Racial Purity

Racial purity is a major point in white nationalist ideology. This idea influences most, if not all of their thoughts and actions. As we have seen they use themselves as victims of racial oppression, that racial differences are rooted into the history of our country, race has been used in a variety of ways to create a hierarchy and to justify the perceived superiority of whites to white nationalists, and this is just a few of many examples that we could discuss. Ferber states in the early chapters of her book, " the various groups share the belief that races are essentially and eternally different, believe in the necessity of keeping the races separate, and believe that miscegenation is the "ultimate abomination." An abomination because it is the greatest threat to white purity. The picture to the left with the quote referring to "The Jew as a Desecrator of Racial Purity" When it comes to music, the idea of racial purity is important. More than anything, it is used to promote the idea, create solidarity among members and reinforce prior beliefs or racial purity. Although some think it is a good recruiting tool, it is more of an enforcer. Now that the internet has become a large database for music, especially white nationalist music, it is easy for the manifest functions of their music to work as intended. Unlike a decade or two ago when white nationalist music was only a slight reinforcement of their beliefs, since it was so hard to come by and many did not have access to it. Racial purity is the main theme among white nationalist music. You can see this first hand by just going onto YouTube and searching "white nationalism music." You will see such songs as, White Pride Worldwide, Aryan Pride, Land of The White and White Rider, by popular bands such as Smiling White Faces, The Final War, and Skrewdriver. The names of the song show a little more obviously this theme of white purity, but the band names often do too. Though white nationalists refer to it as having white pride there is often purity undertones (though not very subtle) and if it does not, like I mentioned, their pride stems from the idea of racial purity because of their beliefs in inherent differences and white superiority.

Daniels suggests, "The least recognized--and hence, most insidious--threat posed by white supremacy online is the epistemological menace to our accumulation and production of knowledge about race, racism, and civil rights in the digital era. As David Duke suggests in the above epigraph, his goal in bringing white supremacy to the Internet is racial "enlightenment" by making "the truth" available to millions. Duke's brand of white supremacy undermines hard-won political battles for racial and ethnic equality rearticulating an essentialist notion of white racial purity borrowing the rhetoric of civil rights. This is an example of the epistemology of white supremacy, "an inverted epistemology," as philosopher Charles W. Mills has noted, "an epistemology of ignorance," ironically resulting in whites generally being ""unable to understand the world that they themselves have made." The epistemology of white supremacy reinforces the white racial frame by allowing whites to retreat from pluralistic civic engagement into a whites-only digital space where the can question the cultural values of tolerance and racial equality unchallenged outside that frame." This is an incredibly important point, and though not exactly the same the use of inaccurate statistics is used often by these groups. Obviously not in the music, but if for instance you are looking up white nationalist music you are bound to come across a video like this one (this particular video was in a white nationalist playlist, so I just assumed it was a song)...

So this epistemology of ignorance generates "truths" that are clearly inaccurate and often true facts taken out of contexts,, yet can influence the thoughts of people that are "mainstream" through time through their own ignorance. So even though theses are not generally problems you find in the music, it is definitely related and easy to see when searching for music.

In class we often talk about how people view white nationalists as extremists and not a "normal person." So, when I stumbled upon a last.fm page for Stormfront even I was surprised. Last.fm is a music site that tracks the music you listen to and suggests music you may like (like Facebook for music). This is just another way that white nationalists influence the mainstream and vice versa. Which makes the notions of white purity infiltrate mainstream society, even if it is only a miniscule amount, and a place for white nationalists to converse and create solidarity among members just as anyone else can.