23PHOTOGRAPHS: MARK PETERSON/REDUX
then committed this year’s most deadly
mass shooting, killing 22 and injuring 24
at a Walmart; in September, as the Depart-
ment of Homeland Security added white-
supremacist extremism to its list of prior-
ity threats, the same month a swastika
appeared on its walls; in October, as swasti-
kas also appeared on Cape Cod and invita-
tions to a white-supremacist gathering were
mailed to Maine residents; in November, as
a white-supremacist group filmed a video
outside Mississippi’s Emmett Till Memo-
rial; nor this month, as students flashed
possible white-power signs at an Army-
Navy football game.
The photojournalist Mark Peterson has
documented this year, traveling the country
to surface the extent of the activity and cata-
logue the most dangerous ideologies. His
quotidian look at contemporary American
Confederacy and white nationalism shows
us our neighbors in other robes. The people
portrayed are living among us in every
region of the country, in our workplaces, in
our government, on social media, and, for
some, in our homes. Their culture is made
up of both public rallies and private rituals.
We see their homes and their streets and
their schools, and that these are also our
streets and our schools and our neighbors.
“These pictures weren’t just taken in the
South,” says Peterson, who covers the right
wing and began documenting the rise of
white nationalism after the 2016 election.
“They were taken in New York, in New Jer-
sey, in California, in Portland. The idea of
quarantining it or ignoring it: That didn’t
work in the past when they tried to do that,
and it won’t now.”
The barrage of daily headlines makes it
easy to see this year’s incidents as isolated, as
white noise in the background of our relent-
less political moment. But as disturbing as
they are, these images portray the American
story. It is our inheritance, institutionalized
since the Civil War by a government that
only recently, and tentatively, began to
address domestic terrorism for what it is.
White nationalism, legitimized by our presi-
dent’s support of “very fine people,” has
flourished in part because of this refusal to
look it squarely in its face and acknowledge
it as homegrown. Without a full accounting
of the reality, there can be no remedy. To
look away is a form of collaboration.
claudia rankineA member of Roper’s Shield Wall Network prepares to
protest a Holocaust-remembrance march on May 5 (above).
Roof has asked Roper, pictured here on July 10,
to forward a letter to Tucker Carlson (below).➞TRANSMITTED________ COPY ___ DD ___ AD ___ PD ___ EIC2619FEA_White Supremicist [Print]_35965353.indd 23 12/18/19 1:21 PM23then committed this year’s most deadly
mass shooting, killing 22 and injuring 24
at a Walmart; in September, as the Depart-
ment of Homeland Security added white-
supremacist extremism to its list of prior-
ity threats, the same month a swastika
appeared on its walls; in October, as swasti-
kas also appeared on Cape Cod and invita-
tions to a white-supremacist gathering were
mailed to Maine residents; in November, as
a white-supremacist group filmed a video
outside Mississippi’s Emmett Till Memo-
rial; nor this month, as students flashed
possible white-power signs at an Army-
Navy football game.
The photojournalist Mark Peterson has
documented this year, traveling the country
to surface the extent of the activity and cata-
logue the most dangerous ideologies. His
quotidian look at contemporary American
Confederacy and white nationalism shows
us our neighbors in other robes. The people
portrayed are living among us in every
region of the country, in our workplaces, in
our government, on social media, and, for
some, in our homes. Their culture is made
up of both public rallies and private rituals.
We see their homes and their streets and
their schools, and that these are also our
streets and our schools and our neighbors.
“These pictures weren’t just taken in the
South,” says Peterson, who covers the right
wing and began documenting the rise of
white nationalism after the 2016 election.
“They were taken in New York, in New Jer-
sey, in California, in Portland. The idea of
quarantining it or ignoring it: That didn’t
work in the past when they tried to do that,
and it won’t now.”
The barrage of daily headlines makes it
easy to see this year’s incidents as isolated, as
white noise in the background of our relent-
less political moment. But as disturbing as
they are, these images portray the American
story. It is our inheritance, institutionalized
since the Civil War by a government that
only recently, and tentatively, began to
address domestic terrorism for what it is.
White nationalism, legitimized by our presi-
dent’s support of “very fine people,” has
flourished in part because of this refusal to
look it squarely in its face and acknowledge
it as homegrown. Without a full accounting
of the reality, there can be no remedy. To
look away is a form of collaboration.
claudia rankineA member of Roper’sShieldWallNetwork preparesto
protesta Holocaust-remembrancemarch on May 5 (above).
Roofhas asked Roper,pictured here on July 10,
to forward a letter to Tucker Carlson (below).
➞