“The Whites…”

An ugly and violent upward trend divides us along ethnic lines today. In order to stay sane in the face of this spreading and dangerous hate, one need only look to Walter Sobchak, the right-wing nut job Vietnam vet (and convert to Judaism!) from The Big Lebowski…

His utter disdain for his own dirty underwear — “the whites” — drips from his voice and stamps itself in a smug look. His wagging tongue elicits the gagging at the back of my throat at the news from Christchurch and elsewhere. Fifty Muslims slain for practicing their religion in their own house of worship.

The white supremacists…

The Anti-Defamation League recently reported that white supremacy incidents across the United States increased by 182 percent from 2017 to 2018. In 2017 white supremacists marched and shouted and plastered the land with their hateful material – racist, misogynist, anti-Semitic, anti-Islam – 421 times. That increased to 1,187 in 2018.

Groups like Identity Evropa, Patriot Front, the Daily Stormer Book Clubs, Vanguard America and the National Socialist Legion, are behind most such incidents.

My home state of Virginia — scene of a deadly ‘Unite the Right’ rally and infamous torch march — saw 121 such instances last year. What to do?

I don’t have a solution. I’m bemused by the hatred of these individuals (they would call it self-love I suppose, an Orwellian twist). But I am comforted by one thing: their efforts to remain anonymous.

In their need to hide under cover of darkness they show the frailty of their vision. I would like to say let’s shame them, but already they are ashamed. Already they are skittish and childlike, infantile photo-bombers appearing and disappearing across our landscape.

We must simply resist. We must recognize their propaganda for the dirty laundry it is. And love our neighbors all the more.

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