The White Supremacist Movement in the United States Today

Abstract

Prior to the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building and the deaths of 168 people, few Americans were concerned about the organized hate movement in America. Contemporary American society has witnessed a wide-ranging backlash to the civil rights, women’s, and gay and lesbian movements, which have challenged traditional notions of race, gender, and sexual identity and inequality. The various organizations that make up the contemporary white supremacist movement have a deal in common, and their memberships often overlap. Race is the overt preoccupation of the white supremacist movement, gender identity is central to the discourse and is intertwined with the construction of racial identities. The Anti-Defamation League estimates that fifty white supremacist periodicals publish on an ongoing basis. In addition to traditional forms of communication, white supremacists are turning to the internet to spread their hate, through bulletin boards and worldwide web sites, such as the Stormfront’s White Pride, World Wide home page.