Minutemen and Klansmen
By Joel Olson
I recently reviewed The Rise of the Ku Klux Klan by Rory McVeigh (University of Minnesota Press 2009) for the academic journal American Studies. The book is a little dry, but there were some notable lessons in it for understanding anti-immigration organizations today.
The Klan originated after the Civil War to restore white supremacy by terrorizing ex-slaves and antislavery whites during Reconstruction. This generation of the Klan ended when Reconstruction did in the 1870s. McVeigh’s book studies the second generation of the KKK, which started in 1915 (coinciding with the release of D.W. Griffith’s famous pro-Klan movie The Birth of a Nation) and exploded in growth from 1920-1924, with a membership of over four million people at its peak.
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Anti-immigration is White Nationalism
After reading about the John Tanton Network’s relationship to eugenics and possibly sterilization, I finally broke down in tears. As a researcher who studies white nationalism and anti-immigration for a civil rights organization, the majority of what I read is deeply offensive. It usually doesn’t bother me; I see my work as a necessary tool to educate people about white nationalism in a post-civil rights era. But as I re-read how eugenics scholars may have advocated for the forced sterilization of non-Christian people who weren’t white, I turned off my desk lamp and went home for the night.
As Barry Mehler points out in the video, Immigration and the White Nationalist Movement, modern day anti-immigration is rooted in the eugenics movement of the 1920s, similar to anti-immigration in the 20th century. Both fought, and are fighting, to preserve the idea of a white nation. However, unlike today, anti-immigration of the 1920’s openly fought to preserve white supremacy. Since it’s no longer socially acceptable to openly promote eugenics, modern anti-immigration hides its white nationalist roots.“The movement to restrict immigration, legal immigration and illegal immigration is a white nationalist movement. The concern is for white control of the United States”, says Mehler when addressing the links between the two movements. Read more
The Reality of White Nationalism
As an anti-racist activist, researching white supremacists, white nationalists, anti-Semites, neo-Nazis and anti-immigrant groups hasn’t always been easy, particularly when I’m trying to figure out the similarities and differences (and yes, there are MANY important differences) between each of these groups. And then there are the militia/patriot groups and those we define as “Christian identity”. (Are you confused yet?)
When I started working with anti-racist leaders I heard the term “white nationalist”, but I had no idea what it meant. Out of fear of looking stupid, I didn’t ask anyone if there was a difference between white nationalism and white supremacy. I assumed that they were the same – a huge mistake for any researcher, particularly for anyone trying to understand how race and racism functions in 21st century society. Read more
Minneapolis Neighborhood Stands United Against White Nationalism
A few months ago, I wrote about how a small community in Ohio was fighting back against the rise of hate crimes by creating a diversity task force. Last weekend the neighborhood of Midtown, in Minneapolis held a day long workshop entitled, “More Than Skin Deep: Uprooting White Privilege and White Supremacy One Cell at a Time” at the local Young Women’s Christian Association, YWCA. The workshop was designed “for white people who already have an understanding of white privilege and white supremacy (WP/WS) and want to learn more about how to dismantle WP/WS through embodiment work, education, visioning and practical action.” The workshop was completely booked, filling all 40 seats available. The event went off without a hitch and was very successful by all accounts. But there is cause for cheer not only for the workshop that went on inside the YWCA but also for the events that took place outside.
Controversial Anti-Immigrant Network Invades the Nation’s Capitol
In 1925 the white supremacist organization the Ku Klux Klan held its largest demonstration in the United States. Tens of thousands of Klan members marched down the streets of Washington D.C. The march was a call to war against immigrants, African Americans, and Catholics.
When it comes to white supremacy much has changed in nearly 85 years. After a devastating loss to the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s it is no longer accurate to describe the movement as “supremacists” but rather “nationalists”, yet some things do remain the same.
In 2009 the white nationalist movement spent September 12th marching on the nation’s capitol railing against immigrants, Catholics, and the country’s first Black U.S. President. Of course the racist caricature of the President of the United States as a “reverse minstrel” abounded while mainstream media chose to ignore the racist connotations of Obama as nothing more than man in Black Face. The blog Politico reports that pre-printed signs read ‘Bury Obamacare with Kennedy‘ while the New York Times tells readers that despite the claims of being an “anti-tax” march many in the crowds carried anti-immigrant messages. Read more
Sotomayor, Birthers, and the Rise of White Nationalism
Remember Y2K? The whole country was going to be plunged into barbarism because of a simple computer glitch. Millions of ordinary Americans stockpiled water and food in their basements and stayed home on New Year’s Eve shaking in fear.
It was December 1999 and there were four days left in the year. Phone calls from journalists just wouldn’t stop and they all wanted to know the same thing. “Would hate groups attempt to terrorize communities on Y2K?”
It was during a time when the Aryan Nations was attempting to establish a white nationalist homeland in Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming- an idea they labeled the Northwest Imperative. I was part of a coalition confronting organized bigotry in the Pacific Northwest. Another faction of white nationalists calling themselves militias were also active in the region threatening public officials, environmental activists, and anyone else they deemed as second class citizens. Read more
Anti-Immigrant (FAIR) Co-Chair Digs Fresh Pile of Bigotry
Donald Collins is the latest representative of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) attempting to publicly repair the organizations fast sinking respectability. Collins is Co-Chair to FAIR’s board of advisers. If he is serious, he should start by resigning from FAIR’s advisory board for his own ties to white supremacy.
It’s been a week since anti-immigrant activist Shawna Forde was charged with the murder of nine-year old Brisenia Flores in Arizona. In the days following, reports surfaced that Shawna Forde may have been a representative for the Federation for American Immigration Reform. Since then, FAIR’s spin machine has been working overtime to deny any connection to Forde or white supremacy. Read more
Deal-cutting the 14th Amendment: At the Intersection of Racism and Immigration
Filed under: American Identity, Immigration, Politics
Nathan Deal
In a cynical move to build support for his campaign for the governorship of Georgia, U.S. Representative Nathan Deal has rekindled racist fervor to gut birthright citizenship and the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. By doing so he has once again –boldly and baldly—positioned himself at the intersection of racism and immigration.
HR1868, the “Birthright Citizenship Act of 2009,” would permit citizenship status to children birthed in the U.S. only if at least one parent is a citizen or legal permanent resident. Now co-sponsored by 73 Members of the U.S. House of Representatives—53 of whom are members of the FAIR-fueled anti-immigrant House Immigration Reform Caucus (HIRC)—the bill rekindles the fervor for dismantling a cornerstone of rights won by African Americans in the post-Civil War era. Read more
A Stunning Denial of Justice in Shenandoah
While the world was glued to flu coverage last week, justice crumbled in tiny Shenandoah, Pennsylvania. The tragedy began almost a year ago when Luis E. Ramirez was beaten to death by a group of white male teenagers. Reports of the attack describe it as racially-motivated and brutal. A report by CNN stated, “After a night of drinking, the teens taunted the undocumented worker with racial epithets, pummeled him to the ground and then kicked him in the head, court documents charge. He died in a hospital two days later.”
The trial for two of Ramirez’s attackers ended on Friday when Derrick Donchak, 19, and Brandon Piekarsky, 17, were acquitted of aggravated assault, reckless endangerment and ethnic intimidation. Attorneys for the two attackers argued that Ramirez was in fact the aggressor against the four intoxicated teens. Right. Anyway, the all-white jury seemed to find that pretty plausible and only found Donchak and Pierkarsky guilty of simple assault. Everything about this story, from the investigation to the trial, stinks of old-fashioned collusion, cover-up, and bigotry. Read more
“We are human beings looking for a means to survive”
Despite a feigned concern about the distinction between “illegal” and “legal” immigrants, anti-immigrant forces in this country have helped stir up a general contempt for immigrants which goes beyond the status of documentation. The rhetoric of FAIR and other nativist hatemongering groups has contributed to a prejudice from which documented immigrants are not immune.
Seila Mosquera is part of the Ecuadorian immigrant community in the greater New Haven, CT, area—a community which itself has been the target of white supremacy and nativist hate from such groups as the Community Watchdog Project and North East White Pride, as well as citizenry in general here in the supposedly liberal Nutmeg State. As a community leader and resident of East Haven, a New Haven suburb where police harassment against Latinos/as seems to be the flavor of the day, Mosquera is tired of the presumptuous and pejorative beliefs about her culture and her community. Read more
Anti-immigrant Message: WE WANT YOU to be Broke and Bigoted
Anti-immigrant groups are wearing out their violins ranting about the “evil immigrant invasion”. In light of recent economic scandals their agenda is looking even more absurd than usual. Just in the past few weeks as the justified uproar over AIG executive bonuses erupted, FAIR and other anti-immigrant groups are spending their time pushing lawmakers to reauthorize E-Verify, the worker verification system wrought with errors. While the rest of us grapple with corporate execs taking million dollar payouts on our hard-earned dime, FAIR’s focus is on making it even harder for workers to find and keep jobs.
Then there is the recent report by Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) focusing on the Swift meat-packing raids. They talk a lot about the low wages of workers, but ultimately indicate that the best way to help workers is to raid the plants they work in and put everyone’s job at risk. Shamefully, CIS quotes workers in Greeley, Co (the site of the Swift raid) and members of the United Food and Commercial Workers union, who would never associate or otherwise agree with CIS’s anti-immigrant stance or their white nationalist ties. This is just another case of anti-immigrant groups trying to insert their damaging messages into mainstream discourse. The issue should be that workers need higher wages, period. Instead they’ve distorted the facts and data to make raids look like the dream solution for underpaid workers. It’s a disgusting deviation from the truth. Worksite raids hurt ALL workers, the entire community, and make it that much harder for workers to unify for better wages and working conditions. Read more
Ida B. Wells and the Campaign Against Lynching
We don’t know our own history. I aced the mandatory eighth grade Illinois Civics class in 1960, by repeating what I had been taught about Abraham Lincoln. But I was not taught about Ida B. Wells, the African-American journalist who did as much as anyone to stop lynching in the United States, even though I had probably gone past her home in Chicago on the way to White Sox games.
How did Ida B. Wells get written out of history? First, lynching is such a horrific subject, that most adults don’t want to think about it, let alone teach it to children. Second, Ida was a “difficult woman”, who antagonized everyone from President McKinley to Booker T. Washington, to her own mother-in-law. The men who wrote histories of lynchings were glad to leave her out of their books. Read more
Bill White: The Definition of White Supremacy
When you think of the most evil people that have ever lived the names Hitler and Pol Pot might come to mind. One person who is on a fast track to joining this club is a 31 year-old white supremacist from Maryland named Bill White. White’s key tool is there internet which he uses as his microphone to spread his hate to the rest of the world. He is the self-appointed leader of the American National Socialist Workers Party (ANSWP).
For years he has hid behind his blog, overthrow.com and used it to spew racist material in an attempt to gain attention. In October the FBI arrested White and brought him to Chicago to awaiting trial for a host of felony charges in connection with Matthew Hale, a violent white supremacist from Illinois. Read more
Anti-Immigrant Leader Says Immigration merely ‘Skirmish in a Wider War’
In 1989, the founder of the modern day anti-immigrant movement, John Tanton, told Otis L. Graham Jr. that “I have all along seen the immigration battle as really a skirmish in a wider war . . .” Since that time critics of Tanton have worried that his “wider war” would be one steeped in racism and white nationalism. Critics had reason to worry, particularly because of Tanton’s strong commitment to the false study of eugenics. When one cuts straight to the chase eugenics can be defined read more
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