Who’s a White Supremacist?

I might also propose that black or Hispanic groups be called “black advocacy” or “Hispanic advocacy” groups, instead of the partisan-sounding “civil rights group.”  Really?  “La Raza” is concerned about everyone’s civil rights?  Please.

Few terms are more beloved by the media than “white supremacist.”  It conjures an image of a tattooed skinhead barking “sieg heil” or a gap-toothed Klansman at a lynching.  Proper people recoil in horror.  

Every so often, a genuine moron pops up in the news who practically begs for the term, however many galaxies away he is from actual white advocacy. However,naming your child “Adolf Hitler” or the combination of a swastika tattoo and a vague threat against a public official are more likely signs of mental illness or a desire to shock the community than manifestation of a genuine concern about whites. 

A major contributor to use of the term “white supremacist” and its grab-bag of related terms (neo-Nazi, hate group, supremacist group, racist, avowed racist, etc.) is the Southern Poverty Law Center, an increasingly discredited organization that, properly described, operates as an anti-white group.  “Anti-white hate group,” really, though I’m not expecting the media to call it that anytime soon.

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First, “supremacist” is not a very precise term.  What does it mean, exactly?  

The implication is that a “supremacist” would have license to engage in any kind of abuse or debasement of another he fancied.  But I know of no white advocate who seeks that.  The term “white separatist” might actually describe the policy goal of some white advocates, but it still wouldn’t hurt to ask whether that is, in fact, his or her goal. 

Most white advocates seek a general right of group self-determination that at most involves non-involvement with other racial groups, especially coercive involvement.  Forced busing, affirmative action, immigration and non-discrimination laws are all examples of coercion that are opposed by white advocates.   

In other words, they wish to simply decline the demands of other racial groups. That’s “supremacy”?  That’s like calling a woman who refuses a man’s sexual advances a “female supremacist.”  

Continue…

2009-08-28