Matt Babcock

Professor Bailie

English 1001

14 November 2019

The Troubling Rise of The Alt-Right in America

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are guaranteed to every American citizen under

out constitution. It is something our founding fathers felt was essential to the American dream.

To be able to live our daily lives without the fear of threats or violence. Does that feel like the

same America we are living in today? I for one think that our founding fathers would be appalled

at the way xenophobia, racism, and nationalism has taken this country by storm. The entire

concept of “Make America Great Again”, is harkening back to a time that for a lot of our current

population was not a great era in American history. It brings back memories of the need for the

women’s rights movement, and the civil rights movement. The current rise of hate crimes and

movement known as the alt-right are serious detriments to our democracy. And the correlation

between the emboldening of the alt-rights perspective and the presidency of Donald Trump go

hand in hand. The question is what impact this has had on our country as a whole.

Far right groups have been a part of America since the end of the civil war. Groups such

as the KKK and their newer counterpart the Neo-Nazis have been emboldened in recent years by

the actions and unwillingness for the president to denounce their activities. Their xenophobia

and racism have been a driving force in their recruitment, and with the ever-increasing use of the

internet within these circles this has led to record numbers of new people joining their misguided

cause (Jorden). With events like the deadly “Unite the Right Rally” in Charlottesville where an

extremist drove his car into a crowd of counter-protesters left Heather Heyer dead and many

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more injured (Hankes). Here I provided a list showing just how many attacks have happened on

American soil in from 2014-2018. It serves as an example of how these attacks have ratcheted up

in recent years. (Fig. 1). As can be seen by looking at this list all of the perpetrators of these

crimes were male, and with the exception of three of them they were all under the age of 30. This

is a clear example of the type of people who are recruited to these alt-right groups. Another

similarity is all but one of these killers is American the other Alexandre Bissonnette is Canadian.

Some of these men showed signs of mental illness, but they all share a history of being active

members of ecosystem that defines the alt-right (White Nationalists: Southern Poverty Law

Center).

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Fig. 1 showing the names ages and dates of white nationalist attacks. It also has

information on number of people killed and number of people injured. (White

Nationalists: Southern Poverty Law Center)

With characters like Richard Spencer, and Milo Yiannopoulos always willing to stoke the

fires of hate and racism by what almost seems like trolling the population at large. They have

gained massive followings online and through their rallies. They may be the two most

recognized names in the current alt-right movement. Richard Spencer’s college tour even had

attempted to come to the main campus of University of Cincinnati but decided against it when

the school stated he would have to cover the cost of security, since at his recent rallies violence

and protests had broken out almost every time. “Adherents of white nationalist groups believe

that white identity should be the organizing principle of the countries that make up Western

civilization. White nationalists advocate for policies to reverse changing demographics and the

loss of an absolute, white majority. Ending non-white immigration, both legal and illegal, is an

urgent priority — frequently elevated over other racist projects, such as ending multiculturalism

and miscegenation — for white nationalists seeking to preserve white, racial hegemony. White

nationalists seek to return to an America that predates the implementation of the Civil Rights Act

of 1964 and the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965. Both landmark pieces of legislation

are cited as the harbingers of white dispossession and so-called “white genocide” — the idea that

whites in the United States are being systematically replaced and destroyed.” (SPLC: White

Nationalists) Reading this quote its almost hard to not draw direct correlations between the white

nationalist movement and a lot of stated opinions of President Trump. The white nationalists

want to return to an America before the 1964 Civil Rights Act, and the 1965 Immigration and

Nationality Act. This sounds eerily similar to the idea of “make America great again” slogan just

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like it was in the past before those massive legislations. And President Trump’s anti-immigration

ideas and his Muslim ban fit almost word for word into the idea of white nationalism. This is a

very disturbing correlation to draw, when the leader of the free world doesn’t even have the

wherewithal to denounce white supremacy. In the years since Trump became President there has

been a disturbing trend in the rise of hate crimes in the US. In the following provided graphs

(Fig. 2, Fig. 3) shows the motivation for hate crimes that have been committed in the United

States in 20018 alone.

Fig. 2 Shows that almost 60% of hate crimes are based on race ethnicity or ancestry.

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Fig. 3 Shows again how much higher the crimes based on race, ethnicity, and ancestry are

dramatically higher than any other category.

Since President Trumps election there have been numerous examples or him cozying up

to and placing members of the alt-right movement into his cabinet and white house in general. A

key example would be Steven Miller, Trumps White House senior policy advisor was just this

week outed for sending numerous white supremacist emails. “Miller has long drawn accusations

of white supremacist leanings both within and outside the Trump administration. After poignant

images circulated of migrant family separations at the border, one outside White House advisor

told Gabriel Sherman at Vanity Fair: “Stephen actually enjoys seeing those pictures at the

border. He’s a twisted guy, the way he was raised and picked on. There’s always been a way he’s

gone about this. He’s Waffen-SS.” Now there is public record of Miller promoting explicit and

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virulent white nationalist propaganda. On Tuesday, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC),

which tracks and monitors U.S. hate groups and extremists, released a series of e-mails between

Miller and Katie McHugh, a former editor at the far-right website Breitbart. McHugh—

who renounced the far right since being fired from Breitbart—told the SPLC that other editors at

the site introduced her to Miller to use for direction when covering immigration. Spanning 2014

to 2017, the messages include many examples of Miller referencing white supremacist websites,

writers, and books, as well as railing against U.S. immigration policies he would later work to

undo in the Trump White House. In their review, the SPLC says that it was "unable to find any

examples of Miller writing sympathetically or even in neutral tones about any person who is

nonwhite or foreign-born."” (Darby) This is just one of the many examples of racist acts

perpetrated through the white house. Former chief strategist to the presidency Steve Bannon,

built a huge following before entering politics most notably with his propaganda website

Breitbart News (Heikkilä). After researching the site its clear the entire purpose of if existence is

to stoke far right fervor. With article titles such as “Political Correctness Protects Muslim Rape

Culture”, “Gay Rights Have Made Us Dumber, It’s Time to Get Back in The Closet”, “Hoist It

High and Proud: Confederate Flag Proclaims A Glorious Heritage” (Sherman). Just a glance at

the types of articles his site distributes and its clear to see that he has no right to be involved in

any part of policy decision making for this country. After interviewing my uncle, a Brigadier

General, he was quick to point out that my grandfather who fought during World War II would

be blown away by the stances the republican party are taking today. His generation sacrificed

countless lives in a fight against the Nazis and nationalism. But now A mere 2 generations later,

we have supremacist walking our streets waving Nazi flags. This is not the America he fought

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for and it’s not the America we want our children to someday inherit (Burke). We need to uphold

the principals we believe in and use them to help shape this country into what it could be.

Today with the rise of social media, and the ease of transfer of information. This has

helped the alt-right movement grow. They have become very savvy with using these new forms

of media to gain a bigger following. Even though many platforms such as Facebook, YouTube,

and GoFundMe have banned prominent figured such as Milo Yiannopolous, Gavin McInnes, and

Info Wars Alex Jones (Butt). But this has not meant an end to their content on these platforms.

People can still share links to their articles and talks, and this naturally causes outrage. And that

outrage is exactly what the algorithms that are the basis of sites such as Facebook, and YouTube

look for to exploit. So, if someone you know shares an article about an Alex Jones conspiracy,

even if a majority of people dislike or negatively engage with the article. The algorithm sees any

interaction even a negative one as a good thing, so it would take that article and spread it further

and further to gain many hundreds or thousands of times the views it would normally receive

(Ellis). This is a very dangerous reality, when fake or misleading articles can be shared and the

number of reactions it receives is almost seen as credibility, which is far from the reality. And

with this easy access to the younger generations, who are more susceptible to the supremacist

propaganda. This is a real trend when you think that Dylan Roof the Charleston church shooter

was only 23 at the time of his act of terror, and James Fields who rammed his car into counter

protesters during the Unite the Right rally was only 20 at the time. It is very clear that the alt-

rights social media presence is bringing their hate to a progressively younger audience, which

can only spell disaster (Druery). I have two figures below that show how there is a concern

among Americans about online hate speech, and another that also shows how a lot of Americans

think it’s okay to spew hateful offences at other people (Fig. 4, Fig. 5). The major social media

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companies need to take a stand to remove not only these pariahs on society, but to make sure that

their messages of hate and violence cannot spread via these platforms. The Constitution protect

our right to free speech, but their needs to be guidelines put in place when the speech is

perpetrating violence.

Fig. 4: Shows how concerned American are about online hate speech

Fig. 5: Shows how an unbelievable percentage of people believe they should be able to

make racist remarks publicly.

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With all of this information it’s very easy to see the direction the alt-right is trying to take

this country, by injecting their opinions and adding a lot of disinformation to the world we now

live in. With their attachments to the President and his White House, social media and the way it

influences the uneducated or misinformed, and how a rise in extremist violence here in America

shows no signs of slowing down (Police Data Initiative). We need to hold onto to hope, and the

ideals this country was founded upon. The ideals of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for

anyone who call this nation home. Every citizen and visitor to our nation, should feel safe and

free to live their life uninterrupted by hate and xenophobia. We are a country of immigrants, very

few of us can trace our heritage back to beginning on these shores, but none the less this is our

home and we need to keep alive its openness and willingness to help those in need. Whether that

be immigrants fleeing a nation that is unsafe, or just people looking for a better future. These

cultural differences are what makes this country strong. We cannot let the hate and fear of the

alt-right turn this country into one of violence and xenophobia. We can choose to see the good in

one another and push each other to do better and make progress toward becoming a nation of all

people.

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Works Cited

Burke, Brigadier General Robert. Personal interview. 16 November 2019

Butt, Khalid Manzoor, and Mominyar Khalid. “Rise of the Far-right Groups in Trump’s

America.” Journal of Political Studies, 2018, p. 105. Gale In Context: Opposing

Viewpoints, https://link-gale-com.proxy.libraries.uc.edu/apps/doc/A576524460/OVIC?

u=ucinc_main&sid=OVIC&xid=9f3002db. Accessed 20 Oct. 2019.

Darby, Luke. “White House Advisor Stephen Miller Just Got Outed for Explicit White Supremacist

E-Mails.” GQ, GQ, 13 Nov. 2019, https://www.gq.com/story/stephen-miller-white-

supremacist-emails.

Druery, Donna M., et al. “Macroaggressions and Civil Discourse.” Women, Gender, and Families of

Color, vol. 6, no. 1, 2018, p. 73+. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints, https://link-gale-

com.proxy.libraries.uc.edu/apps/doc/A558230324/OVIC?

u=ucinc_main&sid=OVIC&xid=9d046312. Accessed 20 Oct. 2019.

Ellis, Emma Grey. “The Year the Alt-Right Went Underground.” Wired, Conde Nast, 23 Dec. 2018,

https://www.wired.com/story/alt-right-went-underground/.

Fig. 1. “White Nationalist.” Southern Poverty Law Center,

https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/ideology/white-nationalist.

Fig. 2, 3. “Hate Crime Statistics.” The United States Department of Justice, 15 Nov. 2019,

https://www.justice.gov/hatecrimes/hate-crime-statistics.

Fig. 4,5. “Hate Speech on Social Media: Global Comparisons.” Council on Foreign Relations,

Council on Foreign Relations, https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/hate-speech-social-media-

global-comparisons.

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“The Police Foundation's Open Hate Crime Data Challenge.” Police Data Initiative, 14 Mar. 2018,

https://www.policedatainitiative.org/pf-open-hate-crime-data-challenge/.

Hankes, Keegan, and Alex Amend. “The Alt-Right Is Killing People.” Southern Poverty Law Center,

5 Feb. 2018, https://www.splcenter.org/20180205/alt-right-killing-people.

Heikkilä, Niko. “Online Antagonism of the Alt-Right in the 2016 Election.” European Journal of

American Studies, European Association for American Studies, 31 July 2017,

https://journals.openedition.org/ejas/12140.

Jorden, Erin Nicole, "The Alt-right's use of President Donald Trump's Twitter account as a

propaganda device" (2018). Theses, Dissertations and Capstones. 1152.

https://mds.marshall.edu/etd/1152

Mathis-Lilley, Ben. “How Trump Has Cultivated the White Supremacist Alt-Right for Years.” Slate

Magazine, Slate, 14 Aug. 2017, https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2017/08/donald-trumps-ties-

to-alt-right-white-supremacists-are-extensive.html.

Williamson, Vanessa, and Isabella Gelfand. “Trump and Racism: What Do the Data

Say?” Brookings, Brookings, 13 Aug. 2019,

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2019/08/14/trump-and-racism-what-do-the-data-say/.

Sherman, Elisabeth. “10 Most Despicable Stories Breitbart Published Under Bannon.” Rolling

Stone, 29 Aug. 2019, https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-lists/10-most-despicable-

stories-breitbart-published-under-bannon-115278/muslim-immigrants-are-to-blame-for-crime-in-

europe-115437/.

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