White Supremacy

White supremacy constitutes a belief system that the white race (sometimes described as “Aryan” or [Page 409]“Northern European”) is somehow superior to other races. As put into practice by far-right militia and terrorist groups in the United States, the belief system of white supremacy ceases to be simply a bigoted ideology and becomes an action plan to create a religious state on earth based on the destruction of perceived infidels and evil forces.

The roots of white supremacy go as far back as the colonial slave trade. Historically, slavery was considered to be a normal outcome of war; the victor won the right to enslave the vanquished (e.g., as the Spanish enslaved the Moors). However, due to the expanding agrarian economic markets of the Americas, by the 17th century the need for slaves began to outweigh the supply. A conundrum arose for the Catholics and Protestants of Europe: how could a religious people, whose faith is rooted in the exodus of the slaves from Egypt, enslave other people?

The answer was to reclassify those other people (in this case, Africans) as not human, thus clearing the moral way for the massive enslavement of African “savages.” The white supremacist ethic of the slave trade allowed African natives to be “rescued” by God-fearing whites. They were saved from the untamed jungle, dressed in white man's clothes and religion. The slaves were treated like children, with grown men called “boy,” as long as they accepted their subordinate role.

The link between white supremacy and terrorism begins when African slaves began rejecting their subhuman subordination. White supremacist groups, such as the Ku Klux Klan, rose to power during the Reconstruction Era (1870s), in reaction to attempts to empower newly freed slaves. Similarly, 20th-century racist terrorism (e.g., the bombing of black churches in the 1960s) took place during periods of black empowerment.

After African American Jesse Owens defeated Nazi “supermen” in the 1936 Berlin Olympics, presided over by Adolf Hitler himself, white supremacist rhetoric was forced to change from talk of “physically superiority” to “intellectual superiority.” The great gains of African Americans in leadership positions in the 1970s and 1980s refuted this notion, and the language changed again, moving from “intellectual superiority” to “spiritual superiority.” Twenty-first-century white supremacists believe that God is white and his people are the beleaguered white people of earth—a much more difficult theory to disprove. Racists now use conflicting religious arguments to make the case for white supremacy, including Christian Identity, Odinism, and Creationism.

White supremacism has manifested as a terrorist dogma throughout the decades. According to the FBI, the most common types of hate crimes are property crimes committed against racial minorities. Cross burnings or vandalism can target an entire community, making community members fearful of future attacks. This is why hate crimes are treated as a unique type of transgression; it is just not the immediate victim that is harmed, but a large group of people being terrorized.

The strongest link between white supremacy and terrorism is the desire for a racial civil war, sometimes referred to as “Rahowa” (racial “holy war”). As outlined in William Pierce's 1978 novel The Turner Diaries, a racial civil war is required to rid white America of its enemies (Jews, minorities, homosexuals, etc.). Through acts of terrorism committed by small cells of committed white racists (often referring to themselves as “separatists” rather than “supremacists”), the racist movement will provoke the federal government to crack down on individual liberties. Radicalized white Americans, concerned with the loss of constitutional rights, will then flock to racist organizations to lead them. These groups will wage war on the federal government, which many racists believe is a Zionist agent, bent on destroying ethnic whites.

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