Experts Have Been Warning Us about White Supremacist Terrorism for Years. Will we listen?
The info is clear...white supremacists are the biggest domestic terrorist threat in the United States. Will we heed the warnings?
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Once again we observed in horror as the news unfolded—another mass shooting.
This time it was in Buffalo, New York, and the gunman left no doubt about his motives. He wanted to kill Black people.
As the initial shock of yet another tragic loss of life morphed into curiosity about who the killer was and why this keeps happening, much of the conversation hovered around the deadliness and pervasiveness of white supremacist violence.
While some may have been surprised by this racist rampage, experts have been warning us for years about the urgent threat of homegrown white supremacist terrorism.
White Supremacist Extremists: A “Persistent and Lethal Threat”
In October 2020 the Department of Homeland Security issued a report called the “Homeland Threat Assessment.” It was a first of its kind, multi-agency report that provided an in-depth look at the state of national security.
The report included topics such as cyber attacks, attempts to destabilize the U.S. economy, and foreign interference in democratic elections.
The Homeland Threat Assessment also included discussion about the dangers of modern terrorism. While they highlighted the need to be vigilant against “foreign terrorist organizations,” the biggest threat came from within.
According to the report…
Ideologically motivated lone offenders and small groups pose the most likely terrorist threat to the Homeland, with Domestic Violent Extremists (DVEs) presenting the most persistent and lethal threat.
Domestic violent extremists are people in the United States who operate “without direction or inspiration from a foreign terrorist group or other foreign power who seeks to further political or social goals wholly or in part through unlawful acts of force or violence.”
The Homeland Threat Assessment even names a particular type of Domestic Violent Extremist as the most dangerous—
Among DVEs, racially and ethnically motivated violent extremists—specifically white supremacist extremists (WSEs)—will remain the most persistent and lethal threat in the Homeland.
Officials define White Supremacist Extremists as “a group or individual who facilitates or engages in acts of unlawful violence directed at the federal government, ethnic minorities, or Jewish persons in support of their belief that Caucasians are intellectually and morally superior to other races and/or their perception that the government is controlled by Jewish persons.”
White Supremacist Extremists have been the most lethal domestic terrorist threat. Their attacks have killed more people by far than any other extremist group within the United States.
The Threat of White Supremacist Extremists is Increasing
Another report from 2021 prepared by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) Domestic Violent Extremism Poses Heightened Threat in 2021 said that Domestic Violent Extremists “pose an elevated threat to the Homeland.”
They identified two types of DVEs—Racially or Ethnically Motivated Extremists and Militia Violent Extremists.
The IC assesses that racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists (RMVEs) and militia violent extremists (MVEs) present the most lethal DVE threats, with RMVEs most likely to conduct mass-casualty attacks against civilians and MVEs typically targeting law enforcement and government personnel and facilities.
Significantly, the report identifies a complex web of factors leading to domestic terrorism. Motivations for violence from these groups and individuals include: “narratives of fraud in the recent general election, the emboldening impact of the violent breach of the US Capitol, conditions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, and conspiracy theories promoting violence—will almost certainly spur some DVEs to try to engage in violence this year.”
The list of sociopolitical issues that extremists use as excuses for their crimes is familiar fodder on social media and on many right-wing news and commentary outlets.
White Supremacist Extremists are Not “Lone Wolves”
Professor Kathleen Belew, a well-known scholar of white power violence, warns against viewing White Supremacist Extremists as “lone wolves” whose actions are disconnected from other similar events and widely shared ideas.
In her book, Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America, she explains…
“White power should have been legible as a coherent social movement but was instead largely narrated and prosecuted as scattered actions and inexplicable lone wolf attacks motivated not by ideology but by madness and personal animus.”
It would be a mistake to write off the Buffalo shooter or any white supremacist extremist as acting completely in isolation.
These individuals have been radicalized by adopting to a system of ideas and by learning from an extensive network of white supremacists.
They may commit their acts of violence alone, but they devise their deadly tactics in a community of like-minded, hate-filled people.
The Oklahoma City bombing, the Emmanuel Nine massacre in South Carolina, the ChristChurch massacre in New Zealand, the Tree of Life synagogue slayings in Pittsburgh, and more are all related to similar ideas of white supremacy.
Each of the perpetrators, though they never met, tapped in to the same stream of toxic racist ideas and followed them to their deadly conclusions.
While we can never perfectly predict when or where white supremacist extremist acts of terror will occur, we cannot say that we didn’t know about the threat.
When will we as a nation deal with white supremacist extremism as the clear and present danger it is?
The answer will depend on how well we listen to those who have been warning us about this violence for years and how we act on the information we already have.
What other resources do you recommend for understanding white supremacist extremism? Comment below.