Ghost skin

Last updated

In white supremacist circles, a ghost skin (short for 'ghost skinhead') is a white supremacist who refrains from openly displaying their racist beliefs for the purpose of blending into wider society and surreptitiously furthering their agenda. The term has been used in particular to refer to the entryism of racist activists in law enforcement. [1] [2] [3] [4]

Contents

The term "hiding your power levels", originating from the anime Dragon Ball Z , is alternatively used by the online alt-right to reflect a similar concept. [5] [6]

History of the term

In an FBI Intelligence Assessment from 2006, the FBI Counterterrorism Division provided an overview of white supremacist infiltration of law enforcement and mentions that use of the term came to the agency's attention in late 2004. [7] [2] In 2001, two law enforcement officers in Williamson County, Texas, were fired after it was discovered that they were members of the Ku Klux Klan. [3] [8]

See also

Related Research Articles

White supremacy is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races and thus should dominate them. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any power and privilege held by white people. White supremacy has roots in the now-discredited doctrine of scientific racism and was a key justification for European colonialism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aryan Brotherhood</span> Neo-Nazi prison gang and organized crime syndicate

The Aryan Brotherhood is a neo-Nazi prison gang and an organized crime syndicate that is based in the United States and has an estimated 15,000–20,000 members both inside and outside prisons. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has characterized it as "the nation's oldest major white supremacist prison gang and a national crime syndicate" while the Anti-Defamation League calls it the "oldest and most notorious racist prison gang in the United States". According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Aryan Brotherhood makes up an extremely low percentage of the entire US prison population, but it is responsible for a disproportionately large number of prison murders.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anti-Racist Action</span> North American far-left political cells

Anti-Racist Action (ARA), also known as the Anti-Racist Action Network, is a decentralized network of militant far-left political cells in the United States and Canada. The ARA network originated in the late 1980s to engage in direct action and doxxing against rival political organizations on the hard right to dissuade them from further involvement in political activities. Anti-Racist Action described such groups as racist or fascist, or both. Most ARA members have been anarchists, but some have been Trotskyists and Maoists.

Volksfront, also known as Volksfront International, was an American white separatist organization founded on October 20, 1994, in Portland, Oregon. According to Volksfront's now defunct website, the group described itself as an "international fraternal organization for persons of European descent." The logo of Volksfront was the Algiz rune, a common rune used as a neo-Nazi symbol common among other organizations such as National Alliance. Volksfront had approximately 50 members in the United States split between four chapters designated as Pac-West, Central States, North East, and Gulf-Atlantic, and an additional 50 members dispersed in other countries including Germany, Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and Spain. The goal of the movement was to create an all-White homeland in the Pacific Northwest. The flag of Volksfront was based on the Nazi flag in the colors of black, white, and red with the Volksfront logo and the slogan was "Race Over All" implying that race mattered over everything else. In August 2012, the United States branch of Volksfront announced their dissolution via their website. Citing harassment and investigations by the authorities, the group said it was disbanding.

White power skinheads, also known as racist skinheads and neo-Nazi skinheads, are members of a neo-Nazi, white supremacist and antisemitic offshoot of the skinhead subculture. Many of them are affiliated with white nationalist organizations and some of them are members of prison gangs. The movement emerged in the United Kingdom between the late 1960s and the late 1970s, before spreading across Eurasia and North America in the 1980–1990s.

Peckerwood is a term for a woodpecker which is used in the Southern United States and it is also used as a racial epithet for white people, especially poor rural whites. Originally an ethnic slur, the term has been embraced by a subculture related to prison gangs and outlaw motorcycle clubs. The term was in use as an inversion of woodpecker by the 1830s, with the sense referring to white people documented from the 1850s. African-American folklore in the 1920s contrasted the white "peckerwood" bird with the African-American blackbird. The word became a common term in Jive.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fourteen Words</span> White-supremacist slogans

Fourteen Words is a reference to two slogans originated by David Eden Lane, one of nine founding members of the defunct white supremacist terrorist organization The Order, and are accompanied by Lane's "88 Precepts". The slogans have served as a rallying cry for militant white nationalists internationally.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Redskin (subculture)</span> Communist or anarchist skinhead subculture

In the context of the skinhead subculture, a redskin is a Marxist skinhead, who often also subscribe to anarchist views. The term combines the word red, with the word skin, which is short for skinhead. Redskins take a militant anti-fascist and pro-working class stance.

In the United States, domestic terrorism is defined as terrorist acts that were carried out within the United States by U.S. citizens and/or U.S. permanent residents. As of 2021, the United States government considers white supremacists to be the top domestic terrorism threat.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Right-wing terrorism</span> Terrorism motivated by right-wing and far-right ideologies

Right-wing terrorism, hard right terrorism, extreme right terrorism or far-right terrorism is terrorism that is motivated by a variety of different right-wing and far-right ideologies. It can be motivated by Ultranationalism, neo-Nazism, anti-communism, neo-fascism, ecofascism, ethnonationalism, religious nationalism, anti-immigration, anti-semitism, anti-government sentiment, patriot movements, sovereign citizen beliefs, and occasionally, it can be motivated by opposition to abortion, tax resistance, and homophobia. Modern right-wing terrorism largely emerged in Western Europe in the 1970s, and after the Revolutions of 1989 and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, it emerged in Eastern Europe and Russia.

This is a list of topics related to racism:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Creativity (religion)</span> Religion classified as a neo-Nazi hate group

Creativity, historically known as The (World) Church of the Creator, is an atheistic ("nontheistic") white supremacist new religious movement which espouses white separatism, antitheism, antisemitism, anti-Christian sentiment, scientific racism, homophobia, and religious and philosophical naturalism. Creativity calls itself a "white racialist" religion and it has been classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League. It was founded in Lighthouse Point, Florida, United States, by Ben Klassen as the "Church of the Creator" in 1973. It now has a presence in several states of the U.S. as well as Australia, Eastern Europe, and the United Kingdom.

White power music is music that promotes white nationalism. It encompasses various music styles, including rock, country, and folk. Ethnomusicologist Benjamin R. Teitelbaum argues that white power music "can be defined by lyrics that demonize variously conceived non-whites and advocate racial pride and solidarity. Most often, however, insiders conceptualized white power music as the combination of those themes with pounding rhythms and a charging punk or metal-based accompaniment." Genres include Nazi punk, Rock Against Communism, National Socialist black metal, and fashwave.

Accelerationism is a range of revolutionary and reactionary ideas in left-wing and right-wing ideologies that call for the drastic intensification of capitalist growth, technological change, infrastructure sabotage and other processes of social change to destabilize existing systems and create radical social transformations, otherwise referred to as "acceleration". It has been regarded as an ideological spectrum divided into mutually contradictory left-wing and right-wing variants, both of which support the indefinite intensification of capitalism and its structures as well as the conditions for a technological singularity, a hypothetical point in time where technological growth becomes uncontrollable and irreversible.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Antifa (United States)</span> Anti-fascist political activist movement

Antifa is a left-wing anti-fascist and anti-racist political movement in the United States. It consists of a highly decentralized array of autonomous groups that use nonviolent direct action, incivility, or violence to achieve their aims. Antifa political activism includes non-violent methods like involving poster and flyer campaigns, mutual aid, speeches, protest marches, and community organizing. Some who identify as antifa also use tactics involving digital activism, doxing, harassment, physical violence, and property damage. Members of antifa aim to combat far-right extremists, including neo-Nazis and white supremacists.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patriot Front</span> American white nationalist group

Patriot Front is an American white supremacist and neo-fascist hate group. Part of the broader alt-right movement, the group split off from the neo-Nazi organization Vanguard America in the aftermath of the Unite the Right rally in 2017. Patriot Front's aesthetic combines traditional Americana with fascist symbolism. Internal communications within the group indicated it had approximately 200 members as of late 2021. According to the Anti-Defamation League, the group generated 82% of reported incidents in 2021 involving distribution of racist, antisemitic, and other hateful propaganda in the United States, comprising 3,992 incidents, in every continental state.

The Rise Above Movement (RAM) is a militant alt-right Southern California-based street fighting group which has variously been described as "a loose collective of violent neo-Nazis and fascists", white nationalists, white supremacists, and far-right persons. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), it "is inspired by identitarian movements in Europe and it is trying to bring their philosophies and violent tactics to the United States." Its members are primarily located in the areas of Orange County and San Diego, and as of 2018, have been variously numbered at 20 to 50. Individual RAM members are also members of other organizations, such as the self-described Identitarian Identity Evropa/American Identity Movement, the "Western chauvinist" Proud Boys, and the neo-Nazi skinhead Hammerskin Nation, according to Northern California Anti-Racist Action (NoCARA).

Far-right terrorism in Australia refers to far-right ideologically influenced terrorism on Australian soil. Far-right extremist groups have existed in Australia since the early 20th century, however the intensity of terrorist activities have oscillated until the present time. A surge of neo-Nazism based terrorism occurred in Australia during the 1960's and 70s, carried out primarily by members of the Ustaše organisation. However in the 21st century, a rise in jihadism, the White genocide conspiracy theory and after affects of the COVID-19 pandemic have fuelled far-right terrorism in Australia. Both the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) and the Australian Federal Police (AFP) are responsible for responding to far-right terrorist threats in Australia.

White Supremacist Infiltration of Law Enforcement is a 2006 FBI Intelligence Assessment from the FBI Counterterrorism Division. It provides an overview of white supremacist infiltration of law enforcement in the United States. On September 29, 2020, Jamie Raskin, the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, released an unredacted version of the report.

References

  1. Smith, Jordan Michael (August 7, 2012). "FBI: Right-wing terror is real". Salon .
  2. 1 2 Speri, Alice (January 31, 2017). "The FBI Has Quietly Investigated White Supremacist Infiltration of Law Enforcement". The Intercept .
  3. 1 2 Romo, Vanessa (September 6, 2017). "'Ghost Skins' And Masculinity: Alt-Right Terms, Defined". National Public Radio . Retrieved 2017-09-14.
  4. "White Supremacy in Policing is "Clear and Present Danger" says Rep. Raskin | Black Star News". www.blackstarnews.com. Retrieved 2020-10-02.
  5. Evans, Robert (October 11, 2018). "From Memes to Infowars: How 75 Fascist Activists Were "Red-Pilled"". Bellingcat . Archived from the original on November 21, 2018. Retrieved July 8, 2022. Prominent YouTuber PewDiePie is also often considered red-pilled. It is accepted that media personalities need to hide their outright fascist beliefs, or "power level", in order to have a chance at red-pilling the general population (usually called "normies").
  6. Charles, Christopher (2020). (Main)streaming Hate: Analyzing White Supremacist Content and Framing Devices on YouTube (Thesis). University of Central Florida. p. 69. This two-pronged style of communication goes by many terms in far-right circles, including 'hiding one's power level'—a reference to the animated show Dragonball Z, which likens white supremacist beliefs to superpowers that are better left concealed.
  7. FBI Counterterrorism Division (17 October 2006). "White Supremacist Infiltration of Law Enforcement" (PDF). (U/LES) Since coming to law enforcement attention in late 2004, the term ghost skins has gained currency among white supremacists to describe those who avoid overt display of their beliefs to blend into society and covertly advance white supremacist causes. One internet posting described this effort as a form of role-playing in which "to create the character, you must get inside the mind of the person you are trying to duplicate."* Such role playing has an application to ad-hoc and organized law enforcement infiltration. At least one white supremacist group has reportedly encouraged ghost skins to seek positions in law enforcement for the capability of alerting skinhead crews of pending investigative action against them.
    (U/LES) Leaders in the white supremacist movement have advocated confronting suspected infiltrators and to instruct them to provide their FBI handlers with low level information that will minimally impact the group's activities. Another as yet undocumented infiltration strategy is for members to "walk in" to law enforcement agencies and offer information to determine an agency's interest in the organization.
    *(U) Oregon National Socialist Movement (archived Dec. 2005). Retrieved 31 January 2017.
  8. Staff (January 7, 2006). "Texas Officers Fired for Membership in KKK". ABC News . Retrieved 2017-09-14.

Further reading