Unlike yesterday’s fascists, today’s radical right-wing leaders propagate neither territorial expansion nor anything close to the racial laws of the 1930s. Björn Höcke is public enemy number one in present-day Germany. At least that’s what German media suggest. Höcke is a leading exponent of the “völkisch” wing of Alternative for Germany (AfD), the country’s radical right-wing populist… Continue reading “Have We Seen the Eternal Return of Fascism?”
Lack of reporting and coordination between federal and local law enforcement are just some of the challenges with tracking hate crimes like anti-Semitism. The Halle synagogue shooting in Germany, which occurred on October 9th, 2019, during the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, serves as a tragic reminder that anti-Semitism among the radical right often directly… Continue reading “Unquantified Prejudice: The Challenges Of Tracking Hate Crimes”
The hateful actions of the furthest fringes tend to be tolerated, downplayed or even ignored. In October 2019, England’s national football team played what should have been a humdrum European Championship qualifying match against Bulgaria in Sofia, the country’s capital. But the match soon made headlines for all the wrong reasons, being stopped twice because… Continue reading “Football fandom and fascist generals: Bulgaria’s radical right”
For decades, anti-Semitism has been a steady ideological feature of radical-right violence and terrorism in Germany. The suspect in the terrorist attack on a synagogue in the German city of Halle in October, 27-year-old Stephan B., was driven by anti-Semitism and a radical-right worldview. After the murder of Walter Lübcke in June, this was the second deadly… Continue reading “Anti-Semitism Continues to Be a Steady Feature Among Germany’s Radicals”
In the second episode of the ASEN-CARR’s podcast series, CARR Doctoral Fellow Nicholas James speaks to Dr. Nicky Falkof and Dr. Aaron Winter. Dr. Falkof is an associate professor and cultural studies scholar based at Wits University who writes on race, anxiety, and moral panic in the urban global south. Dr. Winter is a senior… Continue reading “ASEN – CARR Podcast #2 Racial Mythologies Of The Far Right”
A neo-Nazi targeted a synagogue on Yom Kippur, aiming to “kill as many Jews as possible.” His manifesto continues a trend of white supremacist terrorism. With The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui (1941) German playwright Berthold Brecht (1898-1956) produced a satirical allegory of the rise to power of Nazism and Hitler. In Brecht’s typical educational fashion, the… Continue reading “The Germany Synagogue Terrorist’s Manifesto Highlights Threat Of Neo-Nazism”
President Trump has crossed the Rubicon from traditional Republican racism into full-blown white supremacy, and it’s a threat to our national security. Donald J. Trump describes Latino immigrants as “rapists” and drug dealers, comparing them to “vermin” who “infest” the United States. They are, he says, like “vomit” pouring across the border. Trump says black… Continue reading “Radical Right Expert: Donald Trump Is A White Supremacist Asset”
Ethnocentric, sexist and racist ideologies demonstrate why it is important to de-colonise the study and teaching of European culture and history. Recently, Javier Ortega Smith, the leader of Vox, the populist radical right party in Spain, came under scrutiny for language that Spanish Attorney General Luis Navajas called “abominable” and “repulsive” but not a… Continue reading “The ups and downs and clashes of Western civilization”
We need to empathise with those we fundamentally disagree with. Is society ready for that? In a year that marks the twentieth anniversary of the London Nail Bomber’s campaign of terror, two recent terrorist incidents, the Christchurch Mosque and San Diego Synagogue tragedies, have reinforced the deadly reality of neo-Nazi conspiracies and sharply focused the… Continue reading “Preventing radical right extremism requires honesty, empathy and a whole society approach. Are we doomed to fail?”
How should we reconcile the historically low level of Americans’ negative feelings about Jews with the recent surge in attacks on Jews? The April 27 attack on the Chabad synagogue in Poway, a suburb of San Diego, California, set off alarms within American Jewish communities. The attack came six months after another lone-wolf assault that… Continue reading “Despite Recent Attacks, Anti-Semitism in the US Remains Low”