Democracy Now: White Power USA: The Rise of Right-Wing Militias in America
From Democracy Now--White Power USA: The Rise of Right-Wing Militias in America:
Since President Obama’s election, there’s been a surge in hate crimes, political murders and assassination threats in this country. Right-wing militias are on the rise in several states, and high rates of unemployment have further stoked anger against racial minorities and recent immigrants. Independent filmmakers Rick Rowley and Jacquie Soohen go inside the white nationalist movement to file an exclusive report.
ANJALI KAMAT: It’s been a year since Barack Obama was inaugurated as the first African American president of this country. His election was lauded as a turning point in race relations. But there’s also been a racist backlash to his victory at the polls. Right-wing militias are on the rise in several states across the country, and high rates of unemployment have further stoked anger against racial minorities and recent immigrants. There’s been a surge in hate crimes, political murders and assassination threats since Obama’s election. At least nine high-profile racially motivated murders have taken place this past year.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, independent filmmakers Rick Rowley and Jacquie Soohen went inside the white nationalist movement to investigate the backlash. This is an excerpt of their short documentary White Power USA that aired in full on Al Jazeera English. The full piece is available on the Al Jazeera website and on the Big Noise Films website. It includes some disturbing language.
These kooks!
What could a someones heritage or bloodline have to do with anything?
Oh wait, they must think the reason they were born white makes them smarter and superior?
Why do the pasty faced, semi-toothless, ignorant jerks claim to represent anything? They should find a better use of the time.
"I know that there are people who do not love their fellow
man, and I hate people like that! " ~ Tom Lehrer (1928 - )
... they're entitled to it.
/snark
Who do you think goes to all those tea-per tantrums? They just want their government white, er, that is, back.
The institutionalized division between people readily observed as somehow distinct in their appearance goes back to the founding of the country.
It was encouraged by the Ruling Class as a means of dividing and conquering the Working Class.
From the Ruling Class' standpoint it is necessary, even essential, to have various subgroups of the Working Class hold each other in contempt so that they do not unite in opposition against them. The Ruling Class is the true nemesis of the Working Class.
The first order of business is to get them to forget about their true plight of class and instead focus on this supposed condition of Race.
The results, despite the science showing conclusively the fallacy of race in human genetics, the social results continue.
Some working class people are duped in the worst ways.
The Oligarchs have a plan.
The best use of all of our time is lift all of the many small boats that will be needed in the Working Class Armada that will turn back the Great Fleet of the Oligarchs.
Or not.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
The excessive use of "slavespeak" in the video is proof that the "ruling class" has done very well with it's job of brainwashing.
http://www.buildfreedom.com/tl/tl07a.shtml
You are correct. It has always been about the Ruling Class, but you fail to metion who the Ruling Class is. They are the monied class. They go by the Golden Rule: "Those that have the gold, make the rules". In other words, Corporate America and Major Investors. People who don't have to work for a living. The independently wealthy, whether by inheritance or otherwise. They will always push for more for them and less for the workers. But since there are less of them than the working class, they need to dupe a portion of the workers into taking their side. So they profer this notion of free market economics giving workers a chance at riches, too. Except that there is no such thing as free market economics, only as a concept. Reality is much more complex and has to do with power. It is useful to distract the workers with pety squabbles over race, the old diversionary tactic. Also, distract them with religous issues like abortion and gay marriage; they will be too caught up in that to understand how the economy really works and how they are kept down.
I think it's inbreeding.
America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves. ~ Abraham Lincoln
IT WAS TERRIFYING!
Please watch it and be very very concerned for our country!
Speaking as a Black Man I don't think its all that terrifying.
What is terrifying is that the Minuteman fear Latinos so that they would actually kill people.
Most of those B=blowheart unapologetic racist morons can't even gather enough people to march, that's because too many racist Americans don't want to be seen in public as racist.
I'd say its roughly 15-20% of White Americans feel like these people do, that's a shockingly high amount but I feel its about right given the turnout at Palin rallies and the Tea Party Temper-tantrums.
What we need to do is keep an eye on them and to be honest the DOJ, NSA, FBI, ATF, SS and CIA all know who these people are, where they live, what they eat, etc.
Do you really think the NSA doesn't monitor Stormfront dot com and those sites like it?
I think what Rick was trying to do here is force the mainstream media who shy's away from this subject as they feel it will alienate middle of road White viewers of their network.
The only other time on cable news that this was said was when Tim Wise was on CNN a few months ago.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08FRQWPWRdU
Right Wing has lost it....
Gun sales shot up (no pun intended) overnight starting on election night. You didn't really think those gun sales belonged to good ole fashioned, patriotic 2nd amendment enthusiasts, do you?
I mean, no one in the administration or Congress has even hinted about taking away anyone's guns or imposing stricter gun laws, even though we obviously need them. Gun sales skyrocketed for the simple reason that a black guy is in the White House.
JP
http://giveusthisdayourdailtydread.blogspot.com
And Barack is only half white so the gun sales would have actually been double if he was all non-white. . .
"I know that there are people who do not love their fellow
man, and I hate people like that! " ~ Tom Lehrer (1928 - )
= rotating the tires on your home.
It's true, our country has been stolen from beneath us but...
it was done by a bunch of international bankers and the corporations that do business with them. (mostly rich white guys and Obama is actually one of them)
...please re-direct your energy accordingly...
audit-prosecute-incarcerate
..that this resurgence of racism has followed a decades-long resurgence of fundamentalist Christianity in the old south. The pews of such churches were the KKK's favorite recruiting grounds back in the day.
Just sayin'. No intended slur on liberal Christians.
"In theory theory and practice are alike. In practice they are very different."
White Power Now?
When the average age is 40
And they haven't had a lick of exercise since they were 18
Except for lickin' their kids?
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
These people are a whole lot more frightening to me than "terrorists". These people are already here and they are armed. Hopefully the FBI and CIA are keeping tabs on them.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqPtp0YIMdI
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Obama didnt pass the patriot act and give wiretapping immunity fer nuthin"!
(the authorities are well prepared for this sort of thing)
audit-prosecute-incarcerate
If President Obama wants to get re-elected he has to keep some of
these republicans happy.
Not only are they already here and armed, but they use their status as American citizens to abuse their rights to spread their hatred legally.
they're too dumb to realize it tho
Right Wing Militias. Car thieves and robbers and muggers are coming out of the wood work though.
If there were any doubts about the connection with these people and the tea party crowd, I think this film erases them.
I find it strange that the only place to see the whole film is at Al Jazeera's site. Why isn't it shown on one of the major networks in prime time?
Everyone of these bastards seems to forget the original inhabitants of the country and that their skin was not pasty white.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
if the media keeps this up we are headed to Germany c.1930's
Maybe that's what the powers that be want...full blown Fascism
I totally didn't understand how people making fun of the stupidity of the extreeme right wing is making things worse for progresives?
...you don't want people who unquestioningly supported military action on a nation that had nothing to do with 9/11, who constantly vote to maintain 2nd class citizen status to gays, and who are prone to shooting unarmed children in churches and cops in the back to think, come voting time, that you're a mean ol' bully.
there was a good reason for Government mandated lobotomies...these poor excuses for human flesh are it.
Government + the Federal Reserve = organized crime
Don't forget government-mandated sterilization, so these kooks cannot make more kooks.
Reslugs just can't control their hatred, bigotry and racism. They're born and raised to be stupid.
As I've been told bluntly in a different blog, the right wingers with their guns are waiting for some defining moment to rally and take back their country (something like the health care reform bill passing) and they have pledged to do it with their guns. And the first one they are aiming their muzzles at is the president of the United States whom, thanks to Fox News, many of these unbalanced people rationalize is not a legitimate president because they believe he was not born here. As far as they are concerned, they will just be righting a wrong done to them when one of them succeeds in murdering him. These are seriously dangerous people. WHY is Fox News allowed to carry on a campaign to overthrow the duly elected administration of this country ? At what point is this recognized as treason ?
on the part of the people who consume Fox. And Fox will never stop feeding its consumers. But the real enemy is the corporations who advertise on Fox since its they who are footing the bill. No point in going after Fox. We need to go after Fox's life support and kill it or at least cripple it that way.
Clearly the liberal media is keeping it under wraps to further their secret agenda...
But seriously, you raise a topic of great concern. The mainstream media is recklessly irresponsible for not covering issues like this - issues that pose a real and direct threat to people living in the United States.
Agreed!
Right Wing has lost it....
As horrible and scary and ridiculous as these folks are, they are also deserving of some sympathy.
It has been noted that many of the tea partiers are middle-aged and more - these are folks who grew up in the 1950's and '60's when the middle class was thriving, their working class families owned homes and cars and boats and cottages. They expected, indeed, were told, that life would be as good or better for them. Half my high school class went to work in the local chemical plant right after high school. By our mid-twenties, I was making $5,000 a year teaching school and they were making 4 times that at the plant.
But the last 30 years have not delivered on what they were promised - now they are all near retirement (if they still have a job) and the pension has disappeared and the 401K isn't worth much, and they are underwater on their mortgage. They need to blame someone for their pain - we don't encourage introspection in this culture - so when someone come along with what seems to be a logical explanation they grab on to it. They know they followed the rules they were given, so they don't believe it was their fault things fell apart, even tho they supported the politicians who made it happen.
I don't excuse the racism (which has always lurked under the surface for a lot of these folks) nor the willful ignorance that keeps them from realizing exactly who left them behind, but they are right about one thing - they got royally screwed.
So many wingnuts, and so little to do with their time.
Maybe a General Von Steuben will take them under his wing, and teach them the circular firing squad technique.
If I were a psychopath, I would join the republican party, and get in on the gravy train taking the Teabircher morons to the cleaners.
The documentary makers are overstating the power, numbers and influence of these idiots. Their numbers are nowhere near thirty thousand and more in the ten to fifteen thousand when you don’t count website registrations and count active members only.
An individual can have multiple screen names registered to them on various websites-skewering and inflating memberships. Not to mention the tendency of these groups to exaggerate their numbers. These groups do not have a unified ideology and many of them are in direct conflict with one another particularly where religion is concerned.
The association with the Tea Partiers is definitely there but again overstated by the documentary makers. Hate groups are not synonymous with the tea party groups. It is a bit ingenious of the film makers to show clips of racially charged language followed by images of tea party rallies intentionally creating a false dichotomy between the two groups. There are many members within the Tea Party Movement who are quite serious about their convictions. However, I believe a great deal of their members, probably the majority, are quite casual.
But white supremacy groups make an interesting documentary subject because of the baiting language they use. White power groups know this and manipulate this fact to their advantage. I am not arguing that these groups are dangerous, they are, but people should avoid the tendency to be whipped into a fearful frenzy. On the other hand, it only takes one crazed individual to plant a bomb.
On a day to day basis, local gang members and drug dealers cause more direct harm to neighborhoods, white and black, than these losers from the tea party and hate groups ever will combined.
Imagine that a mere 1 in 10,000 of those that voted for McCain/Palin in 2008 were disenchanted enough with the BH Obama administration to become a Tea-Bagger or join a White Supremacist organization. Then imagine that a mere 1 in 1,000 of those were to take up arms against not only the Obama administration, but anything resembling the Federal government. Finally, add in some unifying event to provide the impetus for action, a trigger if you will. Bear in mind that these people are fairly well indoctrinated, motivated, and armed.
What do you think that such a group of radicalized individuals might be capable of? Bear in mind that it took only 1 person to slaughter 31 people at VPI, all in the course of a few hours. The John Muhammad / Lee Malvo sniper team paralyzed the Metro Washington DC region for 3 weeks. How many liberal progressives among the C&L readership would be prepared to protect themselves, their loved ones, and their property under such a set of circumstances? -- remember that law enforcement will be narrowly focused upon only the most egregious and narrow acts of violent crime.
The Second Amendment was not intended for merely Them ...
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."
-- John F. Kennedy
Another job well done!
What is your conceptual, continuity?
Comments are closed on this entry