Some RNC Attendees Think White Nationalists Are Oppressed — One Stat Proves Them Wrong

Impact
By Aaron Morrison

White nationalists who have shown up to the site of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland are proffering a belief that they are the most oppressed group in the United States.

A self-described "queer leftist" from St. Louis area named Keith Rose tweeted about his encounter with dozens of white nationalists, who believe that the U.S. should be a nation for whites only.

In a tweet, Rose described an encounter with a white man who said that white nationalists are the "most oppressed group in the world." 

But the numbers don't lie, and they assert that said unnamed man is way off base.

Freedom of speech granted by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects the right of white nationalists to openly and publicly advocate for a European-white rule of the U.S. Ahead of Monday's primetime bloc of RNC speeches, Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) said in an MSNBC appearance that whites have contributed more to civilization than other race.

His comments are textbook rhetoric in white nationalist circles, according to hate group experts, and no one from the government put him under arrest to suppress his speech.

But one stat from the Southern Poverty Law Center proves that white nationalist are experiencing the opposite of oppression in the U.S.

According to the SPLC, a national hate group watchdog, the number of American radical right groups, which include white nationalists and separatists, grew to 892 in 2015 from 784 in the previous year. That's a 14% increase.

The known white nationalist group, Council of Conservative Citizens, became infamous for online writings about the threat of black crime on white society that reportedly inspired the shooter who murdered nine worshippers at a black church in Charleston, South Carolina, just over a year ago.

Also, nothing has stopped presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump from tweeting the misleading black crime statistics that were first shared among white nationalists.

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