White Nationalist Movements + American History X

I first saw American History X when I was 12. My brothers and I were flipping through the channels when we came across this movie. We had no idea what we had gotten ourselves into. After watching the first five minutes (we all know what happens), we immediately changed the channel. At that age, I knew that the movie was about white supremacy, but until this class, I never understood the meaning behind the movement.

Before the class, I had no idea that the hate the white supremacists were spreading encompassed more than just people of color. Films like American History X provide the example of how white nationalists hate any race they deem to be inferior. It is evident in the film that all the factors that affect a person to resort to white nationalism are based on hate for another group, whether the hate is valid or not. For instance, Derek comes from a home where racism is discussed among the dinner table. And when his father is killed by a minority, Derek feels the only place he can turn to to feel accepted is within a white nationalist circle. As disgusted in class and in the other books we have read, the story of Derek perfectly fits into the stereotype that white nationalists are looking to feel accepted by a group of people. Instead of searching for acceptance in other places, they lean towards the power and intimidation they see within the white nationalist society.

Frank Meeink, the inspiration behind the film American History X, tells his story in his biography. His story tells of his troubled childhood and how he found himself a place to feel like home within the Skinhead organization. What I found interesting about the story of Frank is that it seems to fit into the stereotypes of a youth getting dragged into gang violence because they live in a large city. But when compared to the Aryan Nations, an organization started in Hayden Lake, Idaho, a small, rural community when compared to Philadelphia, it changed my ideas of how gang violence is usually associated with large, urban cities. I realized it is not about the location of where a person is, but factors affecting their life that leads them to become attached to the violence and hate of the white nationalist organization.

All in all, what I learned is racism can stem from anything. Growing up in Eastern Washington, I would say I was pretty secluded from a lot of forms of racism. This class, with the help of the four books we have read over the semester, the discussions in class and the research for this blog, have opened my eyes to realize what is going on around me and how this affects people. Similarly, I have learned how easy it is for the message of hate and violence to be spread thanks to the internet and media. This class was a way for me to say I learned something new every (tues and thurs)day.

Local Connection

The Pacific Northwest, specifically Idaho, has been stereotyped as being ignorant and racist. This can be attributed to the fact the Aryan Nations was born in Hayden Lake, Idaho with the ultimate intent of establishing an all-White homeland in the Pacific Northwest.

That being said, its not often that images like the one above are flaunted in shop windows. This was the case in John Day, Oregon. The residents of this town took it upon themselves to make it clear they do not want to be associated with such a negative, racist stereotype. This article from Ethos Magazine tells the story of how the residents of this Oregon town have protested members of the Aryan Nations or any white nationalist organization from purchasing or owning property in their community. Similarly, the Aryan Nations, who are used to being the ones using intimidation and mockery to instill fear in the people around them, are the ones being denied of certain rights in the area.

One local resident states, "I don’t believe in their doctrine, and it won’t be good for the local economy...Everyone is entitled to their own beliefs, but [the Aryan Nations] are bullies. They won’t accept other ethnicities, and this community is too tight knit to accept that.”

"The Pacific Northwest’s ongoing history of white supremacist leanings forces this region to ask deeper questions of what its citizens truly believe in as Americans and the cost associated with defending these beliefs" (source). With the stereotype of the Pacific Northwest being a headquarters for white nationalism in the United States, its refreshing to see a community work to combat the ideologies of the Aryan Nations. This article shows its clear that what Americans truly believe in is promoting equality within a community and protecting the rights of its citizens, as well as defending these beliefs when they are threatened by ignorant white nationalist groups.

"The hate group subculture thrives largely because the U.S. puts great stock in encouraging openness and freedom of belief. These core values are how this country is defined and proudly promoted to the rest of the world. The U.S. must condemn hate speech, but also exist alongside it as a result of living in a truly free nation"  (source). The dichotomy between free, open speech and eliminating hate speech ties back into the notion of extreme versus mainstream ideologies. Clearly, ideologies associated with groups like the Aryan Nations are extreme ideologies based on hate and eliminating the inferior races. Whereas, mainstream ideas as enforced by our government, like freedom of speech and accepting the religious and cultural views of our neighbors, are what people in areas linked closely to white nationalism must strive to maintain.

To combat hate speech and prevent the spread of violence associated with groups like the Aryan Nations, communities, states, governments, etc. must take a stand against the social injustice of these groups, similar to the way the community of John Day, Oregon did.

Combating White Nationalism: The Southern Poverty Law Center

With the number of hate groups increasing rapidly every day, it is necessary for another group to counter the movements of these hate organizations and shed light on the values of equality and social justice within our society. One such group, the Southern Poverty Law Center, "is a nonprofit civil rights organization dedicated to fighting hate and bigotry, and to seeking justice for the most vulnerable members of society" (source).

The SPLC monitors hate groups, like the Aryan Nation, and reports their movements to the federal and local government. The SPLC works to promote tolerance and respect in our schools, unlike the Aryan Nations whose goal is to promote an all-white society and rid their homeland of any less worthy group. The SPLC has "crippled some of the country’s most notorious hate groups by suing them for murders and other violent acts committed by their members" (source). 

"Since 2000, the number of hate groups has increased by 54 percent. This surge has been fueled by fears of Latino immigration and, more recently, by the election of the country’s first African-American president and the economic crisis" (source). Those who "fear" this Latino immigration and the election of President Obama, groups like the Aryan Nation, are taking extreme measures to fight the social injustice (as they see it) happening in our country by these actions. "This growth in extremism has been aided by mainstream media figures and politicians who have used their platforms to legitimize false propaganda about immigrants and other minorities and spread the kind of paranoid conspiracy theories on which militia groups thrive" (source).

In opposition to this, the SPLC works to stop exploitation of immigrants in the workplace by filing court cases and encouraging the federal government to act upon the injustice. Similarly, they falsify the mainstream media figures extreme ideologies against immigration by teaching tolerance to people around America through magazines, multimedia outlets, films and a number of other resources. Again, the boundaries of extreme and mainstream become blurred due to mainstream media taking on extreme ideologies, ideologies in correlation to racist hate groups, like the Aryan Nation. This video is a good example of what the SPLC is working to combat, racial intolerance:

Clearly the SPLC has had an affect on many hate groups. Images from their Teaching Tolerance report have been revamped to fit into white supremacist ideologies. Or images like the one below have been created by hate groups as a way to make fun of the ideas the SPLC promotes.

As stated before, the Southern Poverty Law Center is working to spread the word of racial tolerance and put an end to the increasing numbers of hate groups growing with the United States. The idea that the SPLC "track[s] the activities of hate groups and domestic terrorists across America, and launch[es] innovative lawsuits that seek to destroy networks of radical extremists, provide[s] educators with free resources that teach school children to reject hate, embrace diversity and respect differences and use the courts and other forms of advocacy to win systemic reforms on behalf of victims of bigotry and discrimination" (source) is a refreshing counteraction to all of the ways white nationalism affects society in America today.

Mainstream/Extreme

“Defining white supremacy as extremist in its racism often has the result of absolving the mainstream population of its racism, portraying white supremacists as the racist fringe in contrast to some nonracist majority." This quote from Abby Ferber's book

  

Obviously Machado's actions were extreme. But because he acted without any affiliation to a racist organization, does it reduce the extremity of the crime? This also brings up the question are all members of white supremacist groups extreme? In the video above, members of the Aryan Nation are protesting and calling for a revolution at the Gettysburg Civil War Battlefield. The video shows several members of the Aryan Nation speaking, some calling for action in the revolution and saying, "resistance need not be armed or violent at first, but it will be." Again, this call to action states that extreme measures will be taken by some members if necessary. Later, another member is asked if he is calling for violence against minorities and he responds with "no, they [his compatriots] may but I don't." This quote blurs the line of dividing the mainstream and extreme due to the fact that a known member of the Aryan Nation is not going to take extreme violence, something that only people not affiliated with these organizations, would do. As Ferber states, by portraying the majority of the population as non-racist or mainstream, members of the Aryan Nation and other white nationalist groups are portrayed as extreme. However, the notion of mainstream and extreme is clearly subjective and cannot easily be defined.

White Man Falling: Race, Gender and White Supremacy, states that because white supremacist groups like the Aryan Nation are seen as taking extreme action in racism, the rest of the population is portrayed as being mainstream because their actions are less radical compared to those of the white supremacists. The idea that white supremacists are the extreme compared to a majority of the "mainstream, non-racist population" may not seem to be too far from the truth but what actions do we consider to be extreme? Are only actions of violence related to race extreme actions? If the "mainstream" never acts extreme, according to this definition, then why are people who are not associated with white supremacist groups taking on extreme acts of violence against other races? What I mean by this is if citizen(s) considered to be part of the "mainstream"carry out a violent act, like Richard Machado hate mail to some Asian American students at University of California, Irvine, when does it switch from being "mainstream" to "extreme?"

Digital Images, Globalization and the Aryan Nation

I found this image while searching in Google and found that it was the exact message that members of the Aryan Nation are trying to convey. Additionally, it is the ultimate goal of the group, to secure a "white community" with "white tenants." According to white supremacist discourse, "interracial sexuality is depicted as polluting whiteness" (Ferber, 101), something the Aryan Nation is seeking to control by establishing their White Homeland. Images like this are strewn across the internet and aid in spreading the messages of white supremacist discourse more quickly and at a larger level.

Jessie Daniels, author of Cyber Racism: White Supremacy Online and the New Attack on Civil Rights,

states "the confluence of global linkages facilitated by Internet technologies means that through Stormfront true believers in White Pride can connect with their translocal and white identity... White supremacy online in the global information era facilitates the formation of a translocal white identity" (54). This idea of trans-local whiteness enables correspondents from multiple locations across the globe to connect over their "whiteness" and express their ideologies. In addition, the internet fosters the hate among the white nationalists (including those of the Aryan Nation) and allows for them to connect with others who share the same ideologies. 

       The ability of these people to connect is beneficial in the Aryan Nations goal of establishing their White Homeland. The Butler Plan, as mentioned in the previous post, calls for those awake white nationalists to relocate to the Pacific Northwest to establish their white community. Thanks to the internet, members of the Aryan Nations who live across the continent or in other countries can connect with members in the Pacific Northwest and connect over their "whiteness, as Daniels puts it. This is also a great example of the affects of globalization and white nationalism.

With access to the internet becoming increasingly easy, its my belief that the message of white nationalist groups like the Aryan Nation and KKK will be able to spread their message to a great number of people and even increase their membership and enrollment numbers. Although Daniels argues the internet has not had an affect on this, I think that some people who come across this information will begin to believe in it and become undercover members. As Daniels states, "What shifts in white supremacy in the digital era is that now this sort of racist rhetoric is no longer simply ideology that is distributed in one direction, from movement leaders to movement followers, but instead is interactive and participatory" (70). They may not admit to being members, fund membership or be active in any movement, however, the reach of the internet allows for them to hide behind an online identity and still participate within the movement. The interactivity of the internet, as well as the anonymity it provides the user, creates a sort of safe haven for a person not willing to go to the extremes of groups like the Aryan Nation, but still actively forward information relevant to the cause.

More On Richard Butler

As previously mentioned, Reverend Richard G. Butler was the founder of the white nationalist group the Aryan Nations in Hayden Lake, Idaho. The affects of the Aryan Nation can be felt throughout the Pacific Northwest. While at my friend's house for dinner recently, her father, DW, mention how he knew Richard Butler and worked with him on a water safety board in Coeur d'Alene. DW, a full Japanese man, explained some of the fear he felt in the presence of Butler. DW said he and Butler happened to be in a restroom together and had he not been afraid one of his followers would retaliate against him, he would have thrown a wet wad of toilet paper over the stall at him. The intimidation and fear is one of the main tactics used behind this organization. Through this intimidation and fear, the Aryan Nations focus on creating a homeland for the purity of their race.
Ultimately, the Aryan Nations realized that the goal of taking over the entire United States was beyond their reach and shrank their plans to include only the Pacific Northwest "to secure the existence of [their] people and a future for White children" (source). With this, the Butler Plan was released. The Butler Plan's goal is to ensure the survival (along with the rest of the Aryan Nation and white supremacists alike) of "their race" by engaging in "political action, propaganda and educational activity."
The plan includes four phases.  The first phase calls for a relocation of "racially conscious white community" to the homeland. The second phase is to create a "Northwest Front as a fighting revolutionary party." The focus of this stage is to attempt to restore their image from a racist group to more of a political party. The third stage includes getting said "party" into politics of the area and creating a revolution. The fourth and final stage involves taking over all political power in the Pacific Northwest and creating the "Northwest American Republican" which will ultimately be the force that causes the collapse of the United States (source).  
It is easy to see that Butler's message and the Aryan Nations have had their affect on many people. Their goals are plastered all over the internet, leading to easier access to their ideologies and the expansion of their group through globalization.  

Racial Purity and the Aryan Nations

“When God Almighty established the Adamic race in the earth to build His Kingdom, He had ordained from the beginning were not to mingle with the ‘tree of knowledge, of good and evill’ with the races that had already fallen and had gone under the influence of satanic ideas we must preserve our racial purity.” -Reverend Wesley Swift from the article Preserving Our Racial Self Respect

The "ideal" Christian soldier protecting his race.

Swift, founder of the Church of Jesus Christ Christian (the source of inspiration for the Aryan Nations), uses biblical references in this article as a way to justify the need for racial purity among White Christians. Further along, Swift mentions how Jews do not use the book of Hebrews (the reference for the above quote) because Hebrews was written to White Christians who constitute a Christian civilization, something that cannot be established without the removal of the Jews. Additionally, he points out that other races having "already fallen...under the influence of satanic ideas" (according to Swift, the Jews) are racially impure and will thus, infect the White Christian race.

Purity is the first and foremost goal of the Aryan Nations. One of their website aryan-nations.org, flaunts the slogan "Racial Purity is Our Nation's Security." With this goal of racial purity, the idea of racial segregation and genocide also come into play.

On the Welcome page of the Aryan Nations website, the page states "we must use this rare genetic advantage" [racial purity] via "unilateral across-the-board cooperation" to prevent the "sharing of an UNcommon bloodline" [racial segregation] to prevent "our death as a race" [racial genocide].  What this means is the Aryan Nations believe that without segregation, the purity of the white race is threatened by other cultures through disease and miscegenation.

 In her book White Man Falling, Abby Ferber sites articles in which white nationalists attempt to use science and evolution to explain how they believe other races to be inferior to the pure white race because "evolution [is] a clear path of increasing racial differentiation" (71) and "according to Christian Identity theology,...difference is destiny-it is God-given. Nonwhites are not simply biologically or genetically different from whites, they are not considered God's children" (71).  Again, tying this back to what Swift said about preserving racial purity by not mingling with people who have fallen victim to satanic ideas or, as Ferber puts it, not God's children.

Additionally, Ferber talks about how white nationalists, like the Aryan Nations, believe that the key to preserving our race is racial segregation and without said segregation, or race will go into genocide. The allowance of the "Other" races into our country is what leads to race-mixing. And this race-mixing is "equated with ill health, disease and degeneration" (80) of the white race and will be the ultimate demise of the purity of the white race. White supremacists believe that the health of a pure white race is equated with racial segregation and that race-mixing throws off the harmony of the biological community. Genocide of the pure white race will occur unless segregation and miscegenation is outlawed.

A Local Discussion on the Aryan Nations

Richard Butler spreading the word of the Aryan Nations on the streets of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.

Residents of Hayden Lake, Idaho no doubt rejoiced about the news that the Aryan Nations would be evicted, the compound would be surrendered and the white nationalists would be forced to move their ideologies far away from the Idaho Panhandle. One long-time resident stated, Tony Stewart said, “We feel stereotyped in a way that is unjust” (source) referring to the fact that the Aryan Nations instilled a negative reputation to the residents of Hayden Lake as being racist and white nationalists. Coeur d'Alene attorney Ken Howard states in this article that the only reason the Aryan Nations stayed in the North Idaho area for so long is to 'embarrass and define this beautiful North Idaho homeland of ours as a place inhospitable to all of those who were not of the white Christian race.'

The ghost of the Aryan Nations’ past permanently haunts those living in close proximity to the previous site of the Aryan World Congress. However, community members are having a hard time shaking the negative image of the area due to the fact that many white nationalists, specifically from California, move to the Hayden Lake area because of the abundance of mostly white residents. Additional recent talk (as of 2010), indicates the group may attempt to move their headquarters into Oregon, which brings relief to many Coeur d’Alene residents saying, “Let them go do their own thing somewhere else.” Its easy to see residents of Idaho welcome the idea of living in a community where they are not stereotyped as being racists.

In celebration of the removal of the Aryan Nations from Idaho, members of Kootenai County unveiled a black marble monument. The monument serves as a way for the community to remember they no longer need to live in fear of the Aryan Nations and all members of the community can live freely (source).

Artist Julie Wood embraces a Coeur d'Alene police officer at the unveiling of her monument.

The scar of the Aryan Nations will forever blemish Northern Idaho. Residents look to recreate a new image of the area now that the dark cloud of the Aryan Nations has passed. Like any scar that remains, the people of the area will continue to talk about the Aryan Nation's use of fear and intimidation to create a menacing reputation for the people of North Idaho. Like any group being stereotyped, the community wants to establish the fact that they are not tied in any way to the Aryan Nations (or any white nationalist group) and instead look to embrace a new image of acceptance within their community.

Stormfront.org

Stormfront.org is a white supremacist discussion forum designed to spread the word of white nationalist organizations and groups (like the Aryan Nations). Active members can post and comment on topics like ideology and philosophy, culture and customs, science, technology and race, among many others. Don Black, former Ku Klux Klan leader, founded the site in the early 1990s as a “resource for those courageous men and women fighting to preserve their White Western culture, ideals and freedom of speech and association a forum for planning strategies and forming political and social groups to secure victory" (source).
This site has a become a valuable resource indeed for those in support of the white nationalist movement. With groups like the Aryan Nations calling for the recruitment of more members in certain states (Aryan Nations California Recruiting) to polls asking "Which country is key for white survival?" (Russia), Stormfront.org is spreading the message of white nationalism to all corners of the world.
After browsing through posts on the site, the most common post I found posed the question, "What exactly is Aryan? It would seem that as a group in support of an Aryan homeland here in the United States, it would be simple for all members to agree on a common definition of the term that holds such valuable meaning to them. However, members of the site are having a hard time describing the term in a nutshell.
The most common description of an Aryan on the site described them as a person with light skin, hair and eyes. However, many posts (like this one) have gone to a more all-encompassing description, stating that Aryans "seem to have been predominantly, although not exclusively, of light hair and eye color. The majority of them probably had light colored hair like blond, red or light-medium brown and light colored eyes like blue, grey or green, although there were some with dark brown or black hair and brown eyes as well." An additional post goes so far as to list all categories of people who can be described as Aryan (mostly Indo-European peoples).
Another common post seems to be the exact origin of the Aryan peoples and "Are only some Whites Aryans?" Russians, Northern Indians and White Persians have all been deemed the original ancestors of the "Aryan race." Also, users have disagreements about who is considered to be an Aryan, stating all whites are Aryans to all white Europeans and even going as far as to say "all whites are Aryans with the exception of those who fornicate with mongrels." All this confusions leaves only one question for me, who exactly is an Aryan?
This confusion over the defintion of an Aryan, a main part of white nationalist ideology, is comical and embarrassing to their cause. Those supporters of white nationalism should be able to easily and clearly agree on who/what is considered an Aryan, not have extensive posts on a site dedicated to the white nationalist movement and not be able to define a key term behind their movement.

History of the Aryan Nations

The Aryan Nations Compound in Hayden Lake, Idaho (via)

The Aryan Nations, a far-right white nationalist organization/religious movement established in 1973 in Hayden Lake, Idaho, is a branch of the Church of Jesus Christ-Christian, one of the "foremost proponents of the Aryan Identity message during the past century" (source). Founded by Reverend Richard G. Butler, the Aryan Nations strived to instill nationalist beliefs in all white men and women who support their "genetic legacy as Aryans" (source) and want to establish a pure Aryan society in North America.

Richard G. Butler (via)

Richard G. Butler was a prominent white supremacist leader who sought to unify neo-Nazis, Skinheads, Ku Klux Klansmen and all other brothers who believed in North America as a refuge for whites. Butler, who idolized Hitler, believed that Jewish people were direct descendents of Satan and that black people were a feral group (source). In a newsletter published by the Aryan Nations, Butler states that the United States must become a "national racial state" and that "we [the Aryan Nations] will have it at whatever price is necessary. Just as our forefathers purchased their freedom in blood so must we... We will have to kill the bastards" (source). Similarly, in this interview on Race and Reason, a public-access cable TV show, Butler explains the history of the Aryan Nation and the ideologies behind the group.

The twenty acre compound owned by the Aryan Nations in Idaho served as a meeting ground for any group throughout North America and the world who shared similar ideologies to the Aryan Nations. Additionally at the compound, the Aryan Nations held what they called a "World Conference." The conference was held annually as a way for any white nationalist group to come together and build support for the purpose of spreading their word and ideologies, as well as attracting new (specifically younger) members to the movement (Ferber). These meetings at their rural Hayden Lake facility were the perfect setting away from intruders such as police and the media while simultaneously allowing for "urban terrorism and guerilla warfare" training to attendants (source). 

In 2000, the Aryan Nations were forced to pay $6.3 million dollars in damages to Victoria and Jason Keenan after they sued the Nation for assault charges after being chased away from the Hayden Lake compound and fired at with guns after their car backfired near the site. The judgment bankrupt the Aryan Nation, caused them to hand over the compound to the Keenans and forced the group to sign over the name "Aryan Nations" to the Keenans. As a result, the group, now renamed Aryan National Alliance, relocated to rural Pennsylvania (source).

The ultimate goal of the Aryan Nations, to establish a pure white homeland in North America, will always be the groups number one cause. Additionally, they believe that "the System" is an oppression to the white Aryan race and before the Aryan homeland can be created, they must first destroy the "present Western-democratic state" (source).
From their goal "Racial Purity is this Nations Security" to the quote by Richard G. Butler on using whatever force necessary, it is easy to see that the Aryan Nations will use any means possible to accomplish their goal of an Aryan North America.

About This Blog

Welcome All,
My name is Ashley Beitz, I am currently a student at Washington State University. This blog was created for my CES 444 class to analyze and discuss white nationalism as I see it today, in the past or in the future. My blog will focus primarily on the Aryan Nations, a white nationalist group centered in Hayden, ID. I plan to examine the group as a whole and with my findings, discuss their significance and impression on myself and society. Furthermore, this blog will center around the history of Aryan Nations and their ideologies behind their movements. I hope my readers and fellow classmates will find this blog interesting and relevant to the course.

Ashley

(Here is a link to my course blog!)