The 1st anniversary of the murder of Heather Heyer in Charlottesville, VA was last weekend. Best take was by Wonkette reminding us that it was “[the] time when [Nazis] marched and then killed a young woman with a car.” No need to mince about.
There have been several retrospectives of white supremacist beliefs in the news (because we don’t already know or understand what they believe in?). The most egregious was NPR’s interview with the organizer of the Unite the Right’s racist remembrance–presented as a spurious “both sides” segment–followed by the Black Lives’ spokesman responding. The former’s statement that “Ashkenazi Jews rate the highest in intelligence, then Asians, then white people, then Hispanic people and black people” is not one that can be presented on equal footing to anything. As The Washington Post opinion piece points out, succinctly: “Black Lives Matter [is not] the ideological counterpart to white supremacists.” Flat Earthers take note: you are as respected as centuries of science. Fuck you NPR. You did the same thing prior to W’s Iraq invasion–uncritically parrot the party line–and you deserve the worst that can happen to you because of these.
A recent study by the Institute for Family Studies analyzed data from the 2016 American National Election Survey to determine, as best as possible, what drives white supremacists. This research summary deserves to be read a few times. The data was based on the respondents’ answers to three questions regarding white racial identity, racial solidarity, and feelings of discrimination. The short answer is that white supremacists are more likely to be low income, low education, unemployed, and either Independent or Republican. The longer answer includes interesting contradictions to several assumptions: the researchers found no-or-little connection to the individual’s feelings on changing gender and family norms, no connection to rising secularism in society, and no prevalence in any one age group. So even though there are, surprisingly, young supremacists to replace the older generation, their beliefs are still in the minority. Cold comfort.