There’s a new group in town, or should I say throughout this nation. Splintering off from the gang of white supremacists who called themselves Vanguard America in 2017 (after one of them ran over an anti fascist protestor in Charlottesville, Virginia) we now have The Patriot Front. These Neo Nazis have already formed 42 chapters throughout America… or should I say Amerika? As with those on August 12, 2017, these folks like to carry the lit torches when they march at night. If you can recall, it was Proto Fascist Donald Trump as president who said ‘ There were some nice people on both sides’ after the melee unfolded with Heather Heyer killed by that wildly driven car. It seems Trump apparently did not care about the videos of the Friday night rally whereupon the marchers, carrying lit torches, shouted ‘ Jews will not replace us’ and ‘ Blood and Soil’. From somewhere deep within the bowels of Hades I am sure that the souls of Hitler, Goebbels and crew smiled their sinister smiles.
The Patriot Front is not apologetic to state that it was their ancestors, meaning pure whites, that conquered America and left it to them. They really don’t care that it was Native Americans AKA Indians who lived here first and thus got in the way of this Manifest Destiny. Methinks this mindset was shared by other white skinned leaders of our nation as they invaded ( illegally and Immorally) and destroyed Iraq’s citizens and infrastructure. Is that not another example of white supremacy? Middle Easterners, after all, are considered part of the darker races. The British and the Dutch Boers had their own nickname for those peoples: Caffers. Here at home in good ole Amerika they are just called Niggers and Rag heads. The Israeli engineer I met on a night flight to Phoenix in 1988 referred to the Palestinians as ‘ Sand Niggers’. Our homegrown white supremacist Neo Nazi brethren hold onto their role models’ desire ( and practice) for Ethnic Cleansing. Think about this: ethnic cleansing can come in many forms. Aren’t Jim Crow laws and practices ethnic cleansing? Isn’t housing discrimination ethnic cleansing? During the first half of the 20th Century Blacks and Jews were even told by signs on hotel and store windows that they were not welcome. All the Nazis did was state it in a more autocratic way with signs like ‘ Dogs and Jews not allowed’.
Subtle forms of white supremacy have been used forever it seems. Working for a real estate office in the mid 1980s I was handling rentals. The owner of the place was a guy who had actually been arrested in the past for smuggling guns to the IRA from Texas to Belfast. He had an ad in the paper for rental of a home he owned not too far from the office. One day I showed the home to this young family originally from India. The husband was a doctor recently assigned to the local hospital. They had two young children and needed a larger home. They liked the place and left me a deposit check. I told them to meet me on Saturday morning at the office to sign the contract. When I arrived at the office that morning I was so thrilled that I was going to earn a nice commission. The owner called me over and asked who I found for the rental. He read the name on the deposit check and told me to call the people and tell them the place was already rented. ” Why” I said? ” The people didn’t even try to negotiate the price.” He said ” Listen, I don’t personally discriminate Phil. It’s just that I have neighbors who might not like it to have those kind of people living near them.” I asked him what he meant by ‘ those kind of people’. He rolled up his shirt sleeve and as he smacked his forearm he said ” If their skin color is darker than this we can’t rent to them. That’s the way it is!”
There are many different types of white people who still support the former president and his far right cohorts. When you peel away that onion, after any and all the many reasons they give for supporting the right wing, it will still be mostly about ‘ Keeping the niggers, spics and A-rabs away from me and my family!’ As my late, great activist friend Walt DeYoung put it best: Nuff Said!!
Philip A Farruggio is regular columnist on It’s the Empire… stupid website. He is also frequently posted on Nation of Change, and Countercurrents.org,. He is the son and grandson of Brooklyn NYC longshoremen and a graduate of Brooklyn College, class of 1974. Since the 2000 election debacle Philip has written over 400 columns on the Military Industrial Empire and other facets of life in an upside down America. He is also host of the ‘ It’s the Empire… Stupid ‘ radio show, co produced by Chuck Gregory. Philip can be reached at [email protected].