What White Nationalism Gets Right About American History<br />It’s a message that erases people of color and their essential role in American life, but one<br />that also appeals to large numbers of white people who would agree with the statement, “I’m not racist, but I don’t want American history dishonored, and this statue of Robert E. Lee shouldn’t be removed.”<br />I was raised by the leaders of the white nationalist movement with a model of American history<br />that described a vigorous white supremacist past and once again I find myself observing events in which I once might have participated before I rejected the white nationalist cause several years ago.<br />My dad often gave me the advice that white nationalists are not looking to recruit people on the fringes of American culture,<br />but rather the people who start a sentence by saying, “I’m not racist, but …”<br />The most effective tactics for white nationalists are to associate American history with themselves and to suggest<br />that the collective efforts to turn away from our white supremacist past are the same as abandoning American culture.<br />On Tuesday afternoon the president defended the actions of those at the rally, stating, “You also had people<br />that were very fine people, on both sides.” His words marked possibly the most important moment in the history of the modern white nationalist movement.<br />I do, however, think it is essential that we recognize<br />that the white nationalist history embedded in American culture lends itself to white nationalist rallies like the one in Charlottesville.
