30
after a white supremacist killed
51 people in two New Zealand mosques in
March, President Trump was asked if he
thought the threat of white nationalism was
on the rise. “I don’t, really,” he responded. “I
think it’s a small group of people that have
very, very serious problems.”
Hate-crime statistics are notoriously diffi-
cult to calculate. Local and state law-enforce-
ment agencies are not required to submit
numbers to the FBI, laws defining hate crimes
vary from state to state, and experts estimate
that more than half of all hate crimes go unre-
ported. According to the FBI, hate-crime vio-
lence hit a 16-year high in 2018 with the black,
Jewish, Latino, and transgender communities
being targeted more than ever and the nation’s
largest cities seeing the most activity. The
FBI’s 2019 numbers won’t be available until
next November, but indications suggest they
will continue to trend upward. The most
deadly mass shooting of 2019 was committed
by a xenophobic extremist in El Paso, Texas.
“Lone wolf ” killers have found their pack.
Fractured as it may be, the far right is now
connected by public figures arguing for some
form of ethno-nationalism. One such figure
is Jared Taylor, founder of the New Century
Foundation and the American Renaissance
Conference, which brings together far-right
leaders from various strands of neo-Nazism,
the KKK, and the alt-right. Not long ago,
Taylor’s pseudo-intellectual ideas were widely
considered fringe. Now, they have a powerful
advocate in the White House: Before becom-
ing a top Trump adviser, Stephen Miller cited
Taylor’s American Renaissance work to a
Breitbart News reporter, suggesting that she
aggregate a recent “AmRen” story on the
(specious) link between immigration num-
bers and crime rates.
Taylor has also counseled Patrick Casey
and Richard Spencer, members of the alt-
right involved in the Unite the Right rally in
Charlottesville. Nate Snyder, a former coun-
terterrorism official in the Department of
Homeland Security, says activity on the neo-
Nazi website Stormfront jumped after the
rally. “But when it really hit a spiking point was
directly after the president’s comments, his
infamous words about ‘very fine people on
both sides.’ You saw activity on this thing expo-
nentially spike,” he explains. “It was a valida-
tion point. You started seeing posts like ‘We
now have an ally in the White House. I’m set-
ting up a similar rally in my town. Let’s take
this online action and move it offline and sup-
ply it with money and supply it with people.’ It
was a mass mobilization.” james d. walshHate onthe RiseTRANSMITTED________ COPY ___ DD ___ AD ___ PD ___ EICTRANSMITTED2619FEA_White Supremicist [Print]_35965353.indd 30 12/18/19 1:22 PM30
after a white supremacist killed
51 people in two New Zealand mosques in
March, President Trump was asked if he
thought the threat of white nationalism was
on the rise. “I don’t, really,” he responded. “I
think it’s a small group of people that have
very, very serious problems.”
Hate-crime statistics are notoriously diffi-
cult to calculate. Local and state law-enforce-
ment agencies are not required to submit
numbers to the FBI, laws defining hate crimes
vary from state to state, and experts estimate
that more than half of all hate crimes go unre-
ported. According to the FBI, hate-crime vio-
lence hit a 16-year high in 2018 with the black,
Jewish, Latino, and transgender communities
being targeted more than ever and the nation’s
largest cities seeing the most activity. The
FBI’s 2019 numbers won’t be available until
next November, but indications suggest they
will continue to trend upward. The most
deadly mass shooting of 2019 was committed
by a xenophobic extremist in El Paso, Texas.
“Lone wolf ” killers have found their pack.
Fractured as it may be, the far right is now
connected by public figures arguing for some
form of ethno-nationalism. One such figure
is Jared Taylor, founder of the New Century
Foundation and the American Renaissance
Conference, which brings together far-right
leaders from various strands of neo-Nazism,
the KKK, and the alt-right. Not long ago,
Taylor’s pseudo-intellectual ideas were widely
considered fringe. Now, they have a powerful
advocate in the White House: Before becom-
ing a top Trump adviser, Stephen Miller cited
Taylor’s American Renaissance work to a
Breitbart News reporter, suggesting that she
aggregate a recent “AmRen” story on the
(specious) link between immigration num-
bers and crime rates.
Taylor has also counseled Patrick Casey
and Richard Spencer, members of the alt-
right involved in the Unite the Right rally in
Charlottesville. Nate Snyder, a former coun-
terterrorism official in the Department of
Homeland Security, says activity on the neo-
Nazi website Stormfront jumped after the
rally. “But when it really hit a spiking point was
directly after the president’s comments, his
infamous words about ‘very fine people on
both sides.’ You saw activity on this thing expo-
nentially spike,” he explains. “It was a valida-
tion point. You started seeing posts like ‘We
now have an ally in the White House. I’m set-
ting up a similar rally in my town. Let’s take
this online action and move it offline and sup-
ply it with money and supply it with people.’ It
was a mass mobilization.” james d. walsh
Hate on
the Rise