ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author advances the argument that “white nationalism,” which is usually conceptualized as an extremist project, is better understood as fundamental to the entire history of the United States. The author contends that white nationalist groups and social movements are not separated from the larger society, but are socially, politically, and ideologically connected to the mainstream in ways that reinforce white supremacy. In short, white nationalism is American nationalism, white racism is American racism. As Toni Morrison famously wrote “‘American’ means white.”
Historically, white nationalism begins with the project of creating the United States as a “white” nation that was built from various European colonial beachheads. Both the “ethnic cleansing” of Native Americans and the enslavement of Africans were legitimized by the creation of “whiteness” amidst the evolution or racial ideologies. Throughout the history of the United States, the ebb and flow of the assertion of “whiteness” and the emergence of nationalist movements have been linked to periods when “white” interests were perceived as being under threat by such forces as immigration or the end of enslavement and the establishment of Reconstruction. In all cases, voices at the margins were merely amplifying those at the center.
