History

We can date white nationalism back many generations even centuries, however to find a history on the media pertaining to white nationalism is much more difficult being how broad the subject is. I think the most logical starting place to explore is the movie titled "Birth of a Nation". The filming of this extremely controversial film was started in 1914 and used many innovative filming and musical techniques to make the film more entertaining then most films before it. In 1915 the silent film debuted and was a huge success as it followed the life of two families throughout the civil war and reconstruction period in American History and probably most famously it dramatized the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. It was also the first film to be shown in the white house and President Woodrow Wilson was supposedly quoted as saying, "... like writing history with lightning. And my only regret is that it is all so terribly true." Some have argued that this is not an accurate quote of President Wilson however this was a common thought throughout white America. So why were President Wilson's quote and the movie in general so controversial? The movie featured the KKK as a heroic force saving white women from the grasp of the "evil" black man (the black actors in the movie were actually white men in face paint). The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), which was founded in 1909, recognized the inaccuracies in the film and protested its release in many different locations. The film tricked the general public into fearing the black race, which led to more and more violence. The power of the media had taken hold and just as it does today convinces the general public of stories that aren’t necessarily accurate. The key to most of the medias power is in the presentation of the material. Lets think about this in terms of what we see on TV today. Many white nationalists believe that MTV, BET, VH1…etc are brainwashing the white youth and presenting blacks and other races in a way that convinces white children to imitate them. These channels are very entertaining and “cool” for the youth of America to watch and discuss. The way a white nationalists thinks would then have them justify that the black man is the problem for drug addiction and violence in the community and sadly this tends to lead to violence.  This film was groundbreaking technologically speaking and since the film was visually appealing a lot of the inaccuracies were overlooked. To this day the KKK use the film as a recruiting tool for young white males. The film spawned a sequel a year later and a remake many years later. I think we can credit this film with inspiring later forms of white nationalist media such as stormfront.org a white nationalist blog and a white nationalist version of YouTube. The media in general is a very powerful tool for the white nationalist movement with its power to help recruit and falsely educate the white youth.

I have attached a short trailer of the movie.