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In the Crosshairs of the White Nationalist Movement: Is Bridgewater State Ready? Carolyn Petrosino Bridgewater State University, [email protected]

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In the Crosshairs of the White Nationalist Movement: Is Bridgewater State Ready? Carolyn Petrosino Bridgewater State University, Cpetrosino@Bridgew.Edu Bridgewater Review Volume 36 | Issue 2 Article 4 Nov-2017 In the Crosshairs of the White Nationalist Movement: Is Bridgewater State Ready? Carolyn Petrosino Bridgewater State University, [email protected] Recommended Citation Petrosino, Carolyn (2017). In the Crosshairs of the White Nationalist Movement: Is Bridgewater State Ready?. Bridgewater Review, 36(2), 4-8. Available at: http://vc.bridgew.edu/br_rev/vol36/iss2/4 This item is available as part of Virtual Commons, the open-access institutional repository of Bridgewater State University, Bridgewater, Massachusetts. tend to view hate crime as something In the Crosshairs of the that occurred in the distant past and was primarily committed by the Ku Klux White Nationalist Movement: Klan. Coming to grips with the fact that hate crime is an ongoing and present Is Bridgewater State Ready? problem is challenging for our students who commonly observe and embrace Carolyn Petrosino inclusion in a diverse social world. But ocial movements often emerge to bring attention recent media reports describe bold acts of racism, anti-Semitism, and other to social problems and to apply sufficient pressure forms of bigotry occurring today on the to affect change. The Civil Rights Movement, country’s college campuses. Students S who were not familiar with the con- the Women’s Movement, and the Gay and Lesbian temporary nature of hate crimes are Liberation Movement all had the primary objectives having their naiveté dashed, and some of challenging systemic oppression and neglect and of them are vulnerable to the advances of the hate movement. attaining improvements in the quality of life for affected persons. Many among us see these as positive Hate on Campus Acts of intolerance, bigotry, and hate- developments that seek a greater good: equality. But, motivated crimes take place on college it seems, for every action there is an opposite reaction. and university campuses across the Social movements that are negative—that advocate U.S. In California, the state assem- bly’s Committee on Higher Education the institutionalized devaluation of others—are issued a 2010 white paper on hate inci- what I refer to as dark social movements. The White dents (behavior that does not rise to the Nationalist Movement is in that category. level of a crime) and hate crimes (crimi- nal acts) occurring across the state’s For the last 18 years, I have taught bring, it provides students a historical public colleges and universities. The a course at BSU on hate crimes. In context, and includes an examination Committee’s report (Hate Violence and addition to focusing on the nature of of hate ideology, its resilience, and Bigotry on Public College and University these crimes and the social harms they existential hate movements. Students Campuses) mentions several disturbing 4 Bridgewater Review crimes: the stabbing, in April 2010, of … Large-scale mixing together River College student Greg Withrow the Chico State student body president of races is being forced ONLY IN founded one of the first student organi- by two men who uttered racial epithets WHITE COUNTRIES! zations based on race—the White as they did it; the slashing of a transgen- Student Union—in 1979. Most youth People who welcome that say der graduate student at California State leaders in the white supremacist move- they’re anti-racist. What they are is University, Long Beach, in April 2010; ment in the 1980s started their careers ANTI-WHITE. and, in the same semester, the carving while either in high school or college of a swastika into the dormitory door of Anti-racist is a codeword for (Hamm, American Skinheads [1993]). a Jewish student at UC Davis. anti-white. The White Genocide Project is a grassroots Similar acts have happened more “Diversity” is a code word for effort to reintroduce ideas of racial recently in the eastern U.S. In May White Genocide. segregation and white supremacy, and 2017, an African-American Bowie State “Diversity” means chasing down to normalize these ideas in mainstream university student, Richard Collins the last White person. culture. Today, this “dark movement” III, was stabbed to death while visiting has energized its efforts to target friends at the University of Maryland by a white student who identified with the white nationalist movement. And in fall 2016, Black freshmen at the University The emails were sent “to of Pennsylvania were victimized by racial taunts and threats through the intimidate our community and social media tool “GroupMe.” The text threads were titled “Mud Men” and to get us to respond in a way that “N---Lynching” and contained a daily would allow it to recruit members lynching calendar and images of people hanging from a tree (www.washington from around the country.” post.com, 11 November 2016). Most of these incidents were student-on- student attacks, a trend noted as early The concerted effort to openly American colleges and universities. as 1993 by scholars Jack Levin and Jack approach college students is an impor- In April 2017, the Anti-Defamation McDevitt in their book Hate Crimes. It tant development in the agenda of League (ADL) reported at least 147 is paradoxical that such acts of intoler- organized modern racialists, though incidents involving the distribution ance can occur in a setting committed it is hardly new. Such groups have of racist fliers on 107 different cam- to nurturing enlightenment. attempted to make inroads on campus puses across 33 states since September White Nationalist settings over the last several decades. 2016 (www.adl.org). In addition, the Recruitment Efforts But current efforts indicate greater campaign involves the sending of mass coordination and the effective use of emails and organization of speeches on Campus social media. and rallies on campuses. The outreach In April of this year, BSU faculty efforts are reportedly inspired by the In the 1980s, the Federal Bureau of and students were the recipients of a campaign and election of Donald J. Investigation reported a disturbing disturbing email message: “Stop (or Trump, who has become a symbol increase in the number of neo-Nazi Fight) White Genocide.” The message of white nationalism to adherents of skinheads and, concomitantly, an in the emails (there were three differ- white supremacist and xenophobic increase in violent hate-motivated acts. ent compositions) contended that the ideology (K. Vogel, www.politico. Federal authorities and watch-dog university’s emphasis on inclusion, com, 17 April 2017; C. Riotta, www. groups have noted that many of these multiculturalism, equality, and diver- Newsweek.com, 17 August 2017). acts were committed by school-age sity is tantamount to embracing the White nationalist organizations that are racist skinheads (C. Turpin-Petrosino, extinction of the white race. The email actively involved in campus campaigns Journal of Social Issues [2002]). Through also argued that to be “anti-racist” is to include Identity Evropa, American the efforts of the White Aryan be “anti-White.” The White Genocide Renaissance, and American Vanguard. Resistance (WAR), founded by white Project website describes the email cam- These organizations advocate the idea separatist Tom Metzger, American paign aimed at the BSU community: November 2017 5 of America as a white homeland, white to get us to respond in a way that who opposed Spencer’s presence with a superiority, and the devaluation of all would allow it to recruit members large-scale “silent” protest designed to persons who are not Caucasian. from around the country.” show their rejection of his message. Still others protested loudly. Appealing to the intellectual curiosity It is vital that colleges and universi- of college students, these groups have ties become more aware of the efforts This response confirms the First repackaged ideas about white suprem- of white nationalists to target college Amendment rights of all involved— acy as a legitimate subject for scholarly students for recruitment and other white nationalists and those who stand investigation, much as the eugenics purposes. The current leader of the in full opposition. Hate speech is offen- movement did in the early 20th century. white nationalist movement in the sive speech that degrades others based Emerson College was recently targeted U.S. is Richard B. Spencer, who has on race, ethnicity, gender, gender- by American Vanguard. In December made clear his goal of targeting col- identity, sexual orientation, religion, 2016, several posters were placed in leges for recruitment. Spencer believes age, disability, nationality, or any other prominent areas on the campus with that the time is right to advocate for the similar rationale. The First Amendment messages touting white supremacy creation of, “a white state in America” clearly permits the Richard B. Spencers and white nationalism. More recently, and that students are now open to this of the world the freedom to espouse in March 2017, approximately 500 message due to “political correctness repugnant ideas. Although most who emails messaging the same theme were fatigue” (S. Jaschik, www.inside- cherish democracy appreciate the importance of this constitutionally pro- tected right, others are concerned when the First Amendment potentially com- The White Genocide Project is a promises the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection clause. When hateful grassroots effort to reintroduce speech influences public perspectives, it has the potential to shape law and create ideas of racial segregation public policy that negatively impacts and white supremacy, and vulnerable groups. Evidence of this is offered by the to normalize these ideas in Southern Poverty Law Center, which reported that in 2010 there were at least mainstream culture. Today, this 23 candidates for public office with radical right-wing views, nine of “dark movement” has energized whom they described as white suprem- acists or white nationalists (E. Conant, its efforts to target American www.thedailybeast.com, 4 July 2011).
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