22 new york | december 23, 2019–january 5, 2020hen Dylann Storm Roof walkedinto the Emanuel African Method-ist Episcopal Church in Charles-ton, South Carolina, he joined the Bible-study class before
gunning down nine African-Americans as they prayed. ¶
Roof still communicates with his admirers on the outside.
In jail, he began exchanging letters with a man in Arkan-
sas named Billy Roper. A former schoolteacher and the son
and grandson of Klansmen, Roper leads the Shield Wall
Network, a group of several dozen white nationalists whoorganize rallies and conferences—often collaborating withneighboring hate groups—with the goal of building a whiteethno-state. “I have a lot of empathy for him. I’m 47, andhe’s young enough to be my son,” Roper said of Roof wheninterviewed recently for this project. “These millennialsPHOTOGRAPHS: MARK PETERSON/REDUXand now, I guess, Gen-Zers that are coming
up, they are not stupid about the demo-
graphic trends and what they portend for
the future. That angst, that anxiety that
plagues them, drives them to do rash
things—whether it’s that rash or not—I can
empathize with.” I would humbly suggest
we believe that Roper is being sincere, and
that he speaks for many.
Roper and Roof are only two of those
affiliated with the 148 white-nationalist hate
groups in this country. Though it is impos-
sible to calculate their exact membership
numbers (as individual groups either con-
ceal or inflate them), their violence is indis-
putable. White supremacists were respon-
sible for the deaths of at least 39 people in2018 alone. And the activity has not slowed
this year: not in January, as neo-Nazis plas-
tered flyers outside newspaper offices and
homes in Washington State and the Caroli-
nas and an army veteran pleaded guilty to
killing a black man in New York to “ignite a
racial war”; in February, as Vermont syna-
gogues and LGBT centers were vandalized
and a self-described white-nationalist Coast
Guard lieutenant was arrested for plotting
a domestic terror attack; in March, as
welcome to germany and gas the jews
were spray-painted outside Oklahoma City
Democratic Party and Chickasaw Nation
offices and, on the Upper East Side, class-
mates handed their school’s only black
ninth-grader a note reading “n-----s don’thave rights”; in April, as a shooting at a syna-
gogue left one dead and three injured and
FBI Director Christopher Wray called white
supremacy a “persistent, pervasive” threat to
the country; in May, as swastikas fell from
the sky—on flyers dropped by drones out-
side an Ariana Grande concert—and were
scrawled on public spaces in at least three
states; in June, as far-right groups rallied
in Portland, Oregon, for the first time that
summer; in July, as a man promoted a
white-power manifesto on Instagram before
killing three and wounding 17 others at the
Gilroy Garlic Festival in California; in
August, as another angry young man—this
one 1,000 miles away in El Paso, Texas—
posted an anti-immigrant manifesto online,TRANSMITTED________ COPY ___ DD ___ AD ___ PD ___ EICTRANSMITTED2619FEA_White Supremicist [Print]_35965353.indd 22 12/18/19 1:21 PM22 new york | december 23, 2019–january 5, 2020
hen Dylann Storm Roof walkedinto the Emanuel African Method-ist Episcopal Church in Charles-ton, South Carolina,he joined the Bible-study class before
gunning down nine African-Americans as they prayed. ¶
Roof still communicates with his admirers on the outside.
In jail, he beganexchanging letters with a man in Arkan-
sas named Billy Roper.A former schoolteacher and the son
and grandson of Klansmen, Roper leads the Shield Wall
Network, a group of several dozen white nationalists who
organize rallies and conferences—often collaborating with
neighboring hate groups—with the goal of building a white
ethno-state. “I have a lot of empathy for him. I’m 47, and
he’s young enough to be my son,” Roper said of Roof when
interviewed recently for this project. “These millennials
PHOTOGRAPHS: MARK PETERSON/REDUXand now, I guess, Gen-Zers that are coming
up, they are not stupid about the demo-
graphic trends and what they portend for
the future. That angst, that anxiety that
plagues them, drives them to do rash
things—whether it’s that rash or not—I can
empathize with.” I would humbly suggest
we believe that Roper is being sincere, and
that he speaks for many.
Roper and Roof are only two of those
affiliated with the 148 white-nationalist hate
groups in this country. Though it is impos-
sible to calculate their exact membership
numbers (as individual groups either con-
ceal or inflate them), their violence is indis-
putable. White supremacists were respon-
sible for the deaths of at least 39 people in
2018 alone. And the activity has not slowed
this year: not in January, as neo-Nazis plas-
tered flyers outside newspaper offices and
homes in Washington State and the Caroli-
nas and an army veteran pleaded guilty to
killing a black man in New York to “ignite a
racial war”; in February, as Vermont syna-
gogues and LGBT centers were vandalized
and a self-described white-nationalist Coast
Guard lieutenant was arrested for plotting
a domestic terror attack; in March, as
welcome to germany and gas the jews
were spray-painted outside Oklahoma City
Democratic Party and Chickasaw Nation
offices and, on the Upper East Side, class-
mates handed their school’s only black
ninth-grader a note reading “n-----s don’thave rights”; in April, as a shooting at a syna-
gogue left one dead and three injured and
FBI Director Christopher Wray called white
supremacy a “persistent, pervasive” threat to
the country; in May, as swastikas fell from
the sky—on flyers dropped by drones out-
side an Ariana Grande concert—and were
scrawled on public spaces in at least three
states; in June, as far-right groups rallied
in Portland, Oregon, for the first time that
summer; in July, as a man promoted a
white-power manifesto on Instagram before
killing three and wounding 17 others at the
Gilroy Garlic Festival in California; in
August, as another angry young man—this
one 1,000 miles away in El Paso, Texas—
posted an anti-immigrant manifesto online,