The white nationalist group "White Lives Matter" protested Juneteenth down in Franklin on Saturday. They’re worried about some form of The Great Replacement, which is a racist theory that someone — usually the Jews (said in your most conspiracy theory-ist voice) — is using immigration, the awesomeness of being gay and/or trans, and efforts to get cops to stop killing people, etc., to reduce the number of white people in America. According to this theory, minorities will replace white people as the dominant ethnicity — as if “non-white” is an ethnicity — and then I guess treat us white people how we’ve historically treated them.
To understand the level of whiny-baby we’re talking about here, in the richest suburb in Tennessee — in a county that, according to census.gov, is 88 percent white — some Black people held a celebration commemorating the end of slavery, and white guys had to rush in to make sure everyone remembered that they matter too.
Jesus. I could go into all the ways that “white” is a construct that has expanded to include more ethnicities over the centuries in order to ensure white hegemony. I could launch into a diatribe about how acknowledging and celebrating Black accomplishments isn’t diminishing white power. But people have been doing that shit for years — centuries, even. So I’m going to tell these white nationalists the truth: The root of all your problems is that you suck.
I understand it’s easier to believe that, if only all the nonwhite people were gone, you would flourish, than it is to know that, if you stopped being a whiny bag of dicks, you would flourish.
Every single one of us has stood in our own way and not seen it. Every single one of us has been the architect of our own misery and not seen a clear path for how to change and not wallow in said misery. But you’re choosing to hurt others instead of fixing yourself, and that’s evil bullshit.
White supremacy is a cryptocurrency. Its value is made up and traded in ways that exclude everyone from participating. But it also depends on more dumbasses wanting to participate so that the people who’ve been at it the longest don’t lose accrued value. Minorities aren’t stealing from you. Your Ponzi scheme is collapsing.
In the history of the United States, there’s never been a white nationalist group that wasn’t made up of bored losers and psychopaths. Even the original Ku Klux Klan was made up of dudes who were bored and looking for something to do after they lost the Civil War. The whole reason you’re not in the Klan right now, running around in pillow cases and choir robes, is that you think they’re losers, and while you — "White Lives Matter" — agree with their aims, you want cool uniforms and cool masks. The clothes aren’t the problem! The MLM of Evil you’re embracing is the problem.
How do you tell if you’re a bored loser who could turn his life around, or if you’re just a psychopath? Ask yourself this: Did you show up in Franklin over the weekend because you wanted to make people feel worse than you feel, or because you just like making people feel scared? If in your heart of hearts, you were there because it makes you angry to see people who aren’t like you having good lives and thriving when you feel like your life is shit, and you wanted to ruin it for them, you suck. But good news! You’re just a loser. You can change.
But here’s the thing I wish you would most understand. People who behave like you are terrible people in general, and most people know it. I’ve spent the past five years studying various hate groups that have existed in Tennessee, and do you know why — in a state that is majority white, majority racist and majorly in love with Nathan Bedford Forrest — open members of white supremacist groups are not in power? Because belonging to a white supremacist group is a clear indication to other white people that you are going to be a terrible person to deal with. Understand how low the bar is: You can be as racist as you want to be in Tennessee and get voted into office. It’s not a deal-breaker. But membership in a white supremacist group is such a clear indicator of poor character that it is.
And that's for good reason. White nationalist history is stuffed full of people sleeping with their fellow racists’ wives. John Kasper was so notorious for it that the KKK blew up his headquarters in Clinton, Tenn. White nationalists attack and kill each other for petty reasons. Asa Carter, allegedly, had two of his own Klansmen beaten up for cheating at cards. They narc on each other and work with the government all the time. There’s no loyalty. Y’all will sell each other out without hesitation. You beat your wives and kids. You know how common patricide is among the children of white supremacists?
I know that feeling like you belong and like you’ve found people who get you is really powerful. But these are shitty people who will betray you. They will reinforce your shitty tendencies, and you will become the kind of person who betrays his friends. And yet you all will still be so blinkered by the con of white supremacy that you will continue to hang out with each other.
It’s uncomfortable to get yourself so twisted that you’ll form your whole social life around an ideology that’s a scam, and around people who don't have the ability or desire to be good friends who care for each other. But that’s not a discomfort that can be fixed by terrorizing people who aren’t in your group.
Sure, you can make people fear you, but you can’t force us to respect you. We all see you for the losers you’re choosing to be.
Choose different.
