Top 5 This Week

Related Posts

How White Supremacists Use Natural Disasters to Recruit

Hurricanes are frightening, and frightened people are easy to recruit into extremist sects. White supremacist groups are using Hurricanes Helene and Milton to do just that.

If you’ve been online at all in the last week, you’ve likely seen memes about foreign aid accompanied pictures of devasted homes or AI-generated survivors. The usual message that goes with these is “not a penny for foreign aid until this is fixed,” usually targeting Israel, Ukraine, or the many countries the United States sends aid to.

These are not spontaneous creations of heartsick Americans. Opposition to foreign aid for white supremacist reasons goes back at least to 1976, when ardent neo-Nazi Pail Fromm formed the Citizens for Foreign Aid Reform. C-FAR used the same types of disasters to drum up anti-immigrant sentiment, playing on Americans’ belief that we help an ungrateful world while receiving nothing in return.

The truth is, other countries offer to rush to our aid after catastrophic storms. Dozens of countries, including Israel and Ukraine, sent everything from money to doctors following Hurricane Katrina. When Hurricane Harvey devastated Houston, the Mexican government sent immediate aid.

Another common lie is that survivors are getting too little money because funds are being distributed on minorities. The immediate emergency dispersal of $750 is treated as all survivors can get even if they lost everything, missing the point that this is simply the first, immediate monetary aid. There is no evidence FEMA is refusing to hand out resources because the American budget is burdened with the cost of illegal immigration or foreign aid. FEMA is operating admirably right now, despite Republicans blocking an increase in funding before this hurricane season.

Sometimes, neo-Nazis make a personal appearance for the cause. In Horseshow Beach, Florida, members of Patriot Front, a group designated as a white supremacy hate group by the Anti-Defamation League, went out to cut up fallen trees and haul debris. They integrate into church groups and other community efforts to repair damage, filming themselves as they do so to prove they are helping and bolster their image.

It’s not dissimilar to how the Yakuza (the Japanese organized crime organizations) operate after earthquakes and Tsunamis. When disaster strikes, they provide meals, blankets, and other services While inarguably a good thing to do, it also allows the Yakuza to expand territory while an area is at its most vulnerable.

Patriot Front is doing the same thing. As one propaganda video puts it, “It is important for American men to gather and help fellow Americans in need, while the federal government is occupied ushering in foreigners and giving them homes and giving them food and giving them water.”

There is a modern parable about Nazis that’s always worth repeating. A guy goes to a hole in the wall bar for a drink, and a nice man in a punk rock jacket covered in patches sits down next to him. The bartender looks at the punk and tells him to leave. The man asks what’s up, and the bartender says he recognized neo-Nazi bands and slogans on the patches.

The parable ends in this quote: These guys come in and it’s always a nice, polite one. And you serve them because you don’t want to cause a scene. And then they become a regular and after awhile they bring a friend. And that dude is cool too. And then they bring friends and the friends bring friends and they stop being cool and then you realize, oh [redacted], this is a Nazi bar now. And it’s too late because they’re entrenched.”

It’s tempting to think that a disaster brings out the best in everyone, even the “bad guys.” One of the most famous panels in Marvel Comics history deals with that exact subject after the September 11 attacks. The truth is, that bad people can do good things and still advance their hateful cause. Every meme decrying foreign aid and every neo-Nazi clearing road debris wants to expand the reach of white supremacy. Any community benefit they cause is merely a side effect to that goal.  

Jef Rouner
Jef Rouner
Jef Rouner is an award-winning freelance journalist, the author of The Rook Circle, and a member of The Black Math Experiment. He lives in Houston where he spends most of his time investigating corruption and strange happenings. Jef has written for Houston Press, Free Press Houston, and Houston Chronicle.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Award-App Footer

Download our award-winning app