It is no secret that domestic terrorism is a top listed national security threat in various countries throughout the world, chief among them being the United States of America. Office-runners have long lost the luxury of ignoring the immediate threat presented by extremist acts born out of home-grown ideologies. In a survey conducted by the Anti-Defamation League, out of 387 terrorism related deaths, an over whelming 71 percent has come as a result of far right white nationalist movements. Put beside the 26 percent deaths related to Islamist organizations, it is a surprise actions have not come sooner and coverage of such incidents have been so scarce.
What is White Supremacy?
An ideology of absolute hate, white supremacy is the racist belief that ethnic whites are superior to people of all other races. Even though white supremacist uprisings can be dated back to the 17th century, it was only after the civil war that white supremacy entered mainstream American culture. In the years after the civil war, white nationalist groups such as the likes of the notorious Ku Klux Klan launched a wave of killings targeted at intimidating newly-freed people of color and hence restoring the racial order. Around the same time, immigrants from East Asia and Mexico began to increase in numbers and so did mob-violence targeting the immigrants. Supremacists under the guise of false patriotism carried out mass race-violence to advance their agenda and hence began the culture of white supremacy which is so prevalent to this day.
So why is this happening now and what are the racist killers trying to accomplish? Even though these questions lead to complex answers, at the heart of it all, historically is the sense of slipping white nationalist control over America. Rising diversity, victories for leftist and civil rights movements combined with mass immigration led to growing discontent among far-right whites and hence gave birth to this movement. All throughout history, when perceived with threats or a demographic shift, Supremacists have strategically used violence to fend off the growing racial diversity- or in the words of the El Paso shooter and President Trump, an “invasion” by nonwhites. Today, their goal is to sow terror in nonwhite communities and radicalize whites, and to lay the groundwork for a return to a racist political regime in the United States, which terrifyingly they have been successful in doing.
The trail of bloodshed
Even though the uprising of white supremacism has a long bloodied history over the course of American history, its effects have never been more prevalent than at the present time. In the past weeks alone, three American cities have experienced three mass shootings, with gunmen killing at least 32 people. Patrick Crusius, 21, walked into a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, a border town with an 80 percent Hispanic population, opened fire, and killed 20 people. Several hours later, police say that Connor Betts, 24, shot and killed at least nine people in a busy downtown district of Dayton, Ohio. At the beloved annual Gilroy Garlic Festival, 19-year-old Santino William Legan allegedly opened fire on the crowd and killed three people.
The intentions remain unclear in each of these cases. But the information that’s presently available is ominous. Like a number of other recent attacks, at least two of these incidents appear to be connected to an ideological infrastructure that channels mainstream hate against people of color or different ethnic origins. The El Paso shooter allegedly wrote a four-page manifesto to explain his deadly rampage. The author of the manifesto claimed that he was inspired to target Hispanics after reading the manifesto of the Christchurch, New Zealand, terrorist who attacked two mosques and killed 51 people in March. He wanted to kill Hispanic immigrants as an “act of preservation” to reclaim his country from “destruction,” he explained.
Road to a solution
The first step towards a meaningful solution is putting due blame where it belongs. We cannot go on pointing fingers at mundane causes such as the likes of insanity or video games. We have to face facts. These are not lone triggers. Targeting and killing a specific race or ethnicity is not insanity, in fact it’s quite the opposite. It is cold and calculated killing, the kind of killings White nationalists have been carrying out throughout American history.
Wajahat Ali, an American journalist and lawyer best outlined some basic steps we must undertake to tackle white supremacism. They are as follows.
First, we have to name it, calling it out as white-supremacist terrorism and prosecuting the criminals as terrorists. We must demand that our elected leaders do the same, and if they refuse, ask why they are enabling and coddling violent criminals who threaten national security.
We need to stop using understatements and directly address Trump’s racism, which is inciting so much pain, anger, and hate—dividing people along racial and religious lines.
We must stop giving mainstream platforms to people who spread hate.
We also need widespread education for law-enforcement agencies, government officials, judges, counselors, and even teachers and churches about this growing threat of white-supremacist terrorism.
Finally, people of color or ethnic minorities can no longer shoulder this burden alone. The world need to step up, to stand with those targeted for violence, because hashtags and tweets won’t cut it any longer.
The election of President Trump has been like adding fire to the already raging flames of White Supremacism. However we must acknowledge that change can come. Whether it be through undertaking steps mentioned by Mr. Ali or addressing the due situation, it’s never too late, and what better way to address it than ask the people in charge: How many more bodies will it take for America to be great again.
Jabir Mahmood Chowdhury
Editor-in-Chief