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White supremacy now has a new name

The Alt-right movement has moved from the fringes to the White House as it spreads its hate message.
Alt-right members doing the Nazi salute
Alt-right members doing the Nazi salute

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These were the words of CNN political analyst Van Jones on the night of Wednesday, November 9, 2016, when Donald Trump was elected as the 45th President of the United States of America.

The term whitelash describes the force that pushed Trump to the white house but the movement that created the biggest political upset ever in the world is known as the alt-right.

The alt-right which stands for the alternative right is a loose collective of people who discard the beliefs on mainstream conservatism in America. It simple words, members of the alt-right reject what the Republican party believes in.

During the presidential election in America, the alt-right latched on Donald Trump who was the Republican party nominee because of his polarising statements.

Donald Trump infamously said he was going to build a war on the US-Mexico border to keep illegal immigrants away and he would stop Muslims from entering the country. He also said he was going to deport illegal immigrants also. Statements like these galvanized the alt-right and turned it from an underground white nationalist movement to a now very visible white supremacist movement.

On Saturday, November 19, 2016, Richard B. Spencer, the President of the National Policy Institute which is seen as the supreme body of sorts of the alt-right, gave a racist and anti-semitic speech in Washington D.C.

The text and the video of the speech made it to the Internet shortly and provided Americans and the world a glimpse of what is brewing in God's own country.

ALSO READ: How Donald Trump bypassed hostile media to deliver his message

"One wonders if these people are people at all or instead soulless golem," said Spencer about Jews. He called white people "children of the sun" and said they were "awakening to their own identity" as the Donald J Trump regime is about to start.

In the most chilling part of the event, “Hail Trump, hail our people, hail victory!” was said. Also, attendees were clearly seen doing the Nazi salute.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is the new face of white supremacy and nationalists in America. The alt-right is made up of millennial college graduates who believe they own America and have been pushed back by eight years of Barack Obama. Now that Trump is about to be President they believe now is their moment.

"With Donald Trump, we feel like we have a dog in the fight for the first time," Spencer told The Guardian. It seems they are going to have more than a dog in this new dispensation.

Steve Bannon who the President-Elect has appointed as his chief strategist and senior counsellor in the White House. Bannon has close ties to the alt-right movement. He is the executive chairman of the news site Breitbart News, a right-wing news and commentary site that is seen as the mouthpiece of the alt-right movement.

The right wing media has witnessed a surge in traffic as Donald Trump's campaign and the alt-right movement gained momentum. Some say it is a hate site with anti-semitic, anti-Muslim and white supremacy bias. One thing is clear Bannon is now part of the White House.

This movement, that believes President Barack Obama isn't America and the Black Lives Movement is made up of black thugs, has moved from the catacombs of the Internet to the White House. How scary.

The President-Elect has been quick to denounce the alt-right. "I don't want to energise the group, and I disavow the group," Trump told the New York Times yesterday, Tuesday, November 22, 2016. "It's not a group I want to energise, and if they are energised, I want to look into it and find out why."

In return, Breitbart News criticised Donald J. Trump for not keeping to his electoral promise that he would not charge former Secretary of State Hilary Clinton over her e-mail scandal.

Trump is making u-turns from his electoral statements which galvanised the alt-right. If he continues doing this there would be a clash between Trump and the hate group he gave life to.

One thing is for sure, while Donald Trump might backpedal on a lot of his controversial campaign promises, his presidency would no doubt stir up unpleasant forces in America who feel that it is their time to have their nation back. Trump let the alt-white come into the mainstream and it would be difficult to push it back.

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