"White Genocide"
Recently I stumbled upon the phrase "white genocide" while reading an article about white supremacy and alt-right terrorism. At first I was like.... huh what? When I went to look into it further, I learned that the term is far more widespread than I imagined. Essentially, "white genocide" is a concept created and perpetuated by white supremacists. The idea behind it is that increasing immigration and foreign presence in the U.S., in taking away the majority status of the white race, is "wiping out" white's culture and way of life.
(There is a BUNCH of history behind the term which I won't write about, but you can find it in the Atlantic article I linked.)
Many well-known white supremacists of this generation subscribe to this belief. For example, Dylann Roof, the Charleston church shooter, wrote about the evils of the American melting pot and how "the situation" in America was getting worse by the day. Robert Bowers, the shooter of the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh (20 min from where I used to live, actually), wrote before the fact that he couldn't "sit by and watch [his] people get slaughtered". Brenton Tarrant, the Christchurch shooter, wrote about it in his manifesto. That sentiment has also been echoed in Europe, which has gradually become more populist.
A group called the White Genocide Project justifies the term by referring to Article 2 of the U.N.'s genocide definition. They argue that mass immigration and forced assimilation, by “deliberately inflicting on [a] group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part", are thus genocidal acts.
I find this distortion of the definition of genocide highly dubious, but it is clear that more and more people are beginning to believe in "white genocide" as truth. I also believe that the increasing sense of "invasion" that surrounds immigration, in this country and other countries, enhances the feeling of many whites that they are being attacked by an external force. One writer speculated that, once pushed into a non-majority position, whites almost believe that the subjugation they practiced on other groups for so long would return to haunt them. So it might be then be a psychological pushback to the fact that their position in society is no longer guaranteed, the attitude swinging directly from natural supremacy to total victimization.
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/06/dylann-roof-world-white-supremacist/396557/
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/04/adam-serwer-madison-grant-white-nationalism/583258/
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/03/mosque-shooter-troll-like-original-nazis/585415/
https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-new-zealand-shooting-and-the-great-man-theory-of-misery
(There is a BUNCH of history behind the term which I won't write about, but you can find it in the Atlantic article I linked.)
Many well-known white supremacists of this generation subscribe to this belief. For example, Dylann Roof, the Charleston church shooter, wrote about the evils of the American melting pot and how "the situation" in America was getting worse by the day. Robert Bowers, the shooter of the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh (20 min from where I used to live, actually), wrote before the fact that he couldn't "sit by and watch [his] people get slaughtered". Brenton Tarrant, the Christchurch shooter, wrote about it in his manifesto. That sentiment has also been echoed in Europe, which has gradually become more populist.
A group called the White Genocide Project justifies the term by referring to Article 2 of the U.N.'s genocide definition. They argue that mass immigration and forced assimilation, by “deliberately inflicting on [a] group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part", are thus genocidal acts.
I find this distortion of the definition of genocide highly dubious, but it is clear that more and more people are beginning to believe in "white genocide" as truth. I also believe that the increasing sense of "invasion" that surrounds immigration, in this country and other countries, enhances the feeling of many whites that they are being attacked by an external force. One writer speculated that, once pushed into a non-majority position, whites almost believe that the subjugation they practiced on other groups for so long would return to haunt them. So it might be then be a psychological pushback to the fact that their position in society is no longer guaranteed, the attitude swinging directly from natural supremacy to total victimization.
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/06/dylann-roof-world-white-supremacist/396557/
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/04/adam-serwer-madison-grant-white-nationalism/583258/
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/03/mosque-shooter-troll-like-original-nazis/585415/
https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-new-zealand-shooting-and-the-great-man-theory-of-misery
This is such an interesting post. Expressing the need to prevent a "white genocide" is disturbing for many reasons. It diminishes the urgency and significance of the word "genocide" by using it in a clearly inaccurate context- one that comes from a position of power and thus obviously negates the argument that a genocide is occurring. Further, the idea of "white genocide" illustrates how racism transforms over time, taking on new forms based on changes in social expectations, in order for people to continue finding ways to express their perceived racial superiority.
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