Community Organizing, the White Supremacist Way

By Adam Elkus, WireTap. Posted July 3, 2006.

In an October 2003 episode of Fox News Sunday, now White House press secretary Tony Snow told viewers that racism is "quickly becoming an ugly memory." Flash-forward to April 2006, in the midst of the contentious immigration debate, a racist flash game spreads around the internet virally. In the game "Border Patrol," players shoot Mexicans crossing the border on the way to a welfare office. The Mexicans are crude caricatures: a gun-toting Frito Bandito decked out in full mariachi gear, a drug smuggler and a pregnant woman with children.

The game, produced by an obscure British company, spread quickly by email forwarding. After the network news started reporting on it, the game was picked up by a gaggle of racist blogs and websites.

The most chilling part of "Border Patrol" is what it ultimately represents: the increased mainstreaming of extreme hate. Using the same grassroots online media methods the progressive community relies on, hate messages bypass the mainstream media and spread political awareness as well as advertise independent music and films. An online hate subculture has taken root, and with every year it increases its reach, grabbing media attention, reaching alienated people who once had no means of communicating with each other and organizing effectively.

In some ways, the migration of radical hate to the internet and the use of grassroots networks was inevitable. The internet gave birth to a media culture that largely targets niche markets. The general media audience has fragmented into a dizzying array of microcultures that consume media targeted exclusively towards them. The iPod is the ultimate symbol of this revolution.

This has helped independent filmmakers and musicians to market their products and helped both progressive and conservative political groups to organize. The dark side of this media revolution is its exploitation by hate groups such as neo-Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan, extreme anti-choice fundamentalists, skinheads, and White Power groups.

Although racist electronic bulletin boards have been around since the mid-'80s, the first major website was Stormfront set up in 1995 by a former Ku-Klux Klan member. It is hard to count precisely how many sites have proliferated since 1995, but estimates range from 400 to 1,200 hardcore hate sites with untold numbers of sites that promote similar racist viewpoints more discretely. Plus, no surveys take into account the number of racist web boards and forums, which are much harder to tally.

What is significant about the new sites, though, is that they do not only spread political messages but also effectively organize online communities. For example, the white separatist group World Church of the Creator used the internet to help it organize a craft fair for fundraising.

Needless to say, the ambitions of online hate groups go beyond craft fairs. They aim to cater to their flock's every need. If you want to meet fellow travelers on the road to the Third Reich, William Regnery II has just the thing for you. The heir to the Regnery publishing fortune is starting an online all-white dating service. Regnery publishing has also published right-wing luminaries such as Ann Coulter and G. Gordon Liddy.

If you need some tunes to goose-step to, you're also in luck. An entire grass-roots network of hate music has sprung up. Labels like Resistance Records and Panzerfaust distribute hate rock music to followers, selling more than 70,000 CDs. In total, hate music from 123 domestic bands and 229 foreign ones is available for purchase from 40 distributors.

If polishing your jackboots isn't enough to keep you occupied, there are always video games. The National Socialist Movement develops and hosts racist video games much like "Border Patrol."

However, hate media also has the potential to reach beyond hard-core racists by attracting the attention of the mainstream media. It does so by co-opting the strategies of viral marketing: cheaply produce a crude yet attention-grabbing message, and spread it by word of mouth until it boomerangs into the mainstream media.

"Border Patrol" represents the biggest success of this model. It was produced abroad by a U.K. company working on the cheap, and distributed by email forwarding until it drew the attention of the national media, creating an advertising spectacle with an audience of millions and drawing national attention to its repugnant political message.

The popular stereotype of a skinhead or neo-Nazi is a young, working class male who may have lost his job or feel uneasy about cultural changes. However, this label no longer applies. In fact, the largest growth in hate has been among youths in the suburbs. According to Jack Levin, director of Northeastern University's Brudnick Center, this may have been triggered, paradoxically, by racial diversity itself:

There are ample materials that help to prevent recruitment of young people into racist groups. The Anti-Defamation League recommends a brochure for young people called, "Close the Book on Hate: 101 Ways to Combat Prejudice." It is available through the Anti-Defamation League website and at Barnes and Noble. Tolerance.org also offers practical steps on how to respond to bigoted comments through its 10 Ways to Fight Hate.

Adam Elkus lives in Pacific Palisades, Calif. He has written for Truthdig, Strawberry Press Magazine, Wanderings and Altar Magazine.

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