A brief reader on white nationalists organizing in Washington
In case the news has you as disgusted as we are:
1. NPR's Kelly McEvers manages to interview Richard Spencer, the white nationalist who coined the term "alt-right."
What I want is influence. And sometimes influence can be invisible. If we can get these ideas out there, if people can see the compelling and powerful nature of them, I think we really can change policy.
2. Possible attorney general Jeff Sessions is not finding much trouble in Trump-land with his history of racist remarks
Sessions was criticized for joking in the presence of a Civil Rights Division attorney that the Ku Klux Klan was “OK” until he learned they smoked marijuana.
3. New Balance now has to go out of its way to say that it's an inclusive company after an executive says nice things about Trump's take on the TPP.
With the initial backlash, the headache was just getting started for the company. Last weekend, a white supremacist website endorsed New Balance as the official shoes of white people.
4. A private speech from Steve Bannon, soon-to-be chief strategist for the White House.
The tea party did a great job of policing themselves early on. And I think that’s why when you hear charges of racism against the tea party, it doesn’t stick with the American people, because they really understand.
5. The alt-right gathers to celebrate Trump's election, and their leader quotes Nazi propaganda in German. FYI: White nationalists are lobbyists now.
Several audience members had their arms outstretched in a Nazi salute. When Mr. Spencer, or perhaps another person standing near him at the front of the room — it was not clear who — shouted, “Heil the people! Heil victory,” the room shouted it back.
6. Larry Summers, former enemy of "political correctness," will no longer use the term now that it's been seized by the alt-right.
Painted swastikas have defaced the middle school that my twin daughters attended and the college another daughter now attends. At a different university where my daughter studies, all the black freshmen were sent emails with pictures depicting lynchings.