Anti-Black Racism Lies at the Center of the Alt-Right

Seconds before Richard Spencer was known to the world as the person that “everyone saw cry on the internet,” he was giving an interview to reporters about the Alt-Right, having just left the ceremony celebrating the inauguration of Donald Trump. During the interview several people started to heckle him and he quickly became annoyed. One African-American woman asked, “Do you like black people?” To which Richard Spencer waved his hand as if to send the woman away and said, “Yeah, sure.” What’s next is history, and in many ways catapulted both a continuation and acceleration of confrontations, mass mobilization, and grassroots organizing against the Alt-Right across the United States.

But while the video clip of Spencer being punched quickly went viral and many rushed to weigh in on the pros and cons of “Nazi punching,” hardly anyone took Spencer to task for the words that were coming out of his month seconds before he was sent spinning.

Richard Spencer, organizer of #Charlottesville Neo-Nazi Rally on August 12th, Calls Black People "N*ggers" on 7/16 Podcast #defendcville pic.twitter.com/54oB7QdycL

— It's Going Down (@IGD_News) July 25, 2017

At the center of the Alt-Right is anti-black racism; based around a narrative masquerading as ideology built on fact that black people are genetically and mentally inferior to whites, that they destroy “white” civilizations that they come into contact with, and that they are prone to not only anti-social crime but also attacks specifically on white people. These claims are built upon decades of pseudoscience as well as the totalized entrenched fears of slave owners, police officers, and captains of industry that a revolt from the bottom would abolish the established racial caste system that America is founded upon, ultimately laying waste to the ability of power and capital to dominate and control.

This anti-black racism is on full display within the Alt-Right, although true to any “PC” form, carefully hidden from the view of the mainstream media. In podcasts Richard Spencer and other hosts openly calls black people “niggers,” high traffic Alt-Right websites such as The Daily Stormer and AltRight.com regularly use anti-black slurs and images in their headlines. Anti-black topics such as racial genetic inferiority and the growing threat of ‘black violence’ are regular items of discussion at Alt-Right conferences as well as material for best selling Alt-Right books. Even Alt-Right meetups are referred to as “pool parities,” in reference to a racist police attack on black teenagers by the police. Moreover, black people, along with immigrants and Muslims, are often the target for Alt-Right violence, harassment, vandalism, and horrific murders from adherents of the Alt-Right.

The Alt-Right hides behind a veil of liberal rhetoric and identity politics as it cultivates both open calls to violence and in some cases, full on genocide and “physical removal.” But it is the normalization of Alt-Right and white nationalist ideas, filtering into the mainstream, that is having the largest effects on the largest amounts of people. Currently we are seeing the ‘Voting Fraud’ panel in the United States attempt to kick millions of people off of the voting rolls, led by Kris Kobach who is a lawyer connected to the white nationalist group FAIR. Meanwhile in Tennessee, women are allowed to leave jail 30 days early as long as they submit to becoming literally sterilized, a process that Richard Spencer would refer to as “peaceful ethnic cleansing.” Meanwhile, a version of the Muslim Ban is in effect as raids and deportations of immigrants are up and there is talk of destroying the DACA program, which could lead to the deportation of upwards of 800,000 children born in the United States. In short, the Alt-Right is pushing policy.

The notion that the Alt-Right is simply a form of ‘white identity politics’ coded in liberal language is a smokescreen meant to deceive liberals dumb enough to buy into it. At it’s heart, it is a fascist movement centered in anti-black racism which will use violence to achieve it ultimate goals of an all white ethno-state as well as entryism into established elite organizations to further its immediate ends and spread its influence. Let’s stop letting these people have any platform whatsoever due to the misguided idea that they have anything to offer other than calls to violence, genocide, and the suppression of freedom itself.

Open Embrace of Racist Slurs and Imagery

One of the biggest lies spread in the Alt-Right is that is in not a racist movement. Leaders within the Alt-Right state that ‘everyone’ engages in identity politics, and that the Alt-Right is simply the ‘white’ iteration of social movements such as Black Lives Matter. For those on the Right who feel threatened by grassroots struggles which are fighting structural forms of oppression and for increased freedom and liberation of all people, this rhetoric hits a soft spot because they feel under attack and scared by such organizing. To further muddy the waters, the Alt-Right often attempts to play lip service to finding common cause with some reactionary groups such as the Nation of Islam, or “Hoteps,” a small internet based subgroup of black nationalists that seek an alliance with the Alt-Right.

From leading Alt-Right website, The Daily Stormer

Furthermore, people like Richard Spencer have attempted to carefully cultivate themselves as mainstream media figures, going out of their way to speak with a variety of liberal and ‘progressive’ journalists, including black people and people of color. This openness to engage with black people, albeit to promote a worldview that is inherently anti-black and based around genocidal violence, helps to normalize the Alt-Right and make it appear rational, willing to ‘sit down and talk about the issues,’ in a way that some ranting KKK member on Jerry Springer never could.

From AltRight.com

On top of this, many people within the Alt-Right often promote a venire of ‘progressive’ or even Leftist ideas, speak critically of capitalism, and even play lip service to Black Lives Matter. For instance, during the neo-Nazi rally in Pikeville, Heimbach wooed The Guardian by saying basic things that most Americans already hold dear, such as both corporate parties being completely bankrupt and that neoliberalism is destroying everything that it touches. In a video that Heimbach made in the lead up to the rally, he even stated that “black lives matter,” and that black people should have the right to have their own police in their own communities, while of course leaving out the part about forcing them onto reservations and out of their homes at gunpoint. Also, Richard Spencer in a series of recent videos, has pushed Trump (as if he is listening) to endorse a single-payer system of universal healthcare. To the average American reader and viewer, these positions would appear as ‘progressive’ opinions to have, especially when divorced from the white supremacist and racist anti-black foundation of the Alt-Right.

From The Daily Stormer

But for those that spend any amount of time in Alt-Right circles online, they will find that the Alt-Right indeed embraces open racism. Alt-Right websites regularly run heads lines with anti-black racist slurs, and podcast hosts openly use racist slurs and references in their language on their websites. Alt-Right twitter and Facebook accounts are filled with openly racist memes and slogans, which also openly promote sexual assault, misogyny, and brutal violence. For many people, especially liberals and those in the center this is the hardest pill to swallow but one that many of us know so well from established politics: those with a drive for power fucking lie. 

‘PseudoScience’ of Black Inferiority and Threats to ‘White Civilization’

A step removed from the racist memes and headlines filled with racial slurs, is the belief that pseudoscience can prove that black people are inferior both mentally and within ‘white societies.’ Colonial and postcolonial systems have always always used a set of ideologies to justify their actions, the existence of a racial and patriarchal caste system, and especially their rule and subjugation. And, if you didn’t agree there was always the hangman’s noose and ultimately the militia to put down rebellion. Whether it was Christianity, ‘property rights,’ or later the legal status of a person due to the color of their skin; a wide ranging set of beliefs have helped to justify mass genocide and enslavement of both Native and African people on the North American continent.

In this respect, a turn towards pseudoscience, exemplified by by debunked studies such as The Bell Curve, co-written by white nationalist Charles Murray, is nothing new, however it represents a justification of white supremacy under the context of of reason, logic, and the ‘scientific process.’

At Alt-Right conferences and gatherings, this fundamental view that not only are black people especially genetically and mentally inferior to whites, but that moreover they destroy white civilization, is both expanded upon and deepened. This is also a common theme within all sections of the far-Right: that a subject (white men) can be both a conquering hero and brilliant human being simply by virtue of the color of their skin, while at the same time, they are helpless victims to a world wide conspiracy to eradicate that very light and sparkle which makes them such very special snowflakes. Like Trump, the Alt-Right gets two scoops, one for intense and tragic victimhood, the other for being mythical majestic overlords and they themselves alone have the ability to create the rise and fall of great civilizations.

Jared Taylor of American Renaissance, has turned hatred of black people into a growing pseudoscience and industry.

It should also be noted that these views have gone on to seep into mainstream policy, as for instance the Bell Curve was used for justification of the ‘Broken Windows’ theory, which was an attempt to formulate a strategy of mass counterinsurgency in the wake of the rebellions and riots of the 1960s and 70s, and helped to inform the drug war and produce mass incarceration. Fast forward to today, and we find that similar conspiracy theories, literal fake news, and pseudoscience produced and popularized by the racist Alt-Right is again influencing policy within mainstream politics, especially in regards to attacks on Latino and Muslim people living within the United States, as well as calls to reignite the drug war.

On top of all of these theories however, at it’s heart lies the concept of ‘white civilization,’ which in it’s essence is defined by anti-blackness. The idea that there is an intrinsic division of slaves and masters; active creative agents and passive, lowly toilers; ‘good’ and humble people, and unruly animals to be subjugated. This is an important reality to grasp, as it is both the foundation of white supremacy; of the creation of a cross-class relationship between all whites against those subjugated by the colonial system for the sake of power and profit, as well as a system in which the Alt-Right claims that elites of the United States have turned their backs on. They argue that through the ending of Jim Crows and the passing of immigration laws in the 1960s which allowed non-whites into the United States the elites of the US have in fact turned their backs on the ‘devil’s bargain’ of white supremacy and it is now up to them to create a new ethno-state and begin anew.

This fairytale gives them both the context to justify their anti-Semitic narrative that a cabal of ‘globalist Jews’ run the world, and also that they have a mandate to relaunch white Western civilization from those “cucks” that would dare turn their backs on it.

Alt-Right Violence Directed Against Black Lives and Open Embrace of Genocide 

Another troope within the Alt-Right is that it’s open celebration of ‘helicopter rides’ (which celebrate fascist leader Pinochet throwing political dissidents to their death) and gas chamber memes – is simply for shock value and ‘shouldn’t be taken seriously.’ Clearly taking a page from every tumblr identity politician, they whine that ‘in an age where political correctness has become a religion,’ Alt-Right humor is simply the ‘true rebels’ fighting back against the fascism of the Left.

This complete and utter bullshit from people that take themselves very seriously is animated by an intense desire by the Alt-Right for people, the media, and ‘normies’ to believe more than anything it is a non-violent movement with no connection to terrorism, murder, or endorsement of genocide. Nothing could be further from the truth. 

"Do you think Hitler was a good person?"

Matt Heimbach, Traditionalist Worker Party: "Yes."#Pikeville,KY, 4/29/17https://t.co/jxMx2Oloxq pic.twitter.com/TzOjRkSY3E

— Unicorn Riot (@UR_Ninja) May 1, 2017

First and foremost, the Alt-Right openly spells out repeatedly that the kind of fascist society that it wants to create will involve massive amounts of violence to destroy and defeat internal enemies to the State. Alt-Right leaders such as Matthew Heimbach, have openly stated and confirmed (as recently as this April) that he supports sending racially mixed couples and LGBTQIA people to ‘re-education camps,’ and that enemies to the fascist State should be put down like ‘rabid dogs.’

While Richard Spencer has spoken publically about a “non-violent” approach, his desire is still the same as Heimbach’s, to use the power of the State to ‘ethnically cleanse’ the population of non-white people, putting into practice methods of mass sterilization.

Other groups, such as the National Socialist Movement, a member of the Nationalist Front which is led by Heimbach, openly states that if they are able to take over the country they will kill or expel all non-whites, political dissents, and all non-heterosexuals from the United States. Moreover, the openly write that at some point they may even need to take over more territory for “living space,” a nod to the same policies of the original Nazi party. Thus, the NSM openly plans to carry out the same strategy employed by the characters in The Turner Diaries, (a work of fiction written by neo-Nazi William Pierce that would go on to inspire the Oklahoma City bombing), who in the book launch a race war that ends in the fascists dropping bombs all non-white nations.

And it is this open embrace of whole scale genocide, either in the ‘non-violent’ vein or through open terror, that is talked about on many Alt-Right podcasts and websites. As Anti-Fascist News wrote:

In a recent episode of The Daily Shoah, the most popular Alt Right podcast today, after ranting about the various problems of the day they followed through on their previous show’s promise to discuss the “white genocide” happening in South Africa. They brought on blogger and Alt Right “shitlord” Jayoh, who has also appeared on Neoreaction podcasts like Ascending the Tower. After ranting about how “n***ers ruin everything” for fifteen minutes, he finally leveled his real belief to the “problem of South Africa” and integration.

“There is no version of segregation that will ever work because somebody will always use it as a cudgel against you…You can’t live around these people, you can’t have them in the next town over. Someone will always leverage them, or they will leverage you, or some way this shit will always fall apart. That’s why I get ragged on for being an unironic exterminationist, but until someone comes up with another solution that hasn’t historically failed, that’s where it stands.”

In an article by “Prez Jeff Davis” published at The Right Stuff in December of 2016 called “Genocide: The Inescapable Conclusion,” the idea that genocide is inevitable between ethnic groups is presented. “Genocide is just a word invented by a Jew to demonize the Nazis.”

In a March 2017 article at The Right Stuff, Padishah Emperor Julius Ebola wrote about the reclaiming of the historical right of global genocide:

“The dual pressures of the frontier, that of expansion and of robust defense of new settlements, keeps a people healthy and oriented properly towards the future. Without the imposition of these pressures a race will become increasingly complacent and inert. Without contested space to expand over, having growth while hemmed into settled pseudo-utopian conditions leads to scale problems and a racial behavioral sink.”

The rhetoric of the “Ethnostate” is that it will essentially be isolationist, not involving itself in world affairs and trying to keep to itself in racial harmony. In a march article also by the aforementioned Ebola, he outlines a look at what Ethnostate foreign policy would be, which is in direct opposition to the rhetoric of people like Jared Taylor and Richard Spencer:

“Aryan Revolution in one country can never succeed because revolution against the entire global System requires an expansive foreign policy, and that foreign policy must be supremacy in our hemisphere. Such ambitions ought thus to be our minimum agenda. From Alaska to Argentina our banner must fly, or it flies nowhere.”

It might seem as though this is a new trend in the Alt Right, or one of a few renegade wings, but it goes back to their earliest days and intellectual core. Colin Liddell, who was a prime blogger for AlternativeRight.com that was created by Richard Spencer, was known for his controversial articles.  This included ones that questioned the history of the Holocaust, as well as bluntly put his belief that black people were barely better than animals. While Spencer was still the editor of the website, he published an article by Liddell called “Is Black Genocide Right?”:

“Instead of asking how we can make reparations for slavery, colonialism, and Apartheid or how we can equalize academic scores and incomes, we should instead be asking questions like, “Does human civilization actually need the Black race?” “Is Black genocide right?” and, if it is, “What would be the best and easiest way to dispose of them?” With starting points like this, wisdom is sure to flourish, enlightenment to dawn.”

Even when they do not advocate open extermination, they have worked to undermine the importance of genocide in the Western collective consciousness. Instead of seeing these crimes with the horror they deserve, they want to normalize them as a part of the human experience. This is where the real threat lies, as they will continue to downplay non-white suffering so as to slow down the erasure of white supremacy, a tool that will also lend them a leg up if they ever have the opportunity to play out their murderous fantasies. This is partially why the increase in Alt Right killings is happening, and what they have in store for the world if they ever were to be given power.

But it is not just an acceptance of mass violence and genocide that the Alt-Right embraces, but also the various ‘lone wolves’ that carry out acts of terror, often against black people. This includes The Daily Stormer fan Dylann Roof, the racist 4chan trolls who shot at the Black Lives Matter encampment in Minneapolis, James Harris Jackson, a fan of Richard Spencer who killed an elderly black man in New York, and recently Jeremy Christian in Portland, who began harassing two women of color, only to slit the throats and kill two men who stepped in to intervene while almost killing another. This is to say nothing of the numerous instances of arson attacks against black churches, mosques, and synagogues, as well as the escalating campaign of targeted racist attacks and harassment.

While some like Richard Spencer have either ignored or attempted to distance himself from this violence, many others close to Spencer openly embrace it. At the end of the day, the picture if crystal clear: the Alt-Right embraces wholesale slaughter in order to further its political ends.