Leftist outlet Mic.com and senior staff writer Zak Cheney-Rice want everyone to know that white supremacy is everywhere — in the military, in politics, in law enforcement — and that America is "fooling themselves" to believe it's tucked away somewhere amongst the lunatic fringe. That, Cheney-Rice argues, is the real "takeaway" from the Charleston church shooting.
He begins his article, "If the Charleston Shooter's Beliefs Scared You, Here's Who You Really Need to Worry About" warning that Americans are "fooling themselves" if they think white supremacy is only on the fringes:
Americans tend to think of white supremacy as a fringe belief system. Neo-Nazis, Ku Klux Klansmen — these are our dreaded "white supremacist" bogeymen, whose philosophies, though troubling, surely lurk far on the outskirts of mainstream political thought.
Americans are fooling themselves.
In his attempt to prove that white supremacy is alive and well in politics, the writer points to the recent revelations that Earl Holt, president of the Council for Conservative Citizens, an alleged hate group, donated money to Republican presidential candidates Ted Cruz, Rick Santorum, and Rand Paul — all of which either refunded the cash or donated it to Charleston victims, as Paul did. For good measure three other past Republican politicians were named as either white supremacists or white nationalists — all checked out, of course, by the far-left civil rights group Southern Poverty Law Center.
Next up is the concern that neo-Nazis and skinheads have infiltrated the military. Again the leftist Southern Poverty Law Center has reported this "growing" problem. The only name offered in this category was that of Michael Page, the military veteran who killed six at a Sikh Temple in Wisconsin in 2012.
Cheney-Rice uncovered two police officers in Anniston, Alabama who identified as "neo-Confederates" -- one was eventually fired, the other retired. Adding to this count are several Florida prison guards, as well as "at least three" police officers who were found to be members in local Ku Klux Klan chapters, and seven San Francisco officers who were fired for passing around racist text messages.
Armed with this so-called evidence of what can only be described as "the fringe," Cheney-Rice is sure that white supremacy is a bigger problem than anybody realizes:
The takeaway: Incidents like this suggest that explicit white supremacist ideology is not just the purview of fringe radicals. It's a foundational American belief system that has been woven into the mainstream culture for centuries. Politicians, police officers, soldiers and more — all have exhibited the capacity to house hate group members and supporters, even to this day.
Perhaps the ideals of the Charleston shooter are not so outlying as many assume.
