White Supremacist Groups

White supremacist groups have been a persistent feature of American society, in one form or another, since the 1840s. However, in the past 50 years, there has been an explosion in the number and diversity of these groups in response to a variety of stimuli: a more active and intrusive federal government, the civil rights movement, economic dislocation, social media (Internet), and recently, the election of Barack Obama. As this congeries of causes suggests, white supremacist groups differ a good bit from one another in membership, beliefs, and practices. Some groups are linked to the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), others to British Israelism in the 19th century, and still others to the Ska and Reggae music scene in England in the mid-1960s. While variety makes categorization difficult, most often, researchers delineate four types of white supremacist groups: (1) KKK, (2) Christian Identity (CI), (3) neo-Nazis, and (4) racist skinheads, which are discussed in some detail below.

All white supremacist groups see the world in racial terms, believing that the white or “Aryan” race is the chosen or master race. Some believe that whites have a special destiny to fulfill in the world. Groups with an apocalyptic or millenarian view believe that history is heading toward a crisis in which whites must coalesce to defeat the forces of evil, most often represented as being Jewish led. Jews are believed to have duped the “mud races” (nonwhites) into doing their bidding.

White supremacist groups employ a number of symbols and texts, some of which have broad meaning within the general culture (e.g., the Bible, the Confederate battle flag, and the swastika). Other symbols have meaning only to initiates, as in the graphic art and tattoos used to signify racist skinhead groups, or the letter symbols RAHOWA (racial holy war) or ZOG (Zionist occupied government) that function as shorthand for complicated subjects. Some symbols bridge several white supremacist groups, like the “14 words” created by Order member David Lane: “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.

Whatever the ideology and symbols used, each group relies on a collective identity to bind members to the group, build solidarity, lower collective action costs, and increase the likelihood that members will participate in potentially risky activities. White supremacist groups also develop complex “frames.” Frames tell members how to understand themselves and the world and indicate how members should think and behave. A general frame widely used by white supremacist groups emphasizes the supremacy of the white race over all other races and the violation of white “rights” by other races and peoples.

Several groups monitor, track, and investigate white supremacist groups, including the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which regularly publishes a “Hate Watch” newsletter, and the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith. Governmental agencies like the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation regularly track, monitor, and infiltrate white supremacist groups to disrupt potential terrorist attacks. In March 2012, the Southern Poverty Law Center [Page 778]estimated that there were 1,018 “hate groups” in the United States, although not all of them were white supremacist. A report published by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism showed that neo-Nazi groups led the total with 170 active groups, followed by the KKK with 152, White Nationalists with 146, Racist Skinheads with 133, and CI with 55. White supremacist groups are found in every state in the United States, with 84 in California alone.

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