Making sense of nonwhite white supremacists
What’s happening
The gunman who killed eight people in a mass shooting at an outlet mall in Allen, Texas, earlier this month presented an identity that, to some, seemed like a contradiction. He had all of the markings of a white supremacist: Nazi tattoos, a “Right Wing Death Squad” patch on his tactical vest and a trove of online posts detailing his extremist beliefs. But Mauricio Garcia was also Hispanic.
Some conservatives have zeroed in on these facts to question the narrative that arose in the wake of the attack, or as the Fox News host Mark Levin put it on his radio show: “How can you be a nonwhite and be a white supremacist?” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., tweeted that only “dumb white people” would believe the official story. Elon Musk, owner of Twitter, repeated the conspiracy theory that the attack was some sort of “psyop” designed to mislead the public.
As counterintuiti ve as it may seem, however, experts on extremism have long understood that white supremacy does not exclusively attract Caucasians. There are many examples of people of color, often Latinos, aligning with racist movements designed to promote white dominance over all other groups.
For example, Nick Fuentes — a popular extreme-right commentator who argues for the superiority of “white identity” and whom Garcia mentioned in his writings onlne — has Mexican heritage. Enrique Tarrio, who was once leader of the far-right group Proud Boys and was found guilty earlier this month of seditious conspiracy for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol, is Cuban American. The neo-Nazi website Daily Stormer has been publishing a Spanish edition since 2017.
Why there’s debate
While being white might seem like a prerequisite for supporting white supremacy, experts who study racial identity and extremism say there are a variety of reasons why nonwhite people might be drawn to the movement.