White nationalism
White nationalism is a political ideology which advocates a racial definition (or redefinition) of national identity for white people, in opposition to multiculturalism, along with a separate all-white nation-state. The contemporary White Nationalist Movement in the United States is a reaction to the decline in white demographics, politics and culture.[1] 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."[2] 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 insupremacy.[3] The goal of white nationalism is to appeal to a larger audience; most are violent groups working for separatism.[4]
Jared Taylor, another key writer in the movement, claims similar racial views were held by many mainstream American leaders before the 1950s.[5] Opponents accuse them of hatred, racial bigotry and destructive identity politics.[1][6]
According to Samuel P. Huntington, the modern movement is decreasingly cultured, detellectual and academically inclined.[7] Rather than espouse violence, they use statistics and social science data to argue for a self-conscious white identity.[8] They say a natural hierarchy should triumph over the "false promise of egalitarianism"[9] and that the downfall of white dominance spells doom for representative government, the rule of law and freedom of speech.[10]
White nationalists argue that every nationality feels a natural affection for its own kind.[11] Thus they believe in a common identity, common interests, and common political action for white people. Many white nationalists see themselves as patriotic preservers of European history and culture. They say they stand for racial self-preservation and claim culture itself is a product of race.[12] 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.[13] With it comes affirmative action, immigrant ghettos and declining educational standards.[14] By challenging established policy on immigration, civil rights and racial integration, they seek to build bridges with moderately conservative white citizens.[15]
White separatism and supremacism are two smaller subgroups within white nationalism.[16] The former seek a separate white nation-state, while the latter add ideas from social Darwinism and National Socialism to their ideology.[16] The vast majority of white nationalists are separatists, only a smaller segment are supremacists.[16] Both schools of thought generally avoid the term "supremacy", saying it has negative connotations.[17]
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.[18] 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 is an example of an allegorical invocation of white nationalism during this time.[11]
The White Australia ideal was semi-official policy in Australia for many decades, while in South Africa, white nationalism was championed by the National Party[19] starting in 1948, as the struggle over apartheid heated up.[20] In recent years, the Internet has provided an expansion of audiences for white nationalism.[21]
White nationalism in the US combines elements of American racial nationalism and race-based identity politics. Starting in the 1960s, it grew as the conservative movement developed in mainstream society.[22] 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.[23] Some American white nationalists, for example, say immigration should be restricted to selected people of European ancestry.[24]
White power
"White power" is a white nationalist political slogan and a name for the associated ideology. It was coined by American Nazi Party leader George Lincoln Rockwell, who used the term in a debate with Stokely Carmichael of the Black Panther Party, after Carmichael issued a call for "Black Power". "White Power" became the name of the American Nazi Party's newspaper, and the title of a book by Rockwell. Many white nationalists, including white supremacists and certain neo-Nazis, have since used the phrase White Power to describe their political goal. Ian Stuart Of the band Skrewdriver wrote a song using white power as the title.
Definitions of whiteness
White nationalists define white people in a restricted way. In the United States, it implies European ancestry of non-Jewish descent, and self-identification with European culture. Despite their self-definition as European, many American white nationalists would not regard all descendants of European immigrants as white. White nationalists draw primarily on 19th-century racial taxonomy, which neither reached a consensus on racial categories nor is accepted by contemporary geneticists.[25]
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.[26] Pan-[[Aryanism] defines Whites as individuals aboriginal to Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and Central/West Asia who is Caucasoid descened in whole or overwhelmingly from the following Caucassdoid subraces, or any combination thereof, Indo-European (Aryan) Old European, Ural Altaic Caucasoid, or Hametic (Basically confined in modern times to Berbers.) irrespective of nationality, religion or modern geographical location. The Pan Aryan definition is strictly biological in line with the view that race is a biological concept. The notion of racial taint among Europeans is rejected as unscientific and a thinly disguised restatement of subracial animosities at a time when all White nationalists agree that the White race is in grave peril(http://www,panf.info). Other white nationalists use the term Pan-Europeanism to include all European ethnic groups. Extra European Caucasoids are rejected on perceived racial taint or cultural grounds. Other white nationalists hope that population genetics will provide clear criteria for whiteness. 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.
Criticism
Opponents to white nationalism charge that white nationalists are in fact white supremacists, Ku Klux Klan members or white power skinheads, and that white nationalists are not so much interested in their own heritage as they are in power over non-whites. Kofi Buenor Hadjor argues that black nationalism is a response to white nationalism, while white nationalism is the expression of white supremacy.[27] 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. Some critics argue that while posturing as civil rights groups advocating the interests of their ethnic or racial group, white nationalists frequently draw on the nativist traditions of the American Ku Klux Klan and the British National Front.[28]
Notable organisations
- American Renaissance[29]
- Blood And Honour
- Council of Conservative Citizens[30][31]
- Ku Klux Klan
- National Alliance[32][33]
- National Vanguard[34]
- Sverigedemokraterna
Notable individuals
Notable Media
Citations and notes
Notes
- ^ a b McConnell, Scott (August/September 2002). "The New White Nationalism in America". First Things.
{{cite web}}
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(help) - ^ White Nationalists Seek Respectability in Meeting of 'Uptown Bad Guys' Newhouse News Service April 4, 2000
- ^ Moriz, Justin J. "Case 45: 'White Pride' vs. U.S. Patents and Trademarks Office". Adversity.net for Victims of Reverse Discrimination. 2005. accessed September 10, 2006.
- ^ Swain, Carol M. (2002). The New White Nationalism in America: Its Challenge to Integration. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 16. ISBN 0521808863.
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(help) - ^ White Nationalists Seek Respectability in Meeting of 'Uptown Bad Guys' Newhouse News Service April 4, 2000
- ^ http://www.zmag.org/Sustainers/content/2002-12/16wise.cfm Znet: December 16, 2002, Making Nice With Racists: David Horowitz and The Soft Pedaling Of White Supremacy, by Tim Wise
- ^ The Hispanic challenge. Foreign Policy March 1, 2004
- ^ Despite new leaders, and with them new tactics and new ideas, the goal of white separatists remains to convince Americans that racial separation is the only way to survive. National Public Radio (NPR) August 14, 2003 Thursday
- ^ White Nationalists Seek Respectability in Meeting of 'Uptown Bad Guys' Newhouse News Service April 4, 2000
- ^ Jared Taylor, A Racist In The Guise Of 'Expert', Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Pennsylvania), January 23, 2005
- ^ a b In its darkness, 'Kong' shows the human heart. Newsday (New York) December 15, 2005
- ^ The Hispanic challenge. Foreign Policy March 1, 2004
- ^ The Hispanic challenge. Foreign Policy March 1, 2004
- ^ Despite new leaders, and with them new tactics and new ideas, the goal of white separatists remains to convince Americans that racial separation is the only way to survive. National Public Radio (NPR) August 14, 2003 Thursday
- ^ Can We Improve Race Relations by Giving Racists Some of What They Want? The Chronicle of Higher Education July 19, 2002
- ^ a b c Swain, Carol M. (2003-04-11). "Interviews offer unprecedented look into the world and words of the new white nationalism". Vanderbilt University.
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(help) - ^ The New Nativism; The alarming overlap between white nationalists and mainstream anti-immigrant forces. The American Prospect November, 2005
- ^ Can Nationalism studies and ethnic, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies July 1, 2004
- ^ Apartheid-era party is ending its existence, The International Herald Tribune August 9, 2004
- ^ Kani explores a post-apartheid world on stage. ABC Transcripts (Australia) May 11, 2005
- ^ Patriotism in Black and White The American Prospect January 13, 2003
- ^ Black politics are in a black hole, Newsday (New York), January 14, 2005
- ^ Bush and Kerry show opposing faces of two different Americas. Business Day (South Africa) October 21, 2004
- ^ Dating the White Way Newsweek August 9, 2004
- ^ New York Times: Race Is Seen as Real Guide to Track Roots of Disease, 2002. [1]
- ^ http://www.white-history.com/refuting_rm
- ^ Hadjor, Kofi Buenor (1995). Another America: The Politics of Race and Blame. Haymarket Books. p. 100. ISBN 1931859345.
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(help) - ^ "BNP: A party on the fringe". BBC News. August 24, 2001. Retrieved 2008-02-14.
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(help) - ^ "New Century Foundation (American Renaissance)". Anti-Defamation League. 2005. Retrieved 2008-02-14.
- ^ "Council of Conservative Citizens". Anti-Defamation League. 2005. Retrieved 2008-02-14.
- ^ "Nazis, racists join Minuteman Project". Southern Poverty Law Center. April 22, 2005. Retrieved 2008-02-14.
- ^ "National Alliance". Anti-Defamation League. 2005. Retrieved 2008-02-14.
- ^ "Anti-Immigration Groups". Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved 2008-02-14.
- ^ "White Nationalism". Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved 2008-02-14.
References
- Josey, Charles Conant (1983 [1923]). The Philosophy of Nationalism. Washington, DC: Cliveden Press. ISBN 1-87846-510-4.
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(help)CS1 maint: year (link) - Levin, Michael E. (1997). Why Race Matters: Race Differences and What They Mean. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers. ISBN 0-27595-789-6.
- McDaniel, George (ed.) (2003). A Race Against Time: Racial Heresies for the 21st Century. Oakton, VA: New Century Foundation.
{{cite book}}
:|author=
has generic name (help) - Ankerl, Guy (2000). Coexisting Contemporary Civilizations,. Geneva, INUPRESS. pp. 150–156. ISBN 0-96563-832-4.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - Robertson, Wilmot (1981). The Dispossessed Majority. Cape Canaveral, FL: Howard Allen. ISBN 0-91457-615-1.
- Robertson, Wilmot (1993). The Ethnostate. Cape Canaveral, FL: Howard Allen. ISBN 0-91457-622-4.
- 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.