Three White Women

 

 

A book titled “Sisters in Hate- American Women on the Front Lines of White Nationalism” in the September 6, 2020 of The New York Times received my attention. According to the article, 47% of white women voted for Trump in 2016 suggesting the influence of women. Further, it was the women of the Confederacy that organized to build the various monuments in the South. Could white women be the driving forces of white nationalist-Supremacist hatred? These white women supported the belief that the country should remain predominately white and governed by white people. This essay addresses the book review.

The author interviewed 3 women, born in 1979. Corina, from Oregon, worked as a porn star, bodybuilder and a professional embalmer. Ayla grew up in Las Vegas, was a stay-at-home mother of six. She became known online as the “Wife with the Purpose” who spewed hatred toward anyone whose life choices were different. She flirted with the feminist version of New Age culture that included pagan goddess worship and veganism. The third woman Lena, once a self-described grunge puppy from the Pacific Northwest now lives in Charleston, South Carolina where she and her Swedish husband run a popular website radio show that promotes apocalyptic racist propaganda.

The review highlighted that the following as important aspects of these 3 racist women: 1. The importance of repetition: the more you hear something repeated with conviction, the harder it is to believe that it is not true. 2. Contemporary America may be enough to incline a person towards conspiracies. 3.  Americans take for granted what Americans are lacking: universal healthcare, paid sick leave, parental leave, guaranteed vacations and other benefits. These are rights in the Scandinavian countries .In our country they are privileges to be granted or denied by an employer’s whims. The absence of these benefits or rights increases one’s anxiety, social instability, and a fleeting resentment that easily turns violent. An 18-year-old can buy an assault weapon but not a bottle of beer. 4. White nationalists however own houses, have average incomes, are employed and identify as middle-class 4. These three women were influenced by the lies ingested on right wing radio and websites. 5. These three women denied they hated black people, Jews or Latinos. If other groups can rally around their history, why not white people?

If I were interviewing these three women, I would’ve focused on their childhood history with parents. The character structure of their parents provides insight regarding their attitudes toward others different than them. Prejudice and hostile attitudes in children are learned and developed by kindergarten age. Later on their attitudes, as a result of experiences and interactions, become more crystallized and conform to the prejudice of parents. Learning is paramount for the developing prejudice. Parental verbalizations come from the direct and indirect teachings and reflect negative attitudes. In other words, children learn about hate, discrimination and prejudice through the statements made by parents. These parents often have little insight into their underlying feelings toward minority groups. They also teach discrimination by restricting social relationships and by approving or disapproving of friendships. Of course children also acquire prejudice when they identify with various adults and with their peer groups. We also know these prejudiced parents are highly authoritarian in their parenting practices and have a we or good versus them or bad conception of right and wrong mentality.

Knowing more about their childhood and their parents would provide a more detailed picture regarding their hatred beliefs. I also would’ve focused on self-esteem, interpersonal relationships, school achievement, the displacement of their anger in finding a scapegoat, and the relationship with their parents and siblings would also be examined as they are important factors that contribute to the development of prejudice.

Personality development and intellectual capacity also are clues into the development of prejudice. For instance, these three women listened to right-wing radio and frequented right-wing websites to gain information. Of course they were easily manipulated by listening to and reading information that was consonant with their beliefs that was presented over and over. Hearing the same lies over and over became their reality. Intellectually, they were rigid in approaching complex problems and did not seek out contrary information. They were looking for simple solutions and had difficulty challenging those ideas. They were unable to structure and use rational thought and wisdom in assessing the hate in which they heard and read. Their ignorance was reinforced.

 

We are not born with prejudice but quickly learn about it through our upbringing. We also don’t wake up in our 40s and then initially realize that we hate. Very early in life, because of our design, we express our aggression toward others that we love and others that we don’t love. Often when were not allowed to express our aggression, against our parents, we displace that anger or aggression towards another. Hate, prejudice, and anger are all major components. Find someone that hates and you’ll find aggression. Find someone that’s prejudiced and you’ll find aggression. Find someone that’s aggressive and look for the human targets. Moving toward somebody in a negative way as in hate, prejudice and aggression are apparent in our current state of affairs.

We must not forget that the first slaves were brought to our country over 400 years ago. We had a Civil War over the emancipation of blacks roughly 160 years ago and the assassination of Abraham Lincoln followed. With Johnson’s Great Society, the South went from Democrat to Republican. In the 1990s, the political process with Newt Gingrich became more toxic and stagnant. Historically, our country elected Barack Obama as president. The backlash happened and we now have the openly white racist in the White House. Moreover, the FBI has to deal with the overwhelming increase of domestic violence white militia hate and conspiracy groups. This is history.

There are many contributing societal factors and influences regarding racism. With the population changing from white to black and Brown, is threatening for some and increases the potential for more division in this country. We’re certainly not the United States of America but the polarized states of America when it comes to race. The separation is apparent and concrete in terms of social justice, law enforcement, economic and educational opportunity. Blacks are okay and can get ahead in the entertainment and sports milieu. We cheer for them but do not want them to move next door. Will property values go down? Athletically, blacks  become superstars as in Steph Curry, James Harden  and Lebron James in the NBA; Barry Bonds, Ricky Henderson, Dave Stewart, Marcus Semien in the MLB ; Russell Wilson  and Patrick Mahone in the NFL;  Denzel Washington ,  Morgan Freeman, Beyoncé and John legend in entertainment industry to name a few. Perhaps, Kamala Harris will become the next black superstar. That would bring a smile to John Lewis and Martin Luther King Jr. The experiment of the United States continues.