The fact that the population of people of color and mixed-race people is increasing will be understood by white power activists to support what they have feared for years: that demographic change will make them a minority (2)
To people in this movement, this is not just a soft change, but an ***apocalyptic threat***--tantamount to annihilation of the white race, which they see as their nation (3)
On top of this, we have the collapse of democratic rule in Afghanistan. This is very very bad in two ways: first, the images of the evacuation of the embassy in Kabul call directly back to the fall of Saigon in 1975 (4)
People in the white power movement have used that moment, and the idea of failed war/betrayal by the government, to fuel decades, if not generations, of organizing (5)
It will not take much for them to slide old recruitment strategies into this new context. (6)
Furthermore, the frustrations of veterans of the Global War on Terror and especially Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan about what this means (loss of life and treasure, failed project) will make some of them available for recruitment and radicalization (7)
Let me be totally clear: I don't mean ALL VETERANS or even most veterans are susceptible to white power recruitment. But the few that are are incredibly important because they bring training, tactics, weapons, & other skills that escalate the violent capacity of these groups (8)
The aftermath of warfare has been the most consistent predictor of white power activity in every surge of Klan and white power activity in U.S. history. Now that we have reached the end of our twenty-year war on terror, we must prepare for the aftershocks. (9)
The history can help us to understand how this works. My book Bring the War Home shows how the aftermath of the Vietnam War created and shaped today's white power movement. See also A Field Guide to White Supremacy, an essay collection that brings this to the present day. (10)
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