Chapter 11. Fault Lines Old and New

One very plausible reaction would be the emergence of exclusivist sociopolitical movements composed largely but not only of white males, primarily working-class and middle-class, protesting and attempting to stop or reverse these changes and what they believe, accurately or not, to be the diminution of their social and economic status, their loss of jobs to immigrants and foreign countries, the perversion of their culture, the displacement of their language, and the erosion or even evaporation of the historical identity of their country. Such movements would be both racially and culturally inspired and could be anti-Hispanic, anti-black, and anti-immigration. They would be the heir to the many comparable exclusivist racial and anti-foreign movements that helped define American identity in the past. Social movements, political groups, intellectual currents, dissidents of various sorts who share these characteristics differ in many ways, but still have enough in common to be brought together under the label “white nativism.”
White nativist movements are likely to include people with differing priorities concerning racial balance, “white” culture, immigration, racial preferences, language, and other issues. Underlying these specific concerns, however, is the fundamental question of the racial balance in America, most importantly, the declining proportion of non-Hispanic whites.
The makings of serious white nativist movements and of intensified racial conflict exist in America. Carol Swain probably overdramatizes the possibility, but her eloquent warning deserves serious thought. We are witnessing, she says, “the simultaneous convergence of a host of powerful social forces.” These include “changing demographics, the continued existence of racial preference policies, the rising expectations of ethnic minorities, the continued existence of liberal immigration policies, growing concerns about job losses associated with globalization, the demands for multiculturalism, and the Internet’s ability to enable like-minded individuals to identify with each other and to share mutual concerns and strategies for impacting the political system.” These factors can only serve “to nourish white racial consciousness and white nationalism, the next logical stage for identity politics in America.” As a result, America is “increasingly at risk of large-scale racial conflict unprecedented in our nation’s history.”