Friends Reactions

I have talked to many of my friends about this class and the white nationalist movement and have had mixed reactions. The reaction I usually get when I tell people that I am in a class that is about discusses the ideals and beliefs behind the white supremacy movement they typically respond with "are you serious?!" and there faces typically look like this 
All joking aside when I explain to them what the class is about they typically calm down and listen to what we are discussing in our course. I still feel a little awkward when talking about this class and the judgements that people make about you for taking such a controversial class. The high school I went to was much more diverse then any of the classes I have taken at this University and by taking this class I didn't want people to think that I was a racist or that I believe in any of the same ideas as the ones we discuss in class and I think that I'm not the only one that felt that way. But after awhile this class has opened my eyes a little to the history and the present standing of racial equality. Having said that I feel that my roommates have gotten the majority of the conversations as I obviously see them the most and they have to listen to me blabber about what we talked about in class each day. I have talked to them about terms we have learned and I think for the most part they kind of tuned those out as it wasn't and isn't relevant to their daily lives. However at the end of this course we watched American History X and that caught their attention however because it is a major Hollywood film and they have all seen it at one time or another. One of them happens to be a little more interested in social issues and continued to listen. I think this fits well with my blog's focus as well as it shows how powerful media is, especially movies. In addition to our talks about American History X and with one of my roommates showing a little more interest at least enough to listen I would share with him the book Autobiography of a Recovering Skinhead by Frank Meeink. We talked about how different Frank's life was from ours and how we were lucky to have been raised in a place that didn't seem to have as many race based problems although we have learned that maybe we have been a little blind in noticing it. Even though this was not something our professor wanted to get into for a lack of discussion time I brought it up to my roommates as we were randomly watching the "Blind Side" which is a "true" story about an underprivileged black teen who was basically homeless and taken in by a white family. The point I made to my friends which we briefly discussed in class was that these feel good stories make the black population look like they are incapable of taking care of themselves and that they need to rely on a white person to take care of them. I have heard that this movie was fairly controversial with the real-life people involved at least the main character and with organizations that felt the message was to make African Americans look weak. I'm sure we could debate this but I thought it was a good way to bring this class into a real life situation with a friend. I feel that I got more out of this class because of the willingness of a few of my friends a few of whom are in the class to discuss and continue to view debates from different angles. While a lot of people may not understand what this classes intended purpose is (myself included before I took it) I think that it is beneficial to explore this topic as it is important in our everyday lives and for the pursuit of racial equality.

Eastern WA Example

White Supremacy on Campus? The link to the left is an article published by the Spokesman Review this past April. While this probably wasn't a large news story it is interesting that something on campus can go unnoticed like this. Now I am not saying these people are a part of the movement but for the sake of the blog I think it an interesting and relevant topic to discuss. First off I think this is relevant to my blog topic for it is a media out let in the largest neighboring city that has a negative title implicating that Washington State University is home to White Nationalists. If you notice at the bottom of the article it says the Southern Poverty Law Center has said that this group is promoting white supremacy on our own campus. For me the most interesting part of this article was the conversation that took place in the comments section. A good amount of people saw this as conservative but not necessarily racist, while others saw the part of the article that says, "to revive western civilization and make it the dominant culture in the U.S." as very alarming and I would tend to agree with them. While the individuals who were present on the Washington State University campus may not be the ones to take an radical actions that doesn't mean that they haven't inspired someone else to take action. This goes back to other posts and course readings about lone wolf's and again the planting of the seed not to mention the notion that white nationalists are uneducated and have now transitioned into the new century. As I got farther down the comments I found a post by a person that had this link Ties to WSU Group. The person who was arrested had ties to some of the members of the WSU group and this could have been the lone wolf that we have spoken about. Direct quote from the second article "Although he isn’t currently a student at WSU in Pullman, Hop’s Facebook friends included Phil Tignino, the student leader of the Youth for Western Civilization chapter, an officially recognized student organization on the WSU campus. The group’s anti-immigration, anti-multiculturalism message targets young adults and seems to flirt with the extremist, hate-filled fringe." This is why groups such as these are alarming because with the help of the internet and instant access the reach of these groups is endless. I urge you to read both articles and comment sections if you have not done so I think it is an interesting and relevant topic. What are your thoughts on the WSU group and what if any action should Washington State University take?

Cyber Racism

For this post I would like to highlight the book Cyber Racism by Jessie Daniels and how it relates to my topic of white nationalism in the media. Not only is the book in itself a media tool I believe the contents of the book have a lot to do with the way the internet which is a platform for the sharing of information is also a strong tool for the movement. Jessie Daniels had done a massive amount of research on the website stormfront.org and numerous cloaked websites that are out there to plant that "seed" I have spoken about in many of my posts to this point. I see this as a relevant book to my topic as the internet is now our number one source of information at this point and white nationalists world wide are exploiting people young and old by the use of cloaked websites. I have taken this quote straight from Daniels' website it says, "Cloaked websites are published by individuals or groups who conceal authorship in order to deliberately disguise a hidden political agenda. In this way, these sites are similar to previous versions of print media propaganda, such as "black," "white" and "grey" propaganda." As I said before this world has transitioned from print media to digital media and that has made it easier for groups like white nationalists to make their messages appear to be credible and legitimate. In her book Jessie says, "Given the information glut generated and made available every day on the internet, one could reasonably argue that white supremacists' messages might be lost among the millions and millions of websites on the Internet. Even so, white supremacy online is troubling. Consider (1) its easy access and global linkages, (2) harm it may precipitate in real life, and (3) the challenge it presents to honoring cultural values such as racial equality." After our class had skype meeting with Jessie Daniels it was clear that she genuinely is working for racial equality and has spent uncountable hours trying to understand the world of the white nationalist movement. She also says in her book that  these cloaked site are not effective recruitment tools. While the information backs this statement there is the lone wolfs of the world and this brings me back to (2) above where it says, "harm it may precipitate in real life." This is the part that is troubling to me, that these sites can cause people like Richard Machatto and Timothy Mcveigh to engage in violent acts in real life. As we know the internet is wonderful and powerful tool but in the name of racial equality has it helped us progress or has it cause us to take a step in the wrong direction?

Racist Comedy in the Media

This video is part of a series of videos titled "The Amazing Racist" The man is named Ari Shaffir and he is a "comdeian". This is one of many videos but this one stars Ari as a member of the KKK as he walks around talking to black members of the community. The irony here is that Ari is actually Jewish which obviously is the number one "threat" to the existence of white people in the eyes of the white nationalist. This next video is a reaction to "The Amazing Racist".

Obviously this person takes the video as a joke and finds humor in the skit. Obviously everyone will have a different opinion on the subject and I came across other responses interestingly from white men who found "The Amazing Racist" video in terrible taste. I believe they made their videos in an effort to prove that they aren't a racist and don't want people to think that every white man is racist. 

Race based comedy is fairly common and can be quite humorous as we can see in the Dave Chappelle skit above. But when does it cross the line? Does the "Amazing Racist" (first video) cross that line? It is an interesting dynamic with Dave being a black man I think that people find the skit  "funnier" and not as "racist".  With the media being what it is today things are instantly accessible to anyone with internet access which is basically everyone in America. At this time in our country everyone is a little more on edge with the economy being in the dumps and for the first time in history an African American is the leader of the free world. The job of a comedian is to make people laugh and at times that can be offensive. I came across a video which was a big news story awhile back that involves a star from the popular sitcom "Seinfeld" I will attach below.

What sent the former t.v. star of the deep end was a member of the audience him. Obviously an entertainer especially one of Michael Richards status should have more self control then to yell racial slurs at a member of his audience. I think we would all agree that this is crossing the line. But for arguments sake, does this make Richards a racist? He reacted in a way that would make him appear to be racist, but does that make him a racist? Obviously he made his rounds apologizing for the rant and trying to save face but the damage had been done and he will most likely be remembered for this as much as for what he did on tv. 

What I learned

This post might be a little repetitive as I have already discussed the movie American History X multiple times and have quoted Frank Meeink's book as well. This post will be more about what I learned from the movie and the book. The viewing of American History X in class was the first time I actually watched the entire film. I had obviously heard about certain scenes most notably the "curb stomping" scene. I feel that my reaction was much different then it would have been before I took this course. Instead of just seeing Derek as a extreme racist nutcase you have to understand his life experiences that led him down that path. Our discussion in class focused on why Hollywood directors add and omit certain scenes and dialogue to make the movie have a certain message. I think one of the main things I took away from the movie that I can see being a major factor in real life is the planting of the "seed". I have mentioned this a few times now, but I feel that the movie does a good job of showing how this happens and I will repost the video clip below.

As you can see the father has certain beliefs and he passes those along to his children. The father may not have done anything "racist" but he instilled in young Derek that the white men are in danger of losing their power. I feel that this planting of the seed can be a common occurrence in real life home settings. I can see a frustrated parent coming home from work and venting to his family about certain things (not that I agree that this is right) but the parent(s) may not even realize what he or she is saying to the kids and how it could affect them in the future. In the case of Frank Meeink he had a less than privileged child hood and had to deal with a drug addicted father who wasn't there for him and a mother who brought home an abusive step-father. In the book Frank says, "It was like I'd been born already knowing about ZOG and Identity and all the skinheads did was remind me it had been inside me my whole life." He goes on to say,"Remember that movie, Field of Dreams: "If you build it they will come?" Well, once you believe it, the evidence will come." I think that this passage kind of tied everything back together for me with regards to this class. Much of what we have talked about in class is recruitment and when kids or even adults stumble upon sites like stormfront or cloaked sites and they are "awakened" that is like scoring a touchdown for the members of the movement. After they get people interested it is easy for them to relate and in a way brainwash the new members into thinking that they have been discriminated against and the family atmosphere appeals to them. A lot of troubled youth look for that sense of belonging and I think the movement preys on that. Since my blogs focus is on the media, I knew from the get go that American History X would be a big topic and it definitely has been. The movie plays on many stereotypes but the thing is many of the stereotypes are accurate although they may be exaggerated. Probably the most notable stereotype that the movie plays on is the violence caused by the white supremacist. As we have learned throughout the course the movement and the KKK in-particular has transitioned into a non-violent business like organization. Well Franks story gave me a more real life account of the violence that actually does occur not only because of the movement but in inner cities in general. He shares stories of him being chased and jumped on his way to school as well as him commiting violent acts. All in all I feel that this was the most interesting course reading and it matched up perfectly with the movie pretty smoothly.

Mainstream/Extreme

As with most things in the media the extreme cases are much more entertaining and interesting. So white nationalist in the media tend to be portrayed as extreme radical terrorists who are easy to spot in the general public. The reason they are portrayed this way is to make the general public believe that "those" people, the "bad" people aren't living among us and if they come around we will be able to tell. I think we can use American History X as an example once a again. In the movie Cameron allows the lower level members of the movement to play upon the stereotypes (shaved heads, boots, tattoos, etc.) However he expects the people whom he trusts most to keep the movement going to have a clean cut image and present themselves in more of a professional manor. This is the way that David Duke and Thomas Robb transitioned the KKK from their white robes and into business suits.


The above pictures are the extreme vs. the mainstream. The top photo obviously would be in the extreme category with the tattoed face this person is most likely uneducated. Like I have stated in previous posts the movement can be the family that underprivileged youth are looking for. The second picture is of David Duke he is an educated clean cut person who is the model for what the white supremacist is looking for. In the book "Cyber Racism" author Jessie Daniels states how important Duke has been to the transition of the movement by saying, "Many assume that white supremacists are gap-toothed, ignorant, unsophisticated, and uneducated." She goes on to talk about how important Duke has been with the image and the transition into digital media. The connection that can be made is that both the extreme and mainstream are working towards a similar goal and both are needed while one serves as the brains and the others as the followers. While the outward appearances are drastically different they all feel that the existence of the white race is in danger and they would like to secure that future for themselves. We have talked at length about this in class and specifically about the way the news features stories that include the extremes which make us believe that the problem is far away from the mainstream. In reality the majority of white supremacists are hiding in plain site. Especially since the explosion of the internet and sites like stormfront.org you no longer need to have a crazy outward appearance and instead you can hide behind a screen name and spread the irrational messages across the world in a matter of seconds. So I think in the end there is more similarities than differences between the extreme and the mainstream.

Visual Representation

I think it would be safe to say that the most famous representation of white supremacy would be the movie American History X. I think it would also be safe to compare the course reading Autobiography of a Recovering Skinhead and the movie American History X. Both the movie and the book center around the life of a recovering white nationalist. Both of the stories are graphic representations of the world in which a white supremacist lives in. Obviously the movie is a bit more of a stretch and plays on many stereotypes of white supremacist such as the Klan rallies, the shaved heads and the combat boots; however Meeink also states that this is what attracted him to the movement. On page 50 of the book Frank says, "...Shawn clomped through the kitchen door and completely blew my mind. He looked like the skinheads on south street. His head was completely shaved. His combat boots glistened. It was too hot for a flight jacket, but his narrow suspenders looked like the ones the skinheads in the city always wore, except his were red and I thought theirs were usually blue. My mouth dropped straight to the floor when I saw him. I couldn't get over how different, how good, Shawn looked. It wasn't just the clothes, either, or that he'd been lifting weights. Something in Shawn's eyes looked different. He had this intensity I'd never before seen in him." In this case Frank saw the confidence that his cousin had in his new appearance and later found that the family atmosphere the movement gave him was something he needed in his life. From what we have learned it is usually the ones who were deprived a solid family setting as a child that become the most deeply rooted in the movement. As I think back to our class discussions I think that the most important point was that a seed is usually planted subliminally in the mind of a white supremacist early on and later blooms into involvement in the movement. In the movie they purposely show the scene at the dinner table where his Father is angered about a black man receiving a promotion over what he thought was a more qualified white man.   This was the "seed" that was planted showing that whites are losing there advantage in the workplace. In the book a "seed" is also planted by his upbringing in the inner city of Philadelphia. You can see by Meeink's quote that I posted above is the point where his seed was watered as he explains that he was fascinated by the confidence and brotherhood that it brought. An interesting quote that I found in the book goes back to our discussions in class and the belief by the white nationalists that the ZOG is enemy number one. Meeink states, "ZOG forced working-class whites to live amid "mud", who brought gangs and drugs into what had been moral neighborhoods. ZOG had humiliated men like my father so much that they turned to dope to escape their pain, and men like my stepfather so much that they unleashed their rage on innocent children. Worst of all, the Jews who controlled Hollywood were brainwashing whites to think "race-mixing" was cool." This is an interesting quote because perhaps the most famous film about white supremacy is a product of the "ZOG" controlled Hollywood studios. This is not to say that the completely support the film but I have heard that white nationalist do watch the movie until the reform of the main character takes place.