In the United States of America there are many different organizations. Most are innocent and helpful to the communities they live in. Some have more malicious intentions. These groups camouflage slack goals such as pride. In reality they promote nothing but hatred. To combat these groups, Americans must better understand how they function. The 1990s marked a pivotal change in many of these groups and the birth of others. This paper will examine several disfavor groups. The Aryan Nations/Church of Jesus Christ Christian, National Alliance, World Church of The Creator, and the Hammerskin Nation will be studied through out the course of this paper. It will originate with each group’s history and their particular views. Next it will show how new tools of recruitment are making these groups more unsafe than ever. It will conclude with how these groups were combated during the 1990s. Through this, it will become quite clear what a dangerous threat these groups presented to racial unity in the 1990s. It should also be renowned that majority of the research conducted for this project was done via the Internet.
The behind Richard Butler founded the Aryan Nations in the mid 1970s. As with many other despise group leaders, Butler assumed power of a group (Christian Defense League) after its leader passed on. He used the vacuum of power to bring followers to his own brand of the Christian Identity movement. During the 1980s members of the Aryan Nations worked with other racist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan and National Alliance to overthrow the American government. These activities were soon put to a stop. In December of 1984, the leader of the splinter group was killed by the FBI in a shootout.
Internal problems plagued the Aryan Nations during the 1990s. Money issues and arguments with the groups founder Richard Butler led many high ranking officials to split off into their fill groups. A fistfight broke out at the Aryan Nations’ annual congress held at the headquarters at Hayden Lake, Idaho in July of 1995. This resulted in another high ranking member resigning from the group. The death of Butler’s wife in December of 1995, and his own declining health, led the group to originate the search for a fresh leader. The issue was not resolved until September of 2001, when the violent Ray Redfeairn was chosen to take up the leadership reigns when Butler passed away.
Visiting the Aryan Nations’ website one can find a listing of their beliefs. Many of their beliefs include verses from the bible to attempt explain their stance as God’s wish.
WE BELIEVE that the true, literal children of the Bible are the twelve tribes of Israel, now scattered throughout the world and now known as the Anglo-Saxon, Germanic, Teutonic, Scandinavian, Celtic peoples of the earth. We know that the Bible is written to the family of Abraham, descending from Shem back to Adam. Yahweh blessed Abraham and promised that he would be the “father of nations.” This same promise continued through the seedline of Abraham’s son, Isaac, and again to Isaac’s son, Jacob, the patriarch of the twelve tribes, whose name Yahweh changed to Israel (Meaning: “he will rule as God”). Genesis 32:28; Exodus 12:31; 16:4; 19:20; Revelations 21:12
WE BELIEVE that the Cananite Jew is the natural enemy of our Aryan (White) Race. This is attested by scripture and all secular history. The Jew is like a destroying virus that attacks our racial body to destroy our Aryan culture and the purity of our Race. Those of our Rush who resist these attacks are called “chosen and faithful.” John 8:44; 1 Thessalonians 2:15; Revelations 17:14″ .
These quotes illustrate the main beliefs and goals of the Aryan Nations. According to biblical literature, the twelve tribes of Israel became the Nordic peoples of Europe. The members of the Aryan Nations believe that they will be the only ones to enjoy the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth after Judgment Day. The group rationalizes its anti-Semitic speech by claiming the Jewish people are its natural enemy as they are Satan’s children. They believe the Jewish people are descendants of Cain, Eve’s child that was a result of her original sin who went on to kill his brother in a jealous rage. Therefore it is only natural, according to the Aryan Nations followers, that they fight the Jewish Race who are “literal children of Satan”
After spending time with American Nazi Party leader George Lincoln Rockwell, William Pierce began his occupy party, again splintering from another group, in 1974. William Pierce and his National Alliance set up a base in West Virginia. From there Pierce spilled his hatred into many different mediums. Weekly radio addresses were delivered and a magazine entitled National Vanguard was published and distributed by Pierce. William Pierce has also written two books, the obnoxious Turner Diaries and Hunter. In 1998 Pierce gained control of Resistance Records that produced white power music and further expanded the approach of his message.
The National Alliance believes the Aryan race is naturally superior to all others. They believe multiculturalism does not allow for the Aryan race to reach its burly potential. Pierce stated that
Pierce and his group catch the Nazi German idea of lebensraum (living position) and apply it to America. The “White Living State” will encompass America, Europe, Australia, and South Africa
Jewish control of the media is a thought held by National Alliance members that has long been well-liked among hate groups. “The Jewish control of the American mass media is the single most important fact of life, not honest in America, but in the world today.”, said Pierce in one book. In an interview William Pierce stated, “We’ve been conditioned, we’ve been brainwashed, we’ve been propagandized by the mass media primarily, but also by the schools, by the churches, by the government to be…antiracist, to be ashamed of wanting to associate with, wanting to work with, live with, breed with our own kind.” This shows how the National Alliance attempts to turn their hateful believes serve on those they hate. Also it attempts to interpret why the rest of us don’t agree with their point of view. We have been clouded by the “Jewish controlled” media. It is quite easy to scrutinize beyond these tactics.
The World Church of The Creator (now know as the Creativity Movement) was founded by Ben Klassen in 1973. The group was weak and on the verge of collapse when Matt Hale assumed control of the WCOTC in 1996. The group became one of the most well known and violent hate groups during the 1990s. Hale used his clean-cut image and cunning intelligence to attract new followers. He is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Make no mistake, Matt Hale is extremely dangerous.
The WCOTC live by the motto “RaHoWa” which means Racial Holy War. They believe that a race war is only inevitable with the current path the world is taking. The group believes in racial separation. Matt Hale even advocates Malcolm X’s advance in an interview. Comparing what the WCOTC does to the work that Malcolm X did is perverse. The WCOTC wants to pervert the image of man who preached separatism of blacks and whites only until blacks could unify among themselves to give validity to their arguments. If they were given control, the WCOTC would place minorities far away from white Anglo Saxon Protestants and allow no with anyone they deem sob them.
WCOTC believe every species witness out for its believe and that whites are no different. They liken themselves to a group such as the NAACP. This type of rationalizing runs deep in the Church of The Creator methods. Matt Hale says this when trying to prove white’s genetic superiority
If you look at any encyclopedia, 99.99 percent of the contributions listen within it are from white people. I don’t think this is because whites wrote the history books or the encyclopedias. I think it’s because white people have a genetic edge – intellectually anyways – over the other races.
Whites, they believe, have created all worthwhile culture and civilization.
…creatively the Jews once again are not a very creative people…For example, if you were to look back into the classical period of time in Palestine, the Jews created almost nothing. There’s a museum of ancient art, I believe it is at the University of Cairo, and when you walk by the exhibits, you find things from the Phoenicians, you find things from the Sumerians, etc. But when it comes to the Jews, you get nothing because Jews did not create anything at that time.
He also claims that the strides and achievements other races have made in the arts and sciences are because they work harder than white people. When confronted with his group being a white supremacy group Hale says, “White supremacy is not a stamp that I accumulate for the simple reason that it connotes an idea of holding others down or reigning over them, which we do not want.”
In the 1982 film Pink Floyd’s The Wall, a young man named Pink pursues a career in Rock music and becomes involved in drugs. Reality slips away from Pink. He soon finds he is leader of a fascist Nazi-type organization. He uses his music to preach his message of racial hatred. Pink sings in one song
Are there any queers in the theater tonight? Get ‘em up against the wall! That one in the spotlight, he don’t look right! Win him up against the wall! And that one looks Jewish… and that one’s a coon! Who let all this riff raff into the room? That one’s smoking a joint! And that one’s got spots! If I had my way, I’d have the lot of you shot!
The symbol of Pink’s group was two crossed hammers on a murky, white, and red background. While the rock group Pink Floyd meant the movie to be fantasy, one group took their image and made it into reality; the violent Hammerskin Nation.
The Hammerskin Nation is a skinhead group known for its extreme violence. Unlike some of the other groups that have discussed they do not hide behind logic or religion. Their website makes several mentions of ZOG (Zionist Occupation Government) and its efforts to stop the group’s actions. They often claim when they government comes down on them for members violence; it is due to ZOG controlling them. Comments like
“Impartial over a year in existence and Hammerskins were already feeling the clutches of Zog`s wrath.”
“ZOG`s media machine was all over Hammerskins as well. Calls from TV shows such as, 60 Minutes, 20/20, amongst others were badgering for interviews. The exposure had become a double edged sword, aiding the growth and making them a target for law enforcement agencies at the same time.”
from their website show their distrust of the media and their paranoia concerning the Jewish influence on the world.
To recruit members during the 1990s hate groups used many varying methods. The groups used traditional methods and utilized new ones during the decade. As the internet grew, so did loathe group’s presence on it. The internet provided a great wealth of information around the country and the world. Hate groups could send a wealth of information on their movements throughout this medium. One of the largest and most well known hate sites on the web is Don Black’s Stormfront. It was one of the first white supremacy sites at its creation in 1995. Since then Don Black has used the plot as a forum for his racist views. Black describes the site’s purpose is to “provide an alternative news media with news and information and online forums for those who are portion of our movement or for those who are interested in learning more about white nationalism…” Over 3 million internet users have visited Stormfront since its creation. Granted some may have visited because of the publicity it received, but that is still an alarmingly large number. There is know way to tell how many people were sway by Black’s hate speech, or how many were impressionable youths. Black was also looking toward the future of the internet and what that meant to his website. During the 90s broadband connections were not widely used. The majority of internet users accessed the internet using a dialup connection. These were slow and could not handle large amounts of data, such as video files. With better technology on the horizon Black was planning on harnessing its power. “The most ambitious is, of course, more video programming, and that will at some point include live video, live talk shows, and taped documentaries…it is coming within a couple of years, and that would be the next giant leap for us.” Even Black’s son Derek helps out. Derek Black runs the Stormfront for kids website. While I was not able to access the website, only the forum, an article found on the Salt Lake City YWCA website had this to say, “The website has a lengthy “history” of the white race, a list of birthdays of famous and tainted white people, music, and even an essay by Derek on the Pokémon card series. However, behind these games and bells and animated animals clearly lies the father’s hatred of blacks and Jews.” Consequently, Derek Black receives a mountainous deal of despise mail. So much so he wrote a personal statement asking people to stop sending hate mail. A report on Salon.com interviews a young girl, Alice, in 1999 after finding her on a Stormfront mailing list. “I found any number of sites that provided me with solid information about why blacks are inferior. These Web sites led me in directions I couldn’t have found otherwise.” Dangerous thoughts for a rebellious teenager. Alice, who says she regularly visits Stormfront, says “I now feel free to think and my ideology and thoughts are slowly changing. I’m getting more and more information. I live in an area where these ideas are unacceptable.” Alice has become so wrapped up in her own opinions that she has forgotten that there are other points of view to examine as well. She has not yet experienced the world enough to truly understand the way of things and websites like Stormfront prey upon this.
Matt Hale and the World Church of The Creator have used the internet significantly for their own perverse needs. The homepage of the WCOTC during the 90s featured picturesque Scandinavian vistas and a slew of Aryan children illustrations that looked to be honest out of a 1930s Nazi German poster. Hale asks all people who belong to WCOTC or are “white racial comrades” to actively recruit fresh followers using the internet, in chat rooms and on internet forums. He also query that WCOTC members post the groups URL (web address) in as many locations, as soon as possible. Hale also recognizes one of the best ways to recruit college students. “We attract college students mainly through the Internet. Many college students consume the Internet, and they are attracted to us by that manner.” The WCOTC also targets young children in their recruiting efforts. Parents cannot watch their children every minute of every day. Unfortunately a child could happen upon WCOTC’s children’s section of its website. This location is described as helping “the younger members of the White Race understand our fight.” Crossword puzzles and other word games are used to lure younger children to the dwelling. The games feature words related to the WCOTC’s perspective on white heritage. Teenagers are encouraged to be more active. With comments like, “The inferior mud races are our deadly enemies, and the most perilous of all is the Jewish race. It is our immediate objective to relentlessly expand the White Race, and keep stupefied our enemies.” given to teenagers in reference to what they can do to further the cause, it’s hard to say that the space is harmless. With words like these it is hard not to imagine a teenager taking this “advice” to the extreme. They may be prone to shrink the WCOTC’s enemies by murder.
While the Internet has become one of the most powerful tools hate groups use for recruiting, it is not their only tool. Music is ancient to come a younger audience, while individuals spread information on particular hate groups like twisted missionaries on America’s college campuses. Also the use of “intelligent” arguments for racial supremacy rather than outward hate has become the new message for many groups. This is very dangerous as this type of message could, much more easily draw in many otherwise intelligent individuals that would not even begin to think of joining a known violent group such as the KKK or Hammerskins.
The Hammerskin Nation, as previously stated, has been well known as a violent organization. But they also produce racist white power music and hold large concerts. During the 1990s many in the Hammerskin nation began promoting white power bands. Bands such as Max Resist, Bully Boys, and Extreme Hatred have been featured at their shows. In nearly two years (August 1999-December2000)26 the Hammerskins had hosted six, well attended, shows in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Detroit, Cleveland, and Texas. These shows certainly swayed many youths to the horrid cause of white supremacy. It also spurs them on to bring violence upon those that the music teaches them are ‘lesser’ then them.
December 10th 2000, three 20 something racists committed acts of violence in Jacksonville, Florida. Jacob Laskey, Robert Parrott, and Edward Fix ganged up on and beat John Newsome, a 44-year-old African American. After seeing Mr. Newsome, the group yelled, “There’s one, let’s score him!” Mr. Newsome was chased by the three and beat in a parking lot. Later questioned by the police the group admitted they were driving around the city looking for blacks. How powerful is this music on impressionable minds that it drives them to such violent acts? At the very least these concerts give racists a place to gather and meet other like-minded individuals, who may then go out and commit the same acts together as the three in Jacksonville, Florida have.
William Pierce and the National Alliance are also purveyors of white power music, through the ‘Resistance Records’ mark. Pierce feels that music is an efficient way to attract young people to his movement. Music has always been a very powerful force and Pierce recognizes this. People turn on music because “they like the sound” Pierce inadvertently points out how dangerous white power music is. A child can pop in a Screwdriver CD, or download an mp3, simply because they like punk music. Soon their ears are getting filled with hateful messages, all to a catchy rhythm that gets stuck in their head. Brad Knickerbocker from the Christian Science Monitor had this to stay after he had researched white power music.
The sound is that that of most other [popular music]. But listen carefully, and the words can be disturbing, even shocking. Race war is advocated. Germany’s Third Reich is glorified. Blacks and Jews are degenerated, sometimes targeted for violence and destruction.
As it has branched out into other genres such as country and folk, ‘Resistance Records’ has pulled in immense sums of money. The company now pulls in close to $1.5 million a year. People are buying these records. Pierce and his organization has parlayed this money into its website and an Internet radio dwelling. As I have mentioned earlier, the Internet radio gives a much further reach to the group’s message. But Pierce is not completely in agreement with the genres of music that make of the majority of his record labels catalog. Pierce believes that the music that the rock music that his label relies on so heavily upon is “black music”. Begrudgingly, Pierce admits that there is no other way to reach the young people. “We’ve had a couple generations of Americans on rock music. If you want to reach young people now, you have to expend black music.”
The approaches hate groups take in recruiting and the messages they spread in the later piece of the 1990s showed a dramatic shift in tactics. Many groups sought to reach more educated members. The World Church of the Creator states that it does not accept members with criminal backgrounds for instance. They do however actively recruit on college campuses. Often, they will bring affirmative action into a discussion to appeal to white students. Matthew Hale, WCOTC leader, states that many students have said, “Hey, wait a itsy-bitsy! Why can’t I get a scholarship because I’m white…there are blacks that score them because they’re shadowy? ” His reply is “blacks don’t want equality…it’s really just a smokescreen. What the blacks and other races really want is supremacy.” This is a good way to plant a seed in someone’s mind. Perhaps they hadn’t thought about how ‘unfair’ the system was for them. A thought like the one mentioned above could start them down a dangerous path. They may begin to see the system working ‘against’ them. Quickly they will be swayed over to Hale’s group.
Members are encouraged to go up to people and ’spread the word’, so to speak, at some of the best higher learning establishments in America. Hale believes in order to procure their cause must have the best and the brightest our schools have to offer. He also states that people in higher education are “more open-minded and able to grasp more thoroughly where we are coming from.” Hale goes on to assert that their cause is not one for slackers or “dummies”
This cause that we represent is by no means a cause for dummies or a cause for those who accept things blindly. We have a lot of evidence behind our views. We have a lot of history, a lot of facts, statistics and everything else to buttress our claims.
When such a hateful message is doctored with facts it makes the medicine easier to swallow. Some could say “Well we aren’t like the KKK at all. They are racist, violent bigots. We are not. Here is a pamphlet to explain why.” Their abhor is disguised. The WCOTC hides behind what they call science and historical truths. Their hastily growing numbers explain that their approach is working and with dangerous efficiency.
These groups may seem like an overwhelming problem in America. They indeed are a gigantic problem, but they are not invincible. During the 1990s and early in our unusual decade many of these groups were dealt lethal blows by the American justice system.
First we have the case of Matthew Hale of the WCOTC. In November of 2002, the US District court for the Northern District of Illinois issued an order that the WCOTC must cease using that name as well as the ‘Church of the Creator’. Earlier in January of 2002, the Te-Ta-Ma Truth Foundation filed suit against the WCOTC saying that they had trademarked ‘Church of the Creator’. The WCOTC lost on appeal in November. They were no longer allowed to use their web address and were forced to turn over any materials with the ‘Church of the Creator’ name on it. As one ADL director stated “World Church’s loss of its ‘brand name’ may hinder its ability to spread its virulent message of abhor. The order is another positive step in countering prejudice and bigotry.” A few years later Hale was convicted of soliciting the murder of the family of the Judge that had forced the WCOTC to stop using its name. Hale was heard on tape asking a bodyguard to murder this deem. Little did Hale know that the bodyguard was actually an FBI informant. Matthew Hale recently received 40 years in prison for the solicitation of the murders of two judges. Since Hale’s arrest there have been no public marches, meetings, or literature distributions by the Creativity Movement. The once powerful force of hate has broken off into many smaller, thus less effective, groups. The group crumbled without Hale’s leadership.
The next case is that of the Aryan Nations, based in Idaho. In 1998, two passers-by of the Aryan Nations compound would unknowingly become the group’s slayers. Victoria and Jason Keenan were returning from a wedding in July of 1998 when they passed by the Aryan Nations compound near Coeur D’Alene, Idaho. The mother and son had stopped on the side of the road to search for a wallet that had fallen out of their car. As they sat their car backfired. Members of the Aryan Nations then chase the two in a truck, shooting at them until the Keenan’s car went into a ditch. The family was then forced out of their car at gunpoint and beaten with rifle butts. When the trial ended in September of 2000, Butler and the Aryan Nations organization were found “negligent in the selection, training and supervision of the security guards who assaulted [the Keenan's]” Butler and the Aryan Nations were forced to pay $4.8 million, his chief of staff $600,000. The guards involved were fined $600,000 in combined damages. At the end of the day, Butler was forced to turn over his 20-acre compound to the Keenan’s. Without a home, members mercurial bailed the sinking ship. The group soon succumb to infighting and Butler’s declining health. In 2004 Richard Butler died.
These two cases were enormous victories for the unprejudiced and anti-racist. Groups such as the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League worked long and hard to bring these groups down. Justice prevailed.
During the 1990s disapprove groups showed a major shift. Groups began to focus more on recruitment than violence. These groups perverted the relatively new Internet for their gain twisted means. The impressionable youths of America were target through the Internet and white power music. Attempts were made to approach a more intellectual audience. Ultimately, the law and their own arrogant minds defeated these groups. The future for hate groups certainly looks grim. For the rest of us, this is wonderful news.
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The Number of the Beast Minus Five Digits
