It was reported by Daily Kos and others that Thomas Mair, suspected of assassinating British member of Parliament Jo Cox on June 16, was an avowed white supremacist known to have ties with a neo-Nazi group called the National Alliance. In a letter published in the group’s magazine, Mair wrote, “I still have faith that the White Race will prevail, both in Britain and in South Africa.” That’s really not surprising. Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) has noted that the National Alliance has long flown under the radar of U.S. media, which also isn’t surprising.
What should be of note is how Mair’s assassination of Cox occurred during the one-year anniversary of the massacre at the historic Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina. Long a fixture in Charleston’s African-American community, it was one year ago that 21-year-old Dylann Roof walked into the church and, after asking for the pastor and then joining him and a small group of parishioners in Bible study, shot the pastor and eight other members of the church, killing them all. Roof’s social media profile showed him at times proudly displaying the Confederate flag, but also wearing a jacket with the flags of South Africa and Rhodesia, known today as Zimbabwe.
Both Mair and Roof expressed support for white-ruled “homelands,” and specifically the white-ruled “utopia” of South Africa. During the Apartheid era, South Africa was far from a utopia. But it was known all over the world for the ability of its white minority to keep the country’s black majority subjugated through horrific, brutal violence.
On second thought, that probably is a kind of “utopia” for white racists.
Nazi and neo-Nazi groups as well as Ku Klux Klan groups and their offshoots are primarily ridiculed when they are covered in U.S. media. And white males such as Roof and Mair who ascribe to their philosophies and ways of life are usually not labeled as the white supremacist terrorists that they are. Instead they’re usually given the descriptors of “loner,” their actions are blamed on “mental illness.” Such descriptors show a tendency toward liberalism and a refusal on the part of whites to condemn one of their own.
Jo Cox’s murder in broad daylight on a Northern England street should be the signal that is needed to finally take these groups and their potential for violence seriously. It should tell us that these groups are both organized and capable of commanding individual, loyal, faithful underlings to carry out their bidding. And it should tell us one more thing: When it comes to plans for a white utopia, Donald Trump’s plans for “wall” are a fantasy. The reality is that borders are porous.