# How many White Nationalists are there in America? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [October 30, 2008, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-white-nationalists-are-there-in-america/470275 "2008-10-30T17:30:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-white-nationalists-are-there-in-america/470275/1 "2008-10-30T17:30:08Z")
Inspired by [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=489521) and by [this](http://www.democracynow.org/2008/10/30/nazis) recent interview with journalist James Ridgeway. By [White Nationalists](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_nationalism) I mean not only those Americans who are active members or supporters of WN organizations, but all who would generally sympathize with the kind of views you’ll find on [Stormfront.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stormfront_(website)) We’re talking about more than casual racism here. It’s one thing to feel a certain esthetic or social distaste for persons of certain ethnicities; it’s quite another to form one’s entire political, social, and perhaps even [moral and spiritual](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Luther_Pierce#Cosmotheism) world-view around concepts of racial identity. ---
**Author:** ![villa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc79bd/32.png) [@villa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/villa)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-white-nationalists-are-there-in-america/470275/2 "2008-10-30T17:38:00Z")
I have no idea on overall numbers. I did know some when I lived in Philly (friends of my ex-brother-in-law) and came across a group of Hammerskins in a bar in Carlisle. Oddly enough when living in the South I never came across such people. ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-white-nationalists-are-there-in-america/470275/3 "2008-10-30T17:48:10Z")
Here’s a start, at least. The “Christian Identity” movement seems to overlap the white nationalist movement to some extent. The always-reliable [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Identity) quotes an estimate of 2,000 - 50,000 members of Christian Identity churches in the US. I would have preferred an estimate that stayed inside one order of magnitude, but I guess it’s hard to count these guys. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-white-nationalists-are-there-in-america/470275/4 "2008-10-30T23:06:47Z")
You’d think [ADL](http://www.adl.org/) or [the SPLC Intelligence Project](http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intpro.jsp) (formerly Klanwatch) would have some estimates, but I can’t seem to find any on their websites. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2008, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-white-nationalists-are-there-in-america/470275/5 "2008-11-05T22:54:29Z")
[I guess we’ll learn the answer soon enough.](http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/columns/2008/10/barack-obama-assassination-plot-white-supremacists.html) > [@](#): > > Wherever they exist, white supremacists are clearly coming out of their dark corners in response to Obama’s presidential campaign. Both federal law enforcement officials and independent organizations that monitor hate groups are reporting increased traffic on the Internet, and even a kind of twisted optimism that Obama’s election will produce a “backlash” and lead to the white uprising they’ve dreamt about. In June, David Duke wrote, “Obama will be no worse for us than any of the White sell-outs that came before him. But, Obama will be a clear signal for millions of our people. Obama is a visual aid for White Americans who just don’t get it yet that we have lost control of our country, and unless we get it back we are heading for complete annihilation as a people…Obama is the wake up call.” > > I’ve heard similar statements this month while traveling across the country with a crew from Guardian Films. In Missouri, we interviewed Steven Boswell, member of the National Socialist Movement, who says he is “hearing things coming out of people’s mouths now” that he never heard a few years ago, like “that there’s gonna be a race war coming up, and we better be ready for it.” He predicts that “as the economy continues to get worse, as our country continues to be overrun by Mexicans, as Obama gets elected and takes office, there will be opportunities that we have to be ready for and have to capitalize on.” ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2008, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-white-nationalists-are-there-in-america/470275/6 "2008-11-05T22:55:38Z")
BTW, since last night it is impossible for a nonmember to access Stormfront, due to extremely high traffic. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-white-nationalists-are-there-in-america/470275/7 "2008-11-06T04:02:40Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > BTW, since last night it is impossible for a nonmember to access Stormfront, due to extremely high traffic. I’m not sure just why, but this makes me laugh. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-white-nationalists-are-there-in-america/470275/8 "2008-11-06T04:13:19Z")
I hope you’re not going to invite the Stormfronters in here again. The last time you did that, it was not good for the MB. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-white-nationalists-are-there-in-america/470275/9 "2008-11-06T04:20:34Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > I hope you’re not going to invite the Stormfronters in here again. The last time you did that, it was not good for the MB. That was awful. I thought that’s why we disguise their boardname: So they don’t find us when they google themselves. I honestly can’t understand why you’re so obssessed with those people, **BG**. They’re a fringe group of idiots. Remeber internet noise doesn’t reflect real world demographics. Otherwise _Snakes on a Plane_ would be one of the highest grossing movies of all time.