White supremacy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
White supremacy is a racist[1] ideology based on the assertion that white people are superior to other racial groups. The term is sometimes used specifically to describe a political ideology that advocates social and political dominance for whites.[2]
White supremacy, as with racial supremacism in general, is rooted in ethnocentrism and a desire for hegemony. It is associated with varying degrees of racism and xenophobia as well as a desire for racial separation. White supremacy has often resulted in anti-black racism and antisemitism, although it has also involved prejudice and discrimination against a wide variety of "non-white" groups.
Different forms of white supremacy have different definitions of 'white', and not all white supremacist organizations agree on which group is the greatest enemy.[3] White supremacists frequently consider Jews to be the gravest threat to their cause, because they can assimilate much easier than other ethnic groups.[4]
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History
Politically, socially and economically, white supremacy was dominant in the United States before the American Civil War and for decades after Reconstruction. The same is true of Apartheid-era South Africa and of parts of Europe at various time periods; most notably under Nazi Germany's Third Reich. The extent and nature of white supremacy's continuing influence in western culture is a subject of ongoing debate. In some parts of the United States, many people who were considered non-white were disenfranchised, barred from government office, and prevented from holding most government jobs — well into the second half of the twentieth century. White leaders often viewed Native Americans (known as First Nations in Canada) and Australian Aborigines as obstacles to economic and political progress, rather than as settlers in their own right. Many European-settled countries bordering the Pacific Ocean limited immigration and naturalization from the Asian Pacific countries, usually on a cultural basis. Many U.S. states banned interracial marriage through so-called "anti-miscegenation laws" until 1967, when these laws were declared unconstitutional. South Africa maintained the white supremacist Apartheid system until the early 1990s.
The white supremacist ideology has become associated with a racist faction of the skinhead subculture, despite the fact that when the skinhead scene first developed in the United Kingdom in the late 1960s, it was heavily influenced by Jamaican rude boys and British mods.[5][6][7] By the 1980s, a sizable and vocal white power skinhead faction had formed; partly influenced by Ian Stuart Donaldson and his Rock Against Communism band, Skrewdriver.[citation needed] The band's 1983 EP White Power was the first white power rock music recording printed by the White Noise record label.[citation needed]
White supremacist movements and ideologies
White supremacist groups can be found in most countries and regions with a significant white population, including North America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and Latin America. In all of these locations, their views represent a relatively small minority of the population, and active membership of the groups is quite small. However, a backlash to the influx of non-white immigrants into various European nations has spurred a rise in membership in such extremist organizations, as well as an escalation in militant white supremacist demonstrations and hate crimes. The militant approach taken by white supremacist groups has caused them to be watched closely by law enforcement officials. Some European countries have laws forbidding hate speech, as well as other laws that ban or restrict white supremacist organizations but not all.
Pan Europeanism
Pan Europeanism accepts all native and original European peoples, from Swedes, Britons, Germans, Italians, Spaniards, Portuguese and Greeks.
Pan Aryanism
Another variant, Pan Aryanism, accepts native Europeans from all of continental Europe and extends its acceptance to non-European Caucasoids, such as some Middle Easterners, North Africans, and Central/West Asians. Yet this is usually on an individual basis and not all people from these regions are accepted by Pan-Aryanists as white. The acceptance of Middle Easterners in Pan-Aryanist ideology, Syrians, Lebanese, Turks (who are often considered European), and Persians are accepted as white, but Saudis and Yemenites as a whole are not.
South Asian Caucasoids (Pakistanis, Northern Indians etc) as a whole may generally not be accepted in this ideology as well, however some Pan-Aryanists acknowledge and have disputing beliefs on lighter skinned people descended from Indo-Europeans in this region. An example is a textbook for those taking entrance examinations for the British Civil Service in the early 1900s categorically stated that Afghans and Berbers were in the highest classification, along with Northern Europeans, but above the Spanish and Italians. [8].
Nordicism
Those who follow the ideology of Nordicism and Germanism only consider Northern European people who are Nordic (Scandinavians, Germans, and Dutch) to be white, shunning those of the British Isles (who are not considered Nordic because of historical mixing and cultural differences),[citation needed] Southern and Eastern Europe (who often have darker complexion and different cultures) along with anyone whose ethnic heritage is not European. In Madison Grant's 1916 book, The Passing of the Great Race, Europeans who were not of Germanic origin and had Nordic characteristics such as blonde hair and light eyes were considered to be a Nordic admixture and suitable for Aryanization. [9]
Religious movements
The Christian Identity movement, which is regarded by other branches of Christianity as heretical, is closely tied to white supremacy. The Ku Klux Klan's reasons for supporting racial segregation are not primarily based on religious ideals, although some Klan groups are openly Christian Protestant because of their northern European/Germanic roots. Some white supremacists identify themselves as Odinists, although most Odinists reject white supremacy, and white supremacists make up only a small fraction of those who support Odinism (belief in the gods of Norse mythology). The white supremacist version of Odinism claims that the universe is composed of "worlds of light" (white people) and "worlds of dark" (non-white people).[citation needed] Some white supremacist groups, such as the South African Boeremag, conflate elements of Christianity and Odinism.
The World Church of the Creator, now called the Creativity Movement, believed that a person's race is his religion. Aside from this central belief, its ideology is similar to many Christian Identity groups, in the conviction that there is a Jewish conspiracy in control of the United States government, international banking, and the media. They claim that a Racial Holy War (RAHOWA), is destined to happen, which would eliminate Jews and "mud races" from the planet. In the early 1990s, there was a dramatic increase in membership, due to the growing belief in the apocalypse. A different (non-racist) group called Church of the Creator legally trademarked the name and won a lawsuit in 1996, leading to the white supremacist group to change its name to the Creativity Movement.[10]
Footnotes
- ^ Wright, William D. (1997). Black Intellectuals, Black Cognition, and a Black Aesthetic. Greenwood Publishing Group, 9. ISBN 0275955427. “White supremacy is a racist doctrine pertaining to white people, and white people only, that refers to their alleged innate superiority.”
- ^ Wildman, Stephanie M. (1996). Privilege Revealed: How Invisible Preference. NYU Press. ISBN 0814793037. P. 87
- ^ Flint, Colin (2004). Spaces of Hate: Geographies of Discrimination and Intolerance in the U.S.A.. Routledge, 53. ISBN 0415935865. “Although white racist activists must adopt a political identity of whiteness, the flimsy definition of whiteness in modern cultrue poses special challenges for them. In both mainstream and white supremacist discourse, to be white os to be distinct from those marked as nonwhite, yet the placement of the distinguishing line has varied significantly in different times and places.”
- ^ Gerstenfeld, Phyllis B. (2003). Hate Crimes: Causes, Controls, and Controversies. Sage Publications Inc., 155. ISBN 0761928146. “The third reason that Jews may be so vilified us that, compared with people of color, they can much more easily assimilate; they can easily "pass." This represents a particular threat to white supremacy because Jews can infiltrate the white power structure in a way that people of color cannot.”
- ^ Smiling Smash: An Interview with Cathal Smyth, a.k.a Chas Smash, of Madness
- ^ Special Articles
- ^ Old Skool Jim. Trojan Skinhead Reggae Box Set liner notes. London: Trojan Records. TJETD169.
- ^ Geography of the World. Civil Service Book Depot, 1904.
- ^ Grant, Madison. The Passing of the Great Race. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1916.
- ^ Trademark Litigation - Church Of The Creator®
Further reading
- Dobratz, Betty A. and Shanks-Meile, Stephanie. "White power, white pride!": The white separatist movement in the United States (Twayne Publishers, NY, 1997).
- Lincoln Rockwell, George. White Power (John McLaughlin, 1996).
See also
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