The Alt-Right On Campus: What Students Need To Know
An old and familiar poison is being spread on college campuses these days: the idea that America should be a country for white people.
Under the banner of the Alternative Right 鈥 or 鈥渁lt-right鈥 鈥 extremist speakers are touring colleges and universities across the country to recruit students to their brand of bigotry, often igniting protests and making national headlines. Their appearances have inspired a fierce debate over free speech and the direction of the country.
Behind the provocative, youthful and sometimes entertaining facade of the alt-right is a scrum of white nationalists and white supremacists 鈥 mostly young men 鈥 who hate diversity and scorn democratic ideals. They claim that 鈥渨hite identity鈥 is under attack by multicultural forces using 鈥減olitical correctness鈥 and 鈥渟ocial justice鈥 to undermine white people and 鈥渢heir鈥 civilization. Characterized by heavy use of social media and memes, they eschew establishment conservatism and promote the goal of a white ethnostate, or homeland.
As student activists, you can counter this movement.
The Southern Poverty Law Center examines the alt-right, profiles its key figures and exposes its underlying ideologies. We also recommend ways to deconstruct and counter its propaganda, mount peaceful protests, and create alternative events and forums when alt-right speakers are invited or come to your campus.
College campuses are clearly on the frontline of the alt-right鈥檚 battle against multiculturalism. They are targeted for a simple reason: They embrace diversity, tolerance and social justice. They strive for equality and have created safe spaces for students of every gender and identity. College campuses are home to the highest ideals of human rights.
These values are soft targets for the alt-right. College students are curious and receptive to new, even radical, ideas. And universities, by definition, welcome free speech and philosophies of every stripe. Publicly funded schools, in fact, may not prohibit free speech.
It鈥檚 an opportunity the alt-right and other extremists are enthusiastically exploiting to attack egalitarian values and recruit students to their cause. Here are a few examples:
ON THE DAY DONALD TRUMP WAS ELECTED president, students at the University of Central Florida awoke to find posters of white men and women with the headline, 鈥淲e Have a Right to Exist.鈥 Distributed by Vanguard America, one of several new hate groups active on U.S. campuses, it claims nonwhite immigrants are causing 鈥渢he genocide of our people.鈥 Its posters read: 鈥淚magine a Muslim Free America,鈥 鈥淔ree Yourself from Cultural Marxism,鈥 and 鈥淧rotect the Family 鈥 Reject Degeneracy.鈥
WITHIN DAYS OF THE ELECTION, white nationalist leader Richard Spencer, who is often credited with coining the term alt-right, parlayed a raucous appearance at Texas A&M into a national audience.His theme: 鈥淎merica belongs to white men.鈥 At a Washington rally that drew 300 white nationalists shortly after the presidential election, he led a chant of 鈥淗ail Trump! Hail our people! Hail victory,鈥 as many in the audience sieg heiled.
TWO WEEKS AFTER TRUMP TOOK OFFICE, a tour stop by alt-right provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos was canceled at the University of California at Berke颅ley because of violent, anti-fascist protests. Despite his bigoted views, the host Berkeley College Republicans had described Yiannopoulos as 鈥渁 man who bathes in sheer and unmitigated awesomeness.鈥 Within hours of the cancellation, Trump tweeted: 鈥淚f U.C. Berkeley does not allow free speech and practices violence on innocent people with a different point of view - NO FEDERAL FUNDS?鈥
The term alt-right emerged in 2008 to describe a form of white nationalism composed of far-right ideologies expressing a belief that 鈥渨hite identity鈥 is under attack. Despite the new name, the alt-right is rooted in the familiar fascism and white supremacy that existed before World War II. It has simply been repackaged for an age that has seen gains by women, people of color, the LGBT community and others 鈥 an era of civil rights progress.
While this progress has left far-right extremists and hatemongers seething, they鈥檝e been eager to exploit the anxiety of a changing world and expand their ranks. And during the 2016 presidential campaign, the xenophobia and white nationalist beliefs of the alt-right entered the political mainstream.
The movement became widely known when Stephen Bannon, the chair of Breitbart News, was named Trump鈥檚 chief campaign strategist. A month earlier, at the Republican National Convention, in July 2016, Bannon had touted Breitbart as 鈥渢he platform for the alt-right.鈥
As the news media began investigating Breitbart, alt-right advocates began a noisy campaign for Trump, whose candidacy electrified their movement by promising to stop all Muslim travelers at the border and deport millions of undocumented immigrants 鈥 criminals and 鈥渞apists,鈥 Trump called them.
Four days after the inauguration, white nationalist leader Richard Spencer told a TV interviewer, 鈥淭rump is a white nationalist, so to speak. He is alt-right whether he likes it or not.鈥
Trump eventually disavowed the movement, tepidly, but when he named Bannon as his chief strategist in the White House, the alt-right declared victory and the movement鈥檚 world views made headlines.
Though the movement weighs in on issues such as Israel, immigration and globalization, its central theme is white nationalism, which can be boiled down to one sentence uttered by Spencer at the first national gathering of alt-right advocates in Washington after Trump鈥檚 election.
鈥淎merica was, until this last generation, a white country designed for ourselves and our posterity,鈥 Spencer declared. 鈥淚t is our creation, it is our inheritance, and it belongs to us.鈥
The alt-right revels in notoriety. Much of its drawing power is the provocative and crude manner in which alt-right speakers rail against the established order. Posing as underdogs, they hurl insults against the walls of authority, decency and civil discourse using memes, juvenile humor and pseudo颅intellectual arguments to deliver their message.
Their favorite bludgeon is 鈥減olitical correctness.鈥 They charge that progressive college campuses are mired in meaningless, discriminatory rules as they embrace and protect individual differences. They claim these efforts are appeasements to individuals who might have their feelings hurt. But to call something 鈥減olitically correct鈥 is a cheap and easy way to dismiss community norms and basic human decency, and to undermine the fundamental American values of equality, justice and fairness.
As outrageous as their comments may be, they are protected by the First Amendment, except in extreme cases in which a speaker incites violence, for example. In other words, people have the right to express their views, even if those views are loathsome. No matter how repugnant one may find a speaker鈥檚 views, as long as the college has a poli颅cy of allowing student groups to invite people from outside their campus to speak, university administrators cannot pick and choose based on the views the speaker holds. Neither other students nor administrators can stop someone from speaking merely because they dislike the speaker鈥檚 ideas.
This is not to say that words don鈥檛 matter. In the 10 days following Trump鈥檚 election, a victory won after a campaign marked by rhetoric that demonized and degraded immigrants, Muslims, women and others, the Southern Poverty Law Center documented nearly 900 bias-related incidents across the country. Many of the perpetrators referenced Trump or his campaign slogans.
And it鈥檚 not to say that students and administrators can鈥檛 take a stand against the hateful rhetoric and ideology of the alt-right. There are steps students can take to cultivate their campus as a welcoming place that celebrates its diversity and can withstand the hateful ideas of the alt-right.
When an alt-right personality is scheduled to speak on campus, the most effective course of action is to de颅prive the speaker of the thing he or she wants most 鈥 a spectacle. Alt-right personalities know their cause is helped by news footage of large jeering crowds, heated confrontations and outright violence at their events. It allows them to play the victim and gives them a larger platform for their racist message.
Denying an alt-right speaker of such a spectacle is the worst insult they can endure.
While there鈥檚 nothing wrong with peaceful student protests against a hateful ideology, it鈥檚 best to draw attention to hope instead. Hold an alternative event 鈥 away from the alt-right event 鈥 to highlight your cam颅pus鈥 commitment to inclusion and our nation鈥檚 democratic values.
What鈥檚 more, take action to inoculate the campus against such extremism before these speakers appear on campus. The following steps can help prevent your college or university from being exploited by the alt-right.
THE TIME TO DEAL WITH THE ALT-RIGHT IS BEFORE IT ARRIVES ON CAMPUS.
Is your school being targeted? What group is likely to invite an alt-right speaker? Has it issued an invitation? What office approves or prepares venues for outside speakers? Check with campus security for a heads-up on controversial speakers. Study this brochure. Search for stories about the alt-right and extremists appearing at oth颅er campuses.
RESEARCH THE ALT-RIGHT鈥橲 HISTORY AND VIEWS.
Learn about the true meaning behind its message. Beyond its sophomoric humor and pseudointellec颅tual veneer is a fringe movement driven by a small group of bigoted young men.
MEET WITH CAMPUS GROUPS TARGETED BY THE ALT-RIGHT. ENLIST THEIR SUPPORT.
This could include student of color groups, LGBT groups and Mus颅lim student associations. Ask if they will help raise awareness. Encourage individuals to tell their sto颅ries of being targeted. They can speak in public meetings, newspaper stories, video interviews and online forums. A single story can change hearts, creating the foundation for a wall against bigotry in the community.
APPROACH THE HOST GROUP INVITING AN ALT-RIGHT SPEAKER TO CAMPUS.
Go to its meetings. Take cop颅ies of this brochure. Outline what you鈥檝e learned. Relay your concerns. If the group is a conserva颅tive or young Republican group, make it clear this is not an anti-Trump campaign. This is an anti-racist campaign. Ask the hosts why they are inviting the speaker. Is it purely political? Is it to foster honest debate? Or is it sophomoric theater at the expense of fellow students? Do they understand what the alt-right wants? Have they viewed their talks? Have they considered the potential for harm? If possible, have a student of color or member of another targeted group tell their story to the stu颅dent group. The story should demonstrate that the invitation will have serious, painful consequences for a fellow student or group of students. Finally, ask the group not to host the alt-right or to rescind an invitation.
CULTIVATE A COMMUNITY OPPOSED TO BIGOTRY.
In addition to groups typically targeted by the move颅ment, enlist support from other groups, such as po颅litical organizations, athletes, unions, faculty mem颅bers and alumni. Hold strategy sessions with them and design an action plan. You will find that others will join you if you summon the courage to speak out against hate speech. The community you cre颅ate will last long after the speech that brought you together.
RAISE AWARENESS IN THE CLASSROOM.
Browse the course catalog for diversity courses and list the pro颅fessors. Divide the list and visit every professor during their office hours. Don鈥檛 rely on email, which can be ignored. Give them a brochure. Ask them to create a class assignment on this subject. Offer to come to the class and speak for a few minutes about your concerns with the alt-right.
RICHARD SPENCER
Born in 1978 and raised in Tex颅as, Richard Bertrand Spencer has become one of the country鈥檚 most successful young white nation颅alist leaders. He鈥檚 also credited with coining the term 鈥渁lt-right鈥 in 2008.
A year earlier, he had dropped out of Duke Uni颅versity鈥檚 Ph.D. program in modern European intel颅lectual history and taken a job as assistant editor at聽American Conservative聽magazine, where he was later fired for his radical views, according to former colleague J. Arthur Bloom.
Spencer then became executive editor of the pa颅leoconservative website Taki鈥檚 Magazine. In 2010, he founded AlternativeRight, a supremacy-themed webzine aimed at the 鈥渋ntellectual right wing,鈥 where he remained until joining the National Policy Institute (NPI), a white nationalist think tank. NPI aims 鈥渢o elevate the consciousness of whites, en颅sure our biological and cultural continuity, and pro颅tect our civil rights.鈥 Spencer became president of the group in 2011, following the death of its chair颅man, longtime white nationalist Louis R. Andrews.
Encouraged by his controversial and widely cov颅ered appearance at Texas A&M in December 2016, Spencer launched a short-lived campus speak颅ing tour. Wearing a haircut patterned after Hit颅ler youth, Spencer veers between dense academic monologues on identity and exuberant hijinks, such as holding a sign in public that reads: 鈥淲anna talk to a racist?鈥
In April 2017, he was scheduled to speak at Au颅burn University in Alabama. The university ini颅tially issued a statement making it clear that it de颅plored Spencer鈥檚 views 鈥 an action within its rights, as the First Amendment doesn鈥檛 require public uni颅versities to be neutral when racist speakers come to town.
Auburn later canceled the speech out of fear that Spencer鈥檚 presence would provoke violence, even though the university was perfectly capable of pro颅viding security. Spencer challenged the decision in court and won, an outcome that allowed him to portray himself as a First Amendment hero.
When Spencer finally spoke at Auburn, hundreds of students gathered outside the venue to confront far fewer white nationalists who gathered to show their support for Spencer 鈥 an approach the 人兽性交 does not endorse. Three people were arrested for disorderly conduct. The confrontation generated ample media attention for Spencer.
MILO YIANNOPOULOS
The most flamboyant alt-right speaker, British citizen Milo Yiannopoulos was born Milo Hanrahan in 1984 to a Greek father and British mother. A deliberately offensive provo颅cateur who calls himself the 鈥淒angerous Faggot,鈥 he has spoken at dozens of colleges.
Yiannopoulos is a college dropout who was in颅terested in literature and theater. He also pub颅lished poetry before becoming a technology jour颅nalist. Named technology editor at Breitbart News by Chairman Stephen Bannon, Yiannopoulos at颅tacked women programmers in the video game in颅dustry as sociopaths whose games demonize men. When tech bloggers called him a misogynist, he la颅beled them 鈥渏ustice warriors,鈥 a term that became a favorite on his 鈥淒angerous Faggot鈥 speaking tour of college campuses.
Yiannopoulos is a canny, quick standup who elicits guffaws from college students by mocking a wide range of people and societal norms. He called it ironic trolling. His Twitter account, which had 338,000 followers, was permanently suspended af颅ter he led an online harassment campaign of Les颅lie Jones, the star of the 2016 Ghostbusters reboot.
In 2017, after comments surfaced of Yiannopou颅los seemingly condoning sex between men and boys, he lost a lucrative book deal and resigned from Breitbart. He has since announced plans for a come颅back by launching his own multimedia company, Milo Inc., a venture 鈥渄edicated to the destruction of politi颅cal correctness,鈥 the聽Los Angeles Times聽reported.
STEPHEN BANNON
Before he became the chief strategist for Donald Trump, Stephen Bannon, 63, was the chief enabler of the alt-right movement. Without Bannon鈥檚 ascension to the Oval Office, the movement would likely still be confined to the dark corners of the internet. Born to a working class family in Norfolk, Virginia, Bannon joined the Navy and worked his way up to a Pentagon job.
With an MBA from Harvard, he parlayed work at Goldman Sachs into ownership of a Hollywood production company. While screening聽In the Face of Evil, his documentary on Ronald Reagan, he met Andrew Breitbart, founder of the conservative news website that bears his name. When Breitbart died suddenly in 2012, Bannon took over Breitba颅rt News, and the site took a sharp turn. With Ban颅non at the helm, it attacked the GOP establishment under what he described as a 鈥渘ationalist鈥 ideolo颅gy similar to the right-wing ideology that has swept parts of Europe.
Bannon, who denies he is racist, presided over a news empire where he, as聽The Guardian聽wrote, 鈥渁ggressively pushed stories against immigrants, and supported linking minorities to terrorism and crime.鈥 Under Bannon, Breitbart published a call to 鈥渉oist [the Confederate flag] high and fly it with pride鈥 only two weeks after the Charleston massa颅cre, while the country was still reeling from the hor颅rors of the murders. It also published an extremist anti-Muslim tract in which the author wrote that 鈥渞ape culture鈥 is 鈥渋ntegral鈥 to Islam.
JARED TAYLOR
A worldly scholar and white na颅tionalist, Jared Taylor was born in 1951 to mission颅aries working in Japan and educated at Yale and the Institut d鈥橢tudes Politiques de Paris. Fluent in Jap颅anese and French, he began developing a scholar颅ly excuse for racism in 1990 when he founded the New Century Foundation, a think tank that pro颅motes 鈥渞esearch鈥 arguing for white superiority.
His now-discontinued magazine,聽American Re颅naissance, focused on research claiming links be颅tween race and IQ, as well as eugenics, the de颅bunked 鈥渟cience鈥 of breeding better humans. Taylor has said that blacks and Hispanics are a 鈥済e颅netic drag鈥 on Western society.
Taylor is notorious for聽The Color of Crime, a 1990s booklet that tried to use crime statistics to 鈥減rove鈥 that blacks are far more criminally prone than whites and that argued, based on a misun颅derstanding of what constitutes a hate crime, that black 鈥渉ate crimes鈥 against whites exponentially outnumber the reverse. The booklet remains a sta颅ple in white supremacist circles.
GREG JOHNSON
The work of Greg Johnson makes him one of a handful of academics provid颅ing a philosophical grounding for the alt-right and other movements.
Johnson writes that he was 鈥渞ed-pilled鈥 in 2000 at a white nationalist gathering in Atlanta. After hearing Holocaust-denier David Ir颅ving, Johnson began publishing journals and books to 鈥渄econstruct the hegemony of multicultural, egalitarian, and anti-white ideas and create a pro-white counter-hegemony in its place.鈥
After a stint as editor of聽The Occidental Quarter颅ly, a journal that鈥檚 a favorite among academic racists, he founded Counter-Currents Publishing in 2010. As of late 2016, it had published more than 30 books, ac颅cording to an interview with Johnson on the Count颅er-Currents website. The books include his own titles,聽Confessions of a Reluctant Hater聽补苍诲听Truth, Justice & a Nice White Country. As of late 2016, Counter-Currents had also churned out more than 5,000 articles and 200 podcasts.
Johnson boasts that he has organized 鈥渕ore than 10 White Nationalist weekend conferences and dozens of smaller events.鈥 The driving force behind his prolific output may be best summed up in his own words: 鈥淸W]hen our values and worldview have sufficiently permeated the culture, it will be possible for White Nationalists to gain actual political power and put our ideas into effect.鈥
DAVID HOROWITZ
Born into an American communist family in 1939, David Horowitz was a founding intellectual member of the New Left in the 1960s and a onetime collaborator with the Black Panther Party. He turned away from the movement he helped found after a female colleague was murdered in San Francisco in 1974. Horowitz was convinced that members of the Panthers were involved.
He turned to the radical right and became a prolific writer of anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant propaganda. The David Horowitz Freedom Center has published pamphlets with names like聽Black Skin Privilege and the American Dream聽补苍诲听The Muslim Brotherhood in the Obama Administration. He called President Obama 鈥渁n evil man鈥 who is 鈥渟ystematically destroying America.鈥
Horowitz鈥檚 annual 鈥淩estoration Weekend鈥 and 鈥淭he Retreat鈥 weekend focus on anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant policies. Past attendees include political figures such as U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, former Rep. Michele Bachmann, Secretary of Energy Rick Perry, and John Bolton, former U.S. ambassador to the U.N.
He honored Milo Yiannopoulos in 2016. Horowitz鈥檚 group also worked with Yiannopoulos on a program against 鈥渟anctuary campuses.鈥 Horowitz has also underwritten a California col颅lege campaign called 鈥淪top the Jew Hatred on Campus,鈥 which attacks efforts to boycott Israel. In an attempt to intimidate, it used posters that named students and faculty involved in such boycotts.
MATTHEW HEIMBACH
Born in 1991, Matthew Heimbach is considered the face of a new genera颅tion of white nationalists. He is a regular speaker on the radical-right lecture circuit.
While a history student at Towson University in Maryland, he founded the White Student Union and organized a student night patrol with flashlights and pepper spray to counter what he described as a 鈥渂lack crime wave.鈥 In 2012, 鈥渞ace realist鈥 Jared Taylor spoke to the White Student Union at Heimbach鈥檚 invitation. Taylor is the founder of the white nationalist New Century Foundation.
After Towson graduated in 2013, his White Student Union was folded into the Traditionalist Youth Network, a new white nationalist orga颅nization cloaking itself in 鈥渢raditionalism鈥 that was founded by Heimbach and his father-in-law, Matthew Parrott. In late 2014, Heimbach assumed a leadership role in the League of the South as the neo-Confederate hate group鈥檚 training director.
Uninhibited and raw in his rhetoric, Heimbach has suggested that African Americans could find a homeland in the South or 鈥渁reas like Detroit,鈥 char颅itably adding: 鈥淸W]e don鈥檛 have to be antagonistic towards them.鈥 He has also said that we 鈥渟houldn鈥檛 give up California just yet. Because it truly is beauti颅ful in terms of weather, but it鈥檚 full of Mexicans and that鈥檚 sort of a problem.鈥
MIKE ENOCH
If you can stomach the ugly bigotry, Mike Enoch鈥檚 website, The Right Stuff, is a prim颅er for some of the lingo used by neo-Nazis and the alt-right. From 鈥渘iggertech鈥 (mediocre, gaudy ob颅jects) to 鈥渙venworthy鈥 (anything improved by im颅mediate incineration) to the 鈥渆choes鈥 meme (put颅ting triple parentheses around the names of people online suspected of being Jewish), it can be found on The Right Stuff.
Raised in a New Jersey suburb, Enoch, whose real name is Mike Peinovich, produces a podcast, The Daily Shoah, in which he rails against Mus颅lims, establishment conservatives and Jews. The podcast, which has reportedly garnered as many as 100,000 regular listeners, allowed Enoch, who is in his 30s, to be considered one of the most influen颅tial purveyors of alt-right propaganda. The online magazine Salon described Enoch as someone who 鈥渞outinely cracked jokes about killing Jewish peo颅ple and forcibly deporting Muslims and people of African descent.鈥
When anti-fascist activists alleged in January 2017 that his wife was Jewish, The Daily Shoah co-host 鈥淏ulbasaur鈥 tweeted that Enoch belonged in a gas chamber himself. Enoch appeared months later at an alt-right rally in Washington, D.C., as a speaker and railed against the Jews. 鈥淲hen you talk about Jewish privilege, which is objectively provable, we can prove it,鈥 he said. 鈥淲ho鈥檚 in control of the Fed颅eral Reserve Bank? Who鈥檚 in control of the media? Who鈥檚 in control of our foreign policy? Jews. We know that it鈥檚 Jews.鈥
ANDREW ANGLIN
Born in 1984, Andrew Anglin is the founder of the neo-Nazi Daily Stormer, the na颅tion鈥檚 leading extremist website, which aptly takes its name from the gutter Nazi propaganda sheet known as聽Der St眉rmer.聽True to that vintage, Anglin is infa颅mous for the crudity of his language and for mobiliz颅ing his online troll army to harass perceived enemies.
Anglin grew up in Ohio and was radicalized after discovering the work of Texas radio show host Alex Jones, one of the most prolific conspiracy theorists in contemporary America.
Created as a 鈥渘ews鈥 site, the Daily Stormer en颅courages online trolls and a militia for a coming race war. The website, which has established 31 physical chapters in the United States and more in Canada, has been designated a hate group by the 人兽性交.
Those who have posted on the website include Dylann Roof, who massacred nine African Ameri颅cans in Charleston in 2015. Among Anglin鈥檚 favorite trolls is 鈥淲eev,鈥 the pseudonym of Andrew Auern颅heimer, who has hacked printers on university cam颅puses to unleash a flood of swastikas and white su颅premacy fliers.
In December 2016, Anglin joined Richard Spen颅cer and Mike Enoch (pseudonym for Mike Peinovich) on a radio show in which they referred to themselves as 鈥淭he First Triumvirate.鈥 The move was a bid for unity among three leaders of the frac颅tious alt-right. Following the high-profile doxing of several hosts from The Daily Shoah, one of the alt-right鈥檚 most popular radio programs, Anglin took to the Daily Stormer to take up for Peinovich after it was alleged that his wife is Jewish.
In 2017, the 人兽性交, along with its co-counsel, filed suit in federal court against Anglin for orchestrat颅ing a harassment campaign that relentlessly terror颅ized a Jewish woman and her family with anti-Se颅mitic threats and messages. The lawsuit describes how Anglin used the Daily Stormer to publish ar颅ticles urging his followers to launch a 鈥渢roll storm鈥 against the family, which received more than 700 harassing messages.
NATHAN DAMIGO
A 30-year-old former Marine corporal, Nathan Damigo started the group 鈥淚den颅tity Evropa鈥 after reading the work of former KKK chief David Duke while serving five years in prison for armed robbery. His group, whose fliers have ap颅peared at dozens of campuses across the country as part of its 鈥#ProjectSiege,鈥 is a reimagining of the defunct National Youth Front, the youth arm of the white nationalist American Freedom Party, which Damigo also led. Members must be of 鈥淓uropean, non-Semitic heritage.鈥
Identity Evropa was founded in March 2016. It hit the ground running just months later over the July Fourth weekend, when supporters posted fliers pro颅moting 鈥淓uropean identity and solidarity鈥 in 17 cit颅ies. Addressing a class at Cal State Stanislaus, Damigo called himself an 鈥渋dentitarian鈥 鈥 a reference to a rac颅ist European movement 鈥 and rejected terms like 鈥渞ac颅ist鈥 and 鈥渟upremacist鈥 as 鈥渁nti-white hate speech.鈥
PROUD BOYS
For Gavin McInnes, the Proud Boys organization he founded is a 鈥減ro-West fraternal organization.鈥 Others, however, describe it as the military arm of the alt-right, eager to clash with an颅ti-fascist protesters. Although there initially aren鈥檛 any overtly racist themes, it sounds quite similar to a neo-Nazi 鈥渇ight club鈥 called the 鈥淒IY Division.鈥
The Proud Boys reportedly have a four-step ini颅tiation process. It starts with a prospect declaring himself a 鈥淧roud Boy,鈥 suiting up in Fred Perry polo shirts with yellow stripes, similar to those worn by skinheads. The fourth and final step is brawling with anti-fascists at public rallies.
Its founder, McInnes, is also the co-founder of聽Vice, although he and the magazine severed ties a decade ago. More recently, he has been a frequent guest on Fox News and a contributor for the racist website VDARE, where he denigrated Muslims and called Asian Americans 鈥渟lopes鈥 and 鈥渞iceballs.鈥
FRATERNAL ORDER OF ALT-KNIGHTS
Sporting the clever acronym 鈥淔OAK,鈥 the Fraternal Order of Alt- Knights is a fight-club 鈥渇raternity鈥 of young, white, pro-Trump men formed, its organizers claim, to de颅fend the free-speech rights of alt-right leaders and engage in street fighting.
FOAK鈥檚 formation was announced in April 2017 by Kyle Chapman, a California activist arrested ear颅lier that month in a clash in Berkeley between an颅ti-fascist protesters and pro-Trump demonstra颅tors. Chapman, who uses the internet meme 鈥淏ased Stickman,鈥 says his group is the 鈥渢actical defensive arm鈥 of the Proud Boys, another group that shows up at pro-Trump rallies looking to rumble with counter-protesters.
鈥淲e don鈥檛 fear the fight. We are the fight,鈥 Chap颅man said in a social media post announcing FOAK鈥檚 formation.
