Richard Spencer is the president of the white nationalist National Policy Institute and the founder of the “alt-right” movement. Although he prefers to call himself a “race realist,” I would argue that we shouldn’t use his euphemisms or allow him to define the terms. No, he and his followers are overt white supremacists. So next time you hear somebody defending the “alt-right” as somehow not racist, you can remind them that its very origins are in fact racist by definition.
And now Spencer and his cohort of white supremacists are joining the KKK and the American Nazi Party in expressing elation over Donald Trump’s electoral victory. Kelly McEvers from NPR interviewed Spencer recently to find out what makes Trump so endearing to white nationalists. And it was scary.
“We’re Not Going Away”
Spencer says that Trump has made the alt-right a central part of the contemporary political discourse in America:
“This is the first time we’ve really entered the mainstream, and we’re not going away. I mean this is just the beginning. And I’m very excited.”
Of course, he’s right. Trump riding into the White House on a wave of racist rhetoric has, in a sense, legitimized it. Many people who may have been quietly racist before are now comfortable being more explicit about it. And this is manifesting in very real ways for vulnerable people in American society. The Southern Poverty Law Center reports that there have been over 700 incidents of hateful attacks or harassment since Election Day.
All the more reason for white supremacists to rejoice.
Trump’s agenda of anti-immigration and mass deportation also sits well with these hate-mongers. Spencer isn’t even sympathetic to legal immigration and the possibility of citizenship for all. Rather, he appeals to a patently false “sense of identity” that all white people ostensibly share. To that end, he advocates for barring immigration altogether:
“Illegal immigration is not nearly as damaging as legal immigration. Legal immigration – they’re here to stay. Their children are here and so on … But we need to become a people again. And for us to do that, we’re going to need to take a break from mass immigration. And we’re going to need to preference people who are going to fit in, who are more like us.”
What vile, toxic ideas. And of course, they now have an opportunity for actual political expression with Trump and his Cabinet. For those of us who value civil rights, diversity, and collective interests, we have a long fight ahead. Let’s stand together.
Listen to the interview here:
Featured Image via screenshot from YouTube video
