White nationalism

White Nationalism (WN) advocates a racial definition (or redefinition) of white national identity, as opposed to multiculturalism. The contemporary movement in the United States is a reaction to the apparent decline (based on US census projections) in white demographics, politics and culture. According to Samuel Francis, a key white nationalist writer, it is "a movement that rejects equality as an ideal and insists on an enduring core of human nature transmitted by heredity." Anti-racist organizations generally have argued that ideas such as white pride and white nationalism exist merely to provide a sanitized public face for white supremacy.

The goal of white nationalism is to appeal to a larger audience. This has been done through the repackaging, relabeling, and transformation of white supremacy into something that would appeal to a broader, more educated audience. Many appear as nonviolent groups working for separatism.

Supporters see themselves defending the legitimate civil rights of white people against society's alleged racial double standards. Jared Taylor, another key writer in the movement, claims similar racial views were held by many mainstream American leaders before the 1950s. Opponents accuse them of hatred, racial bigotry and destructive identity politics.

According to Samuel P. Huntington, the modern movement is increasingly cultured, intellectual and academically trained. Rather than espouse violence, they use statistics and social science data to argue for a self-conscious white identity. They say a natural hierarchy should triumph over the "false promise of egalitarianism" and that the downfall of white dominance spells doom for representative government, the rule of law and freedom of speech.

A point of contention for white nationalists and opponents alike is the issue of "white" identity. While the common definition of a singular "white" or "European" race is largely an anthropological archaism , many white nationalists continue to hold this belief, as the white nationalist movement depends on the existence of such a categorization.

Supporters say they stand for racial self-preservation and claim culture itself is a product of race. As a result, according to Huntington, they say the demographic shift in the US towards non-whites brings a new culture that is intellectually and morally inferior. With it comes affirmative action, immigrant ghettos and declining educational standards. By challenging established policy on immigration, civil rights and racial integration, they seek to build bridges with moderately conservative white citizens.

White separatism and supremacism are two smaller subgroups within white nationalism. The former seek a separate white nation-state, while the latter add ideas from social Darwinism and Nazism to their ideology. Some white nationalists deny they are in either category. Both schools of thought generally avoid the term "supremacy," saying it has negative connotations.

Development

White nationalism has a long tradition in English-speaking countries. According to one view, it is a product of the modern centralized state's emergence in the West, like all nationalisms. The term originated as a self-description by some groups, primarily in the United States, to describe their belief in a racially defined collective identity of white or Caucasian people. In the past, xenophobic ethnic policies may be seen as congruent to white nationalism.

In the 19th and early 20th century racial definitions of the American nation were common, resulting in race-specific immigration restrictions, such as the Chinese Exclusion Act. The 1915 film Birth of a Nation was an allegorical invocation of white nationalism, for example.

Also, the 'White Australia' ideal was semi-official policy in Australia for many decades. In South Africa, it was championed by the New National Party starting in 1948, as the struggle over apartheid heated up. In recent years, the Internet has provided an expansion of audiences for white nationalism.

White nationalism in the US combines elements of American racial nationalism and a race-based identity politics. Starting in the 1960s, it grew as the conservative movement developed in mainstream society. Samuel Huntington argues that it developed as a reaction to a perceived decline in the essence of American identity as European, Anglo-Protestant and English-speaking. Some American white nationalists, for example, say immigration must be restricted to selected people of European ancestry.

Identity

White majority areas (two darkest tones), US Census 2000.

White nationalists say every nationality feels a natural affection for its own kind. Thus they believe in a common identity, common interests, and common political action for 'white people'. This identity is valid for the entire white population, but not an obligation for others. This worldview is often influenced by late 19th-century romantic racial nationalism.

Most supporters see 'white nationalism' refers to political activities within an existing country. They have not necessarily rejected their existing national identity and allegiance, nor that they seek to destroy existing states. They see as themselves patriotic preservers of European history and culture. In other words, their racial identity coincides with this patriotism: for them, everything that is good about their homeland is white.

The present form of American white nationalism, inclusive of Caucasian immigrant groups, is relatively recent. Conversely, "white nationalism" in Europe normally indicates a racial variant of an existing ethnic nationalism. For example, the British National Party opposes large-scale immigration of Russians and Poles, even though they are white. They see the true British nation as consisting of only white British people.

Some white nationalists support a territorially defined white separatism, the belief that white and non-white people should reside in separate territories (and not just lead separate social lives). Like the Volksstaat proposal, it would require migration of whites to a remote and thinly-populated location. However, some other forms of white separatism proposed by white nationalists take the form of far-reaching racial segregation, within an existing nation-state.

Definition of "white"

White nationalists define 'white' in a restricted way. In the United States, it implies European ancestry, self-identification with European culture and European ethnicity. Likewise, the neologism European-American is a contrast with Asian-American and African-American. A growing number of white nationalists reject the definition of white as being restricted to Europeans, and not only embrace all Europeans, but Latin American whites and biological whites in the Middle East and West Asia, such as Iranians, Turks and northern Arabs such as Syrians and Lebanese, as well as unmixed North African Berbers (Called by their Berber name "Amazigh" in both the white nationalist and Berber nationalist movement.)

Southern Middle Easterners such as Saudi Arabians, etc. are generally not accepted due to their perceived black and Dravidic origins, but individual nationalists make individual exceptions. Likewise they do not accept most South Asian Caucasoids such as Indians and Pakistanis, but again there are individual exceptions.

These Pan Aryans argue that since whites are indeed a shrinking minority, it is essential that all biological whites be united. They further state that since nearly all WNs believe that race is an objective biological concept, it is irrational and self defeating to reject any biological white based on geography, religion, mere custom or an irrefutable presumption of racial mixture based on mere physical proximity to non-white people. They further argue that every white nationalist has an inflexible moral duty to raise the racial awareness of all whites. Pan Aryans usually reject the identification of "European" and prefer to be called "Aryan" or simply "white".

There is no corresponding 'European' ethnicity in Europe itself. In fact, some opponents of the European Union question its legitimacy, precisely because there is no corresponding ethnic or cultural group. Despite their self-definition as 'European', many American white nationalists would not regard all descendants of European immigrants as "white." For an acceptable definition, white nationalists draw primarily on 19th-century racial taxonomy, which neither reached a consensus on racial categories nor is accepted by geneticists. (For example, geneticist Neil Risch classifies racial groups in a way that few white nationalists would accept; Jews, Germans and Pakistanis are all Caucasoid).

Different variants of racial-origin theories, such as Nordicism and Germanism, define different groups as 'white', both excluding some Southern and Eastern Europeans because of perceived racial taint[3]. Pan Aryanism — itself originally a component of Nazi race theories — defines most Europeans as Aryan-origin whites. Some white nationalists use the term 'Pan-Europeanism' for a definition including all European ethnic groups.

Other white nationalists hope that population genetics will provide clear criteria for 'white'. Some have adopted a definition based on the Y-chromosome haplogroup R1b. This marker is prevalent in most Western European populations, possibly reflecting the re-expansion into Europe of a smaller human population in Southern Europe, after the last ice age.

Opposition

Opponents to white nationalism charge that white nationalists are in fact white supremicists, Ku Klux Klan members or white power skinheads, and that white nationalists are not so much interested in their own 'white heritage', as in power over non-whites. White nationalism is sometimes described as a reaction by whites who believe they are disenfranchised by the rise of liberal multicultural ideologies based on tolerance and inclusiveness, as well as the gains of other racial and ethnic groups against the majority white population in many Western nations.

White nationalists respond that they are simply organizing in ways similar to organizations such as the NAACP and other groups that are generally not seen as controversial, and that to accuse white-nationalist groups of racism while approving of, or tolerating, other racially oriented groups is hypocritical and racist towards white people. Kofi Buenor Hadjor responds by stating that black nationalism is rather the response to white nationalism, while white nationalism is the expression of white supremacy. Some white nationalists respond to the accusation of white supremacism by saying that they are white separatists, and that separation precludes domination of one group by another.

Critics point out that while posturing as civil rights groups advocating the interests of their ethnic or racial group, white nationalist groups frequently draw on the nativist traditions of the American Ku Klux Klan and the British National Front.

Anyone can call himself a 'white nationalist'. The term "white nationalist" has been used by neo-Nazi, white supremacy, and Christian Identity groups, which have differing ideologies but share an identification with the white race.

White nationalist groups

The American Renaissance, Council of Conservative Citizens , the National Alliance and National Vanguard are four examples of groups in the United States that self identify as white nationalist, but have been categorized as white supremacist and racist groups by such organizations as the SPLC and the ADL.

In Europe, nationalist parties such as France's Front National, Germany's National Democratic Party and Belgium's Vlaams Belang promote nationalism and oppose immigration (especially non-white immigration), but do not describe themselves as "white nationalist". In most European nation-states, the nation is traditionally defined by ancestry and long-term association of a single ethnic group with the national homeland. If that ethnic groups is already 'white' - as for instance with the Germans in Germany - then additional definition as 'white' is superfluous. In countries with a longer history of mass immigration, as in Britain, some definitions of the national identity now include immigrants. It is when this redefinition is disputed, that ethnic or racial limits on the composition of the nation become a political issue.

References

• Josey, Charles Conant (1983 [1923]). The Philosophy of Nationalism. Washington, DC: Cliveden Press. ISBN 1-87846-510-4. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |year= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
• Levin, Michael E. (1997). Why Race Matters: Race Differences and What They Mean. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers. ISBN 0-27595-789-6. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
• McDaniel, George (ed.) (2003). A Race Against Time: Racial Heresies for the 21st Century. Oakton, VA: New Century Foundation. ISBN 0-96563-832-4. {{cite book}}: |author= has generic name (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
• Robertson, Wilmot (1981). The Dispossessed Majority. Cape Canaveral, FL: Howard Allen. ISBN 0-91457-615-1. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
• Robertson, Wilmot (1993). The Ethnostate. Cape Canaveral, FL: Howard Allen. ISBN 0-91457-622-4. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
• Swain, Carol M. (2003). Contemporary Voices of White Nationalism in America. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. pp. 312 pages. ISBN 0-52101-693-2. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)

List of prominent white nationalists

• Lawrence Auster
• Gordon Lee Baum
• Don Black
• Peter Brimelow
• Pat Buchanan
• David Duke
• Fjordman
• Sam Francis
• Paul Fromm
• Lynx and Lamb Gaede
• Paul Gottfried
• Nick Griffin
• Ian Jobling
• David Lane
• Joel T. LeFevre
• Norman Lowell
• Robert Jay Mathews
• Revilo P. Oliver
• William Luther Pierce
• James C. Russell
• Joseph Sobran
• Nicholas Stix
• Kevin Alfred Strom
• Jared Taylor
• Hal Turner
• Derek Turner
• John Tyndall
• Bill White

See also

• Aryan
• Christian Identity
• Ethnic nationalism
• Fascism
• Fourteen Words
• Know-Nothing movement
• Ku Klux Klan
• Martial races theory
• National anarchism
• Nationalism, Nation, and Nation-state
• Nazi punk
• Nazism
• Neo-Nazism
• New Orleans Protocol
• Nordic theory
• Judicial racism
• Racialism and Racism
• Stormfront (website)
• The Passing of the Great Race
• Vinland
• White Anglo-Saxon Protestant
• White power skinhead
• White separatism
• White supremacy
• Xenophobia

Compare

• Black nationalism
• White pride and Black pride
• White Power and Black Power
• White supremacy and Black supremacy
• White separatism and Black separatism
• Mexica Movement
• Asian supremacy
• Jewish Defense League

External links

• Introduction to White Nationalism by Frank Roman.