Back in the 10th grade, I was walking along the tree-lined street of my high school when a truck-full of students threw a soda at me and yelled “Konnichiwa, go back to China!”
To this day, I’m not sure if mixing the Japanese phrase for “hello” with the country of China was a stroke of racist genius (because “all Asians are the same”) or just pure laziness. The soda missed, but the words hit.
This wasn’t the first instance of racism I experienced after a move from the city to the suburbs, but it was the most blatant. Some time later, the school had to deal with a spree of anti-Semitic vandalism and in response, issued a paper contract for students to sign that outlined a commitment to tolerance and an accompanying green rubber bracelet. In response to that response, some students self-organized to create their own white rubber bracelets, with “White Power” inscribed upon them. It was almost entrepreneurial.
Most probably as a coping mechanism, I became curious about the other side and started reading up on the subject. I dove headfirst into White Nationalist forums like Stormfront. I discovered that my sleepy town produced the quarterly magazine for the local branch of the Aryan Brotherhood and was once home to well-known white supremacists like Shawn Walker. If my online activity was being tracked, it must have looked like I was one of the most prolific Chinese-American white nationalists in the country.
But nothing more came of it. I still listened to conservative radio from time to time to get a sense of what lay outside of my uber-liberal bubble but I soon left for college and from what I hear, my old high school is now a much friendlier and diverse place.
Never in my life did I think that I would have to resurface all that curiosity with White Nationalism and deal with it as a serious political force. Well, welcome to 2016, where Donald Trump is the POTUS-Elect.
For us outside of the far-right media’s spheres of influence, it can be hard to grasp how frightening things have become. I am no expert at this, but I feel a familiar morbid need to find out. Here’s my entirely too simplified understanding:
- White Nationalism has been softened, repackaged, and dispersed so well that it has abolished its pariah status in the spectrum of U.S. politics and now sits squarely in the realm of an accepted anti-establishment stance
- Its renewed ability to tap into the mainstream comes from its inate power to deepen the current wave of nativism and right-wing populism; it’s the “body” of the soup
- It has been subsumed into the heterogeneous “alternative right” or “alt-right” community, further diluting hardliner stances whilst strengthening deniability
- It has attracted a generation of young advocates through provocative voices on social media, digital news platforms like Breitbart, and anonymous online communities like Reddit’s various related subreddits (see: Milo Yiannopoulos, Breitbart.com, and /r/The_Donald)
- It is disgusted by and distances itself from the vestiges of old-school White Nationalism (e.g. the term “White Nationalism”) not because it isn’t driven by the same fears or yearns for the same ends, but because it doesn’t share the same means
I imagine that this new generation of alt-right activists would denounce the soda and words thrown at me during high school. They would look down upon something so uncouth and traditionally racist.
Why be obtuse when you can be viral? All it takes is some nuance and the shield of anti-political correctness.
It is entirely unfair to categorize all Trump supporters as white nationalists, but that doesn’t really matter now. One of its clearest voices, Steve Bannon, head of Breitbart News Network, will lead the President-Elect’s administration as Chief Strategist.
Why be viral when you can be official? That, is truly frightening.
How to Keep Steve Bannon Out of the White House:
- Congressman David N. Cicilline’s (D-RI) letter to the House of Representatives
- Sign the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Petition
- Call Senators Ryan and McConnell’s DC Offices: Paul Ryan: 202–225–3031 and Mitch McConnell: 202–224–2541
- Call your own representatives
This post originally appeared on Minimally Me, and has been reprinted with permission.
Photo: Neonazis rally in Washington, DC in 2002, Elvert Barnes/Creative Commons