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What is White Nationalism?
If we are to fight back, it pays to know who and what we’re up against
White nationalism is a term that dates back to as early as 1951. Merriam-Webster defines a white nationalist as a member of “a group of militant white people who espouse white supremacy and forced racial segregation.” The reason that sounds like white supremacy is because white nationalism is a term created by white supremacists. However, there are subtle differences between the ideologies, with nationalism embracing white separatist ideas.
White supremacy is largely based on the idea that white people should be dominant over others, even in multi-racial societies. It promotes the idea that white people should live in whites-only communities and have their own culture, which they argue is superior to others. The idea also posits that white people are genetically superior to nonwhite people. White supremacists are typically much more overtly racist than white nationalists are.
While a white nationalist won’t openly claim that any race is superior, they use coded language (dog whistles) in place of racial slurs to slyly suggest that each race or ethnicity should have their own ethno-states. This is where white separatism comes in. White nationalists don’t just want to be the superior race, they want white people to be considered an…
