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In the midst of a critical electoral climate, a supremacist march emerges again, this time in Nashville, Tennessee, where around 150 hooded members of a far-right white supremacist group demonstrated, an act that organizations condemned amid a growing wave of hate crimes.
Thus, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the largest Muslim civil rights and defense organization in the country, condemned this act carried out on July 6 by the group that calls itself "Patriot Front." (Patriot Front).
And men covering their faces with white cloths, sunglasses and baseball caps marched through downtown Nashville with a banner with the slogan "Reclaim America." (Take Back America) and a Confederate flag.
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, Patriot Front is a white nationalist hate group that split from Vanguard America following the deadly "Unite the Righ" rally. in Charlottesville, Virginia, on August 12, 2017?.
Earlier this year, a neo-Nazi march took place in Nashville.
"People of all faiths and backgrounds must speak out and condemn those who spread intolerance and division in our society," said CAIR national communications director Ibrahim Hooper. ?Intolerance in all its forms can only thrive when the majority that rejects hate remains silent.?
In that sense, he recalled that, earlier this year, CAIR condemned a march by the white supremacist group in Charleston, West Virginia; a white supremacist rally held in Portsmouth, New Hampshire; a neo-Nazi rally in Greenwich, Connecticut, and white supremacist demonstrations in Cumberland, Rhode Island, and Paducah, Kentucky; as well as an alleged demonstration by an armed neo-Nazi in Valparaiso, Indiana.
Hopper said CAIR and the American Muslim community stand in solidarity with all those who challenge anti-Semitism, systemic anti-Black racism, xenophobia, Islamophobia, white supremacy and all other forms of bigotry.
According to media reports, no arrests were made nor any acts of violence reported during the July 4 march.
Online video images show between 100 and 200 men, marching in a military-style demonstration, wearing navy blue shirts, brown or beige cargo pants, white masks, sunglasses and beige caps, with most being can be seen carrying the American flag, while some are shown holding Confederate flags and others sporting shields.
With drums, rock music blaring from speakers and chants including “Reclaim America,” participants didn't stop marching.
One clip, posted to the Telegram group Patriot Front Sightings, showed a man giving a speech through a megaphone with people standing behind him.
In the video you can hear: "The most natural thing about human truth, pride in one's home, the instinct of who one is, nationalism is natural, patriotism is inevitable."
A video of the full speech shows the man also saying that the group “rejects politicians who perpetuate the invasion of our country” and “any and all influence on this land that is not of this land.”
According to a report by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a progressive civil rights non-governmental organization known for its legal victories against racist and supremacist segregationist groups, in 2023 it documented 1,430 extremist hate and anti-government groups that make up the organizational infrastructure that upholds white supremacy in the US.
In that sense, he specified that the years since the insurrection of January 6, 2021 have been a time for the extreme right to prepare.
It also highlights that, ?in 2023, those who oppose inclusive democracy worked to legitimize the insurrection, paint hate as virtuous, and transform false conspiracy theories into truth, all in preparation for one of the most important elections in US history. USA?
The report reports that, throughout 2022 and 2023, there has been a resurgence of in-person demonstrations among reactionary white nationalist, neo-Nazi and far-right groups across the country.
And for the first time since 2018, he says, these racist activists, who together make up what is known as the white power movement, took to the streets en masse, holding 191 demonstrations in 2022 and 143 in 2023.
It explains that between 2022 and 2023, the number of white nationalist groups active in the United States grew by just over 50 percent, from 109 to an all-time high of 165. While the number of neo-Nazi groups remained stable, in the last year Eight new organizations were formed that embrace that ideology.
He explains that, in California alone, there are 117 hate and anti-government groups. In 2000, there were only 29. The main ideology of these groups is anti-immigrant, followed by anti-LGBTIQ+, anti-Muslim, anti-government in general, and anti-Semitism.
Many white power activists are neither explicitly pro-Trump nor show much interest in getting involved in the mainstream political process, even disrupting it, the report notes, yet they see promise in the litany of reactionary causes that the pro-GOP has embraced. -Trump and have aligned their activism with the mainstream right's parade of grievances against immigrants, LGBTQ+ people, people of African descent, and other racial or religious minorities.
Highly mobilized, they are ready to ride the authoritarian wave of the Trump campaign, challenging the presidential candidate's shared enemies through protests, intimidation and acts of violence.
This resource is supported in whole or in part by funding provided by the State of California, administered by the California State Library in partnership with the California Department of Social Services and the California Commission on Asian and Pacific Islander American Affairs as part of the Stop the Hate program To report a hate incident or hate crime and get support, go to AC vs Hate.
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