United States a movement calling forwhite separatismemerged in the 1980s.Leonard Zeskindhas chronicled the movement in his bookBlood and Politics,in which he argues that it has moved from the "margins to the mainstream".

During the 1980s the United States also saw an increase in the number ofesotericsubcultures within white nationalism. According toNicholas Goodrick-Clarke,these movements cover a wide variety of mutually influencing groups of a radicallyethnocentriccharacter 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 ofwhiteidentity againstmodernity,liberalism,immigration,multiracialism,andmulticulturalism.Some areneo-fascist,neo-NaziorThird Positionist;others are politicised around some form of whiteethnic nationalismoridentity politics,and a few havenational anarchisttendencies. One example is theneo-tribalistpaganismpromoted byElse Christensen's Odinist Fellowship.Especially notable is the prevalence of devotional forms and esoteric themes, so these subcultures often have the character ofnew religious movements.

Included under the same umbrella by Goodrick-Clarke are movements ranging fromconservative revolutionaryschools of thought (Nouvelle Droite,European New Right,Evolian Traditionalism) towhite supremacistandwhite separatistinterpretations of Christianity andpaganism(Christian Identity,Creativity,Nordic racial paganism) to neo-Nazi subcultures (Esoteric Hitlerism,NaziSatanism,National Socialist black metal).

In the 2010s, thealt-right,a broad term covering many differentfar-right ideologiesand groups in the United States, some of which endorse white nationalism, gained traction as an alternative to mainstreamconservatisminits national politics.Thecomic booksuper heroCaptain America,in an ironic co-optation, has been used fordog whistle politicsby the alt-right in college campus recruitment in 2017.

North Idaho stateRep. Heather Scott—who in 2015 had paraded with aConfederate battle flag—in 2017 attempted to distinguish "white supremacy" from "white nationalism", claiming that the former was characterized by "extreme racism" and "violent acts" while the latter was merely nationalism by people who happen to be white, i.e. in her personal use of the term, a white nationalist is "no more than a Caucasian who [sic] for the Constitution and making America great again. "Scott's interpretation of the term was rejected as" incorrect "by University of Idaho sociology professor Kristin Haltinner and as" patently false "by Vanderbilt University sociology professor Sophie Bjork-James.

In 2019, the Democratic-controlledU.S. House of Representativespassed an amendment to theNational Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020to study whether it would be possible to screen military enlistees for "white nationalist" beliefs. However, the Republican-controlledU.S. Senateeliminated those words before passing the bill, expanding the wording to "extremist and gang-related activity", rather than specifically referencing white nationalism.

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.

In a July 2021Morning ConsultPoll found that among Republican-leaning male voters, 23 percent responded that they have a favorable view of white nationalist groups. Eleven percent of Republican men surveyed said they have a "very favorable" view while 12 percent said they are only "somewhat", With Democrat men it was 17 percent who said they have some form of "favorable" view of white nationalist groups.

Also in 2021 a poll found that in the state ofOregon.Nearly four in 10 Oregonians strongly or somewhat agree with statements that reflect core arguments of white nationalism. In 2018, 31 percent believed that America had to protect or preserve its White European heritage, while in 2021 it went up to 40 percent.

Relationships with black separatist groups

In February 1962George Lincoln Rockwell,the leader of theAmerican Nazi Party,spoke at aNation of Islam(NOI) rally in Chicago, where he was applauded byElijah Muhammadas he pronounced: "I am proud to stand here before black men. I believe Elijah Muhammed is the Adolf Hitler of the black man!"Rockwell had attended, but did not speak at, an earlier NOI rally in Washington, D.C., in June 1961,and once, he even donated $20 to the NOI.In 1965, after breaking with the Nation of Islam and denouncing its separatist doctrine,Malcolm Xtold his followers that the Nation of Islam under Elijah Muhammad had made secret agreements with the American Nazi Party and the Ku Klux Klan.

Rockwell and other white supremacists (e.g.Willis Carto) also supported less well-knownblack separatistgroups, such as Hassan Jeru-Ahmed's Blackman's Army of Liberation, in reference to which Rockwell toldLos Angeles TimesreporterMichael Drosninin 1967 that if "Any Negro wants to go back to Africa, I'll carry him piggy-back."

Tom Metzger,a formerKu Klux Klanleader from California, spoke at a NOI rally inLos Angelesin September 1985 and donated $100 to the group.In October of that same year, over 200 prominent white supremacists met at former Klan leaderRobert E. Miles's farm to discuss an alliance withLouis Farrakhan,head of the NOI.In attendance were Edward Reed Fields of theNational States' Rights Party,Richard Girnt Butlerof theAryan Nations,Don Black,Roy Frankhouser,and Metzger, who said that "America is like a rotting carcass. The Jews are living off the carcass like the parasites they are. Farrakhan understands this."

2016 Trump presidential campaign

From the outset of his campaign,Donald Trumpwas endorsed by various white nationalist andwhite supremacistmovements and leaders.On 24 February 2016,David Duke,a formerKu Klux Klan Grand Dragon,expressed vocal support for Trump's campaign on his radio show.Shortly thereafter in an interview withJake Tapper,Trump repeatedly claimed to be ignorant of Duke and his support. Republican presidential rivals were quick to respond on his wavering, and SenatorMarco Rubiostated the Duke endorsement made Trump unelectable.Others questioned his professed ignorance of Duke by pointing out that in 2000, Trump called him a "Klansman".Trump later blamed the incident on a poor earpiece he was given byCNN.Later the same day Trump stated that he had previously disavowed Duke in a tweet posted with a video on his Twitter account.On 3 March 2016, Trump stated: "David Duke is a bad person, who I disavowed on numerous occasions over the years. I disavowed him. I disavowed the KKK."

On 22 July 2016 (the day after Trump's nomination), Duke announced that he will be a candidate for the Republican nomination for theUnited States Senate election in Louisiana.He commented, "I'm overjoyed to see Donald Trump and most Americans embrace most of the issues that I've championed for years." A spokesperson for the Trump campaign said Trump "has disavowed David Duke and will continue to do so."

On 25 August 2016,Hillary Clintongave a speech saying that Trump is "taking hate groups mainstream and helping a radical fringe take over the Republican Party."She identified this radical fringe with the "alt-right",a largely online variation of American far-right that embraces white nationalism and is anti-immigration. During the election season, the alt-right movement" evangelized "online in support of racist and anti-semitic ideologies.Clinton noted that Trump's campaign chief executiveStephen Bannondescribed hisBreitbart NewsNetwork as "the platform for the alt-right".On 9 September 2016, several leaders of the alt-right community held a press conference, described by one reporter as the "coming-out party" of the little-known movement, to explain their goals.They affirmed their racialist beliefs, stating "Race is real, race matters, and race is the foundation of identity."Speakers called for a "White Homeland" and expounded on racial differences in intelligence. They also confirmed their support of Trump, saying "This is what a leader looks like."

Richard B. Spencer,who ran the white nationalistNational Policy Institute,said, "Before Trump, our identity ideas, national ideas, they had no place to go". The editor of theneo-NaziwebsiteThe Daily Stormerstated, "Virtually every alt-rightNaziI know is volunteering for the Trump campaign. "Rocky Suhayda,chairman of theAmerican Nazi Partysaid that although Trump "isn't one of us",his election would be a "real opportunity" for the white nationalist movement.

TheSouthern Poverty Law Centermonitored Trump's campaign throughout the election and noted several instances where Trump and lower-level surrogates either used white nationalist rhetoric or engaged with figures in the white nationalist movement.

Criticism

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 Hadjorargues thatblack nationalismis a response to racial discrimination, while white nationalism is the expression of white supremacy.Other critics have described white nationalism as a "...somewhat paranoid ideology "based upon the publication of pseudo-academic studies.

Carol M. Swainargues that the unstated goal of white nationalism is to appeal to a larger audience, and that most white nationalist groups promotewhite separatismand racial violence.Opponents accuse white nationalists of hatred, racial bigotry, and destructiveidentity politics.White supremacist groups have a history of perpetratinghate crimes,particularly against people of Jewish and African descent.Examples include thelynchingof black people by theKu Klux Klan(KKK).

Some critics argue that white nationalists—while posturing ascivil rightsgroups advocating the interests of their racial group—frequently draw on thenativisttraditions of the KKK and theNational Front.Critics have noted theanti-semiticrhetoric used by some white nationalists, as highlighted by the promotion of conspiracy theories such asZionist Occupation Government.

Notable organizations

For a more comprehensive list, seeList of white nationalist organizations.

White nationalist movements have achieved prominence around the world. Several have achieved representation in the governments of their country, and three have led governments:

• South African National Partyduring most of the 20th century
• Rhodesian Frontfrom 1965 to 1979
• GermanNazi Partyfrom 1933 to 1945

Other notable organisations are:

• Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging
• American Freedom Party
• American Front
• American Renaissance
• Aryan Guard
• Aryan Nations
• Australia First Party
• Australian Protectionist Party
• Antipodean Resistance(Australia)
• Atomwaffen Division
• Black Legion (political movement)
• British National Party
• British People's Party
• Canadian Heritage Alliance
• Council of Conservative Citizens
• Creativity Alliance
• Creativity Movement
• Dutch People's Union
• European-American Unity and Rights Organization(EURO)
• German American Bund
• Golden Dawn(former parliamentary representation)
• Hammerskins
• Heathen Front
• Identity Evropa
• Ku Klux Klan
• League of the South
• Les Identitaires/Generation Identity
• The III. Path
• National Alliance (United States)
• National Democratic Party of Germany
• National Front(UK)
• National Policy Institute
• National Rebirth of Poland
• National Socialist League
• National Socialist Movement (disambiguation)
• National Vanguard
• Nationalist Alliance
• Nationalist Front
• Nationalist Party of Canada
• Nordic Resistance Movement
• Patriotic Alternative
• Patriotic Youth League
• Patriot Front
• Russian Imperial Movement
• Russian National Unity
• Silver Legion of America
• Socialist Reich Party(former parliamentary representation)
• Traditionalist Workers Party
• The Order/Bruder Schweigen
• Vanguard America
• Vigrid
• Volksfront
• White Aryan Resistance
• White Aryan Resistance (Sweden)
• White Nationalist Party

Notable individuals

• Andrew Auernheimer
• Andrew Anglin
• Richard Girnt Butler
• Theodore G. Bilbo
• Don Black
• Peter Brimelow
• Thomas W. Chittum
• Craig Cobb
• Harold Covington
• Ian Stuart Donaldson
• Aleksandr Dugin
• David Duke
• Paul Fromm (white supremacist)
• Nick Fuentes
• Matthew F. Hale
• Matthew Heimbach
• Hinton Rowan Helper
• Adolf Hitler
• Andrew Jackson
• Andrew Johnson
• William Daniel Johnson
• James Keegstra
• Ben Klassen
• August Kreis III
• Kris Kobach
• Alex Linder
• Lana Lokteff
• Kevin Macdonald
• Tom Metzger
• Nikolaos Michaloliakos
• Merlin Miller
• Revilo P. Oliver
• William Dudley Pelley
• William Luther Pierce
• Thomas Robb
• George Lincoln Rockwell
• Jeff Schoep
• Saga
• Richard B. Spencer
• Gerald L. K. Smith
• J. B. Stoner
• Kevin Alfred Strom
• Tomislav Sunić
• Wesley A. Swift
• Jared Taylor
• Eugène Terre'Blanche
• Hal Turner
• John Tyndall
• George Wallace
• Hendrik Verwoerd
• Varg Vikernes
• James Wickstrom
• Woodrow Wilson

Notable media

• American Renaissance
• Candour
• The Daily Stormer
• Info-14
• Metapedia
• National Vanguard
• Occidental Observer
• Podblanc
• The Political Cesspool
• Redwatch
• Stormfront
• Vanguard News Network
• Gab
• Voat

See also

• List of white nationalist organizations
• Blood and Soil
• Criticism of multiculturalism
• Identitarian movement
• Know Nothing
• National-Anarchism
• Neo-nationalism
• Pan-European nationalism
• The Passing of the Great Race
• Black nationalism
• White Americans

References

Notes

Bibliography

• Ankerl, Guy (2000).Coexisting Contemporary Civilizations.Geneva: INUPRESS.ISBN978-0-9656383-2-6.
• Ehrenberg, John (2022).White Nationalism and the Republican Party: Toward Minority Rule in America.New York: Routledge.ISBN978-1-032-02342-7.
• Josey, Charles Conant (1983) [1923].The Philosophy of Nationalism.Washington, D.C.: Cliveden Press.ISBN978-1-878-46510-8.
• Levin, Michael E. (1997).Why Race Matters: Race Differences and What They Mean.Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers.ISBN978-0-275-95789-6.
• McAuliffe, Terry (2019).Beyond Charlottesville: Taking a Stand Against White Nationalism.New York: Thomas Dunne Books.ISBN978-1-250-24588-5.
• McDaniel, George, ed. (2003).A Race Against Time: Racial Heresies for the 21st Century.Oakton, VA: New Century Foundation.ISBN978-0-965-63832-6.
• Robertson, Wilmot (1981).The Dispossessed Majority.Cape Canaveral, FL: Howard Allen.ISBN978-0-914-57615-0.
• Robertson, Wilmot (1993).The Ethnostate.Cape Canaveral, FL: Howard Allen.ISBN978-0-914-57622-8.
• Swain, Carol M. (2003).Contemporary Voices of White Nationalism in America.New York: Cambridge University Press.ISBN978-0-521-01693-3.
• Zeskind, Leonard (2009).Blood and Politics: The History of the White Nationalist Movement from the Margins to the Mainstream.New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.ISBN978-0-374-10903-5.

External links

• Media related toWhite nationalismat Wikimedia Commons