White Nationalism Revisited: Demographic Dystopia and White Identity Politics

Abstract

Two stimuli, both dating to 2002, drove me to write this paper.  The first (and by far the more visceral) was my attendance at the biannual conference of American Renaissance (AR)- the flagship publication of the sector of the American far right considered herein. The conference was held in Washington, D.C. suburb of Herndon, Virginia, and it reflected this demographic. It was attended by some 250 mostly well-dressed, mostly middle-aged white men-along with a smattering of women-a number of whom held advanced degrees of one flavor or another.  There is nothing too surprising in this: the ignorant redneck stereotype of the racist right has always been more hopeful polemic than reality.