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Obama and the Neo-Nazis
In April 2008, Cowart and several SWA members celebrated Adolf Hitler’s birthday at member’s house. While there, Cowart rubbed shoulders with Joshua Steever, a 28-year-old with the word, “Racist,” boldly tattooed on his forehead. In July 2006, Steever was arrested for threatening to kill two black high school students in Newark, California. A year earlier, Steever had been arrested for attacking a man with an axe handle. “He just roves around from state to state screwing with people,” Daryle Jenkins, founder of the anti-racist group, One Peoples Project, told me.
Cowart’s profile closely resembles that of his friend, Steever. A high school dropout who lived with his grandparents, Cowart described his mood as “bored” on a personal web page. This October, he struck out to fulfill his violent fantasies with Schlesselmann, a fellow Tennessee-based neo-Nazi he met online. Like Steever, who lashed out against students of a predominately black school, Cowart and Schlesselman planned to massacre students at an unspecified, mostly black high school. In the end, the destructive duo resorted to shooting out the front window of a black church in Brownsville, Arkansas in the dead of night before they were arrested.
The organized front of the white racist movement—self-described “white nationalists”—have reacted to Cowart and Schlesselman’s Obama assassination plot with concern about their own exposure. White nationalists operate in the light of day seeking opportunities for mainstream influence, particularly in anti-immigration campaigning. Hapless as they may have been, Cowart and Schlesselman elevated white nationalist fears about heightened scrutiny from federal law enforcement, and threatened to sully the movement’s image at a pivotal moment, when a potential African-American president offered them a chance to exploit unprecedented anti-black resentment.
On Stormfront, a white nationalist chat site with over 144,000 registered users, posters cast the plot against Obama as a mortal threat to their movement. “There are far worse things than having a black president--for instance, killing one is far worse!” “Virginia Gentlewoman.” “If anyone wants to see things get really bad for whites, then this is the way to go, folks! Might as well wrap up the whole movement and invite oppression.”
“Virginia Gentlewoman,” according to Daryle Jenkins, is a leading white nationalist activist named Wendy Murphy who participates in monthly discussions of white nationalist strategy at Sala Thai, a restaurant in Northern Virginia. Most activists who join her at these gatherings are members of the Council of Conservative Citizens, a racist group that evolved from the White Citizens Councils that opposed integration in the South -- known as the “Uptown Klan” because of the group’s pretensions to mainstream political influence. With over 10,000 members, the CofCC is currently the country’s most powerful white nationalist group.
Stormfront members who replied to Murphy’s thread agreed with her almost unanimously. The plot by Cowart and Schlessman represented such a dire threat to the white movement, they reasoned it must have been a Jewish plot. “ADL [Anti-Defamation League] has already endorsed the story. One of the would-be perpetrators has a Jewish sounding name. Something like this was so predictable,” a poster using the handle, Thunderhead, wrote. “It seems like a plot to defame [white nationalists] before the election,” wrote another Stormfront member called “tasteofsnowflakes.”
Many white nationalists who have longed for mainstream influence see unprecedented opportunity in an Obama presidency. In June, former Ku Klux Klan leader and Louisiana Republican gubernatorial candidate David Duke presented Obama’s ascendancy as an encouraging prospect for the white nationalist movement. “My bet is that whether Obama wins or loses in November, millions of European Americans will inevitably react with new awareness of their heritage and the need for them to defend and advance it,” Duke wrote in an manifesto called “A Black Flag for White America”.
Duke, who was once the face of the white nationalist movement, sees Obama as a chance to recover some of his credibility. Duke badly damaged his reputation within white movement circles in 2000 when he entered into a business partnership with rap producer Suge Knight. In 2003 he was sentenced to fifteen months in a Texas prison for tax and mail fraud—bilking his supporters out of thousands of dollars.
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Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
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Interesting story, although I disagree with the basic idea that an African-American president will somehow lift the racist crazies to a higher profile and influence.
I do have a beef with the headline! And with some of the content on the Daily Beast, which sure as shit is seeming pro-McCain. If this is a right leaning site then come out of the closet! Or maybe that's exactly what Tina Brown is doing.
Knowing what I do of the human nature, I am quite sure that a powerful black man will threaten a certain percentage of disempowered and disaffected whites. After all, the original KKK came to being in response to Reconstruction.
As for the news pieces selected for this site, the appeal for some has been to the left and for others, to the right. I think that is known as "balance". Is there anything wrong with a site that simply reports the news of the day. Or must we be totally segregated, left from right?
Is this headline a joke? The initial reaction is that Obama now has a neo-nazi background that needs explaining. I guess that's what the media has the luxury of doing; framing the issue, even the inconsequential ones. I wish writers and editors would demonstrate a little introspection every so often. Mr. Blumenthal, you used to be better than this.
These hateful idiots aren't worth the space you're giving them, Tina. Bad choice giving them any publicity whatsoever IMO. Don't we have better things to talk about?
I also doubt these warped misfits will get any traction once Obama hits the ground running and proves himself to be a very serious and capable president--never mind inspiring.
Its rather ironic that these white supremacists have their meetings at a Thai restaurant. Guess tater tots and corn dogs are off the KKK menu.
Struggling to deal with my discomfort with this story, I found lehaye's comment cathartic. Really, Tina, no censors are we... but space to this slime? This will sound much more provocative than I intend it, but what's next? Child porn with illustrations?
Sorry.
But it just makes us feel greasy.
Reasonable humans can only move on with some assurance that we have good, strong folks in place to handle this vermin for us. And to them, by the way, thank you.
This is sick
What's the matter with publishing this story? If you suppress it, you're doing just as much harm as the people portrayed in the story. If we don't know who these people are, how can we ever move past this kind of philosophy? This stuff exists, it runs rampant through the morally squalid Main Streets of America in one form or another. If you live in California, you're seeing this kind of "rationale" and treatment of people playing out in the Yes on Prop. 8 campaign.
Yank, can't agree with you more on the Klan....they hope Obama will "lift their boat". They had their butts kicked a few years ago by Morris Dees, of the Southern Poverty Law Center...one Klan lost their assets, including their meeting hall to a woman of color who was the mother of a young man who was lynched for no reason at all in one of those "red neck" states. People like the Klan are so proud of their ignorance, they wear it like a badge of honor. I don't believe they will affect an Obama administration...a good Justice Department will maybe start dealing with "hate crimes" for real.
This website is pro mccain no doubt.....Now if you want to support mccain than do it but this kind of articals does not help mccain but advertise racisim. STOP IT
I disagree with "yankintex" about the "the Beast" being right leaning. this article is proof that information is power. just cause we don't like the views of the racists, doesn't mean we can't be informed about it. Besides they just had a article called "the Hate Monger of Minnesota" taking on the wack job senator. Gotta love the REAL balance
You cannot fight this kind of hatred without acknowledging it's existence and staying informed.
I agree with "Southpaw." Giving ink to these people just fuels their sick objectives, to destroy the fabric of this nation. They long for publicity and attention and even I am contributing to their wishes by weighing in on the matter. Sorry, Tina. We love The Daily Beast, but a little filtering would be nice.
I live in the deep south and hear all the "N" jokes and the threaths againt a black president.But it seems to me they talk a good game while in groups, but get them by their selfs and it's a different story. Most of these so-called nazi's are nothing but working stiff's who worship the all-holy dollar and will talk shit about Obama being President and then punch the time clock if they have a job and bitch about taking Martin Luther King day off.
@TheBlindHog: Of course the disaffected and disempowered racist will be threatened by Obama. My point is that I don't see an increase in numbers or influence of the various ractist movements because Obama is president. I actually think these groups gain momentum in a conservative environment, when their hatred can be disguised and gussied up for public consumption. Marriage Amendment, anyone?
And re the content, I agree with idea of balance in online journalism (if that's the site's objective)...but a perusal of the headlines and nature of various stories regarding the presidential election on TDB doesn't really show balance at all, but a desire to somehow pull down Obama's chances for the sake of...what? A more exciting race?
This is a sad reflection on our state of evolution, but unfortunately a likely scenario for what could happen.
Let us hope stronger elements of the "white" race follow Obama's lead and rise above the trash that seem to all too often steal the limelight. : (
The title of this article is a little suspect, but I appreciated the report.
I wondered at the headline but knew before I read the story that it would be provacative. It was, as evidenced by the comments. I'm aware that the white suprematists love any reason to get stoked together...I've seen them, ordinary Americans by day, bonding over hate by night...but they are hardly a significant piece of the population...and I don't agree with the author that their ilk should gain in power in an Obama administration, Still, a good presentation of the facts.
"It seems like a plot to defame [white nationalists] before the election," wrote another Stormfront member called "tasteofsnowflakes."
As if you and your fellow idiots have any respect from the common population in order to defame...
Whites, blacks, yellows, reds, and even green Martians would all do best to rise above not only "white supremacy," but also Obama. Obama would "lead" to a terrorist appeasing leftist hell with screwball ideas that do nothing but fail. And some will inevitably blame the ensuing catastrophe on Obama being a "colored person," when the problem is the donkey do color of his politics rather than the tan color of his skin. This will feed the new racism, which is far more stubborn a force for ill than was the old racism. The old racism had prejudices, but no empirical data to lean on. It would fade as experience proved the old prejudices wrong. The new racism has both, and will sadly continue to do so until "colored people" themselves take Martin Luther King's dictum to heart and look what's under the skin of their would be savior figures.
I should clarify. I think the story in itself is newsworthy. I think the framing of it is highly misleading. We do need to attack the racism and bigotry head on, but the title almost lends credence to the movement and/or the idea that a vote for Obama is a vote for racists.
Why did you have to link to the white supremest website? A powerful link from here will raise their page rank, thus making it easy for someone to find - looking or not. Also, it is upsetting, offensive and unnecessary to make a point in this article.
Verlene: "Mmmmm, have ya'll tried the Pad Thai? It's good!"
Ray Ray Jr.: "No, but this here basil cashew chicken shore is scruptious. Jimmie Bob, can you make sure we have this at the next hate music concert?"
Jimmie Bob: "Fraid not, Ray Ray. Everbody done said they wanted tapas agin.
Ray Ray Jr.: "Yeah, I 'member now, everbody loves them patatas bravas.
Verlene: "Well, then we kin have Thai at the next cross-burnin'. With extra chile paste--git it?? You know, extra HOT."
Wonders never cease. But historically in America, it seems, the hate movements collapse repeatedly under the weight of their own stupidity.
Wise white families, like mine, welcome a little color into our family tree. Mr. Sun is no longer our friend. Fish bellies die of skin cancer. Witness the GOP candidate's battle. Families that step into the wide world, will be the genetic codes that travel to the stars as ambasadors for the human race.
I don't believe that the link here poses a danger of catapulting these rogues' website to the top of Google's ratings. It doesn't even show on Google to explicit attempts to locate it, although I did find lots of otherwise Balkanized groups who agree heartily to condemn them. I'd credit Google policy towards "hate groups" for their web ignominy. (If Google had the same attitude towards porn, the world consumption of that online smut would doubtless take a nosedive.)
Thank you.
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