President-elect Trump’s appointment of Steve Bannon to a senior White House position has generated significant media coverage, and increased the attention on a group that was deeply involved in propelling Trump to the presidency–the so-called “Alt Right.” Make no mistake, the alt right’s ideology is dangerous—plain and simple, full stop. And, when I refer to “their ideology,” I’m referring to their self-proclaimed positions. Take as an example the following from Breitbart’s own description of the alt right, “They are mostly white, mostly male middle-American radicals, who are unapologetically embracing a new identity politics that prioritizes the interests of their own demographic.”
That sentence is nothing more than a thinly, thinly veiled attempt to sanitize racism. Leaders of the alt-right claim that they aren’t really racist, homophobic, women-haters; rather, they are just aiming to shock and annoy the liberal PC police with bombastic and hyperbolic language. They acknowledge that they do attract racist, homophobic, women-haters, but most of the real alt-right bros within the movement don’t like those people, so it’s fine. The problem with that argument is that at least two things have to be true: 1. You have to believe that at their core they really are just shock-jocks with a political axe to grind, and 2. That their followers know what hyperbole means, and how to use it conversationally. They satisfy neither of those requirements.
Hyperbolic or not, one of the core values of the alt right movement, that is not only OK, but exalted to prefer your “tribe,” white men or perhaps if they are feeling generous–white people, over other tribes (non-whites, and if addressed honestly, anyone that is not a conservative, white, non-gay American). The alt right uses the identity politics of “Other” to an extreme and dangerous level. When we de-legitimize the concerns of “other tribes,” especially “tribes” defined by race, that is racism. And, the flip side of “prioritiz[ing] the interests of their own demographic,” is allowing the lesser treatment of other demographics. The alt right claims to dislike “political correctness,” so they should support calling a spade a spade, or here, calling a racist a racist, but shockingly they don’t seem to appreciate being painted with the same broad brush that they use for lambasting the “others.”
I recently thought about my “tribe.” I’m a liberal, white female. Out of my circle of high school and college friends, there are numerous interracial couples and several gay couples. This is not an attempt to pat myself on the back—look at me, I’m not a bigot because I have gay friends. Before I started thinking about what was wrong with the alt-right ideology, I hadn’t stopped to consider that there is a vast array of people that make my life better simply by existing in it. And that array of people comes from many races, genders, ethnicities, religions, etc. But once confronted with an ideology that champions putting “whites first,” it is impossible not to stop and consider all the people that that excludes.
Obviously, I have shared experiences with my former classmates, friends, and family. But any viewpoint that says I need to be the same demographic or race as the members of my “tribe” is a viewpoint that I cannot condone, because it is wrong. We can and should form attachments with those we share experiences with. But those shared experiences should not be limited to an accident of birth. They should be from all the different aspects of life experiences, and even more broadly, shared ideals and aspirations, which can and should be beautifully unbound by race.
To be clear, I do not share Chief Justice Roberts’ assertion that we live in a post-racial, colorblind world. Skin color is real, and when we deliberately segregate ourselves into groups that look exactly like us, we run the risk of believing this “post-racial and colorblind” world actually exists. It does not, and ignoring race is not the same as “post-racial.” White people, this next part is for us. Being white comes with some privilege, even if YOU YOURSELF DO NOT FEEL PRIVILEGED. Having privilege is not the same as being privileged. Consider the furor that abounded when Colin Kaepernick started taking a knee during the National Anthem. One of the arguments that was made most was that he was a hypocrite because didn’t know true oppression. The evidence? That he was raised by white people. Stop, because this argument is important. Think about what that really means. If you argue that being raised by white people means he was buffered against some of the truly horrific incidents that black people suffer, you must FIRST ADMIT THAT BEING WHITE COMES WITH SOME PERKS. Why is acknowledging race important?
Because now we get to the scary stuff. Yeah, that was the gentle lead-in part of the alt-right story. The biggest problem with the alt right’s view that it is virtuous to favor one’s race over all others is the insidious thinking that results once one starts excluding people from the list of “tribe” or otherwise favored groups based on demographics. It is not hyperbole to say that is type of thinking that allowed “separate but equal” to be a legally accepted form of racial segregation in the not-that-distant American past. Of course, this now-disabused thinking was thankfully overturned by the famous Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court case. Still it is important to note that this thinking can, and has, been taken even further to support all manner of terrible actions in the past, and it’s not hard to imagine how that might look in an administration that has appointed an alt-right champion to a position of power in the White House. No, Bannon is not Hitler. He’s not Goebbles, but is that really the bar? Is that what we are aiming for now?
The alt right may dress up their ideology with whatever veneer they want, but at its core, it is racism and it needs to be confronted and rebutted, with the same “unapologetic” approach they advocate.