White Supremacists

Historical Background

White racism was of course deeply ingrained in American society before the Civil War, but as the war approached, and with it the obvious threat to the institution of slavery, the doctrine of White supremacy found clear expression in writings and public oratory by sympathizers with the Southern cause. Following the defeat of the Confederacy, the doctrine was absorbed into the ideology of the Ku Klux Klan and similar organizations intent on maintaining, by any means necessary, the old social order in which non-Whites “knew their place.”

Historically, White supremacist thinking has strongly influenced societies in other parts of the world, such as South Africa during apartheid, and various regions of Europe within the past 2 centuries, most especially Nazi Germany from the early 1930s until the end of World War II. Today's supremacist ideologies draw heavily on discredited 19th-century quasi-scientific theories of the genetic superiority of Europeans and their descendents. In the period just prior to and during World War II, eugenicists in Germany performed unethical medical experiments on Jews and others, such as Gypsies. The findings were used to defend the idea of White supremacy and served to justify racist beliefs during the time and in the decades following the war. In various forms, White supremacism as an element of right-wing populism has continued to exert an influence on American society.

Many countries around the world have felt the influence of White supremacy and its presence within and among government and law enforcement in European-settled countries. The situation surrounding the oppression of Australian Aborigines, similar to that of the Native Americans, has been extensive; for example, Australian Aborigines previously were barred from holding any type of government job. Additionally, many Aborigines were forced to live in sequestered areas. Many other countries settled by Westerners have historically limited or banned immigration and naturalization services to non-Whites or non-Europeans. And most recently, South Africa was governed by an oppressive White supremacist regime, whose rule ended in the 1990s.

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