By now I imagine you may have read about a young, hate-peddling man named Andrew Anglin, who runs a neo-Nazi website that publishes denigrating things about nonwhite groups of people, like Jews and Muslims and African Americans. Anglin, who believes that Jews are an “international threat” (a term that is maybe his nicest), recently made waves when he told his readers to take action against the Jewish residents of Whitefish, Montana, who have been protesting white supremacists in the area. So when the mother of alt-right leader Richard Spencer claimed the actions of anti-hate groups in the area had caused her to business to suffer, Anglin told his readers to “TAKE ACTION” against the town’s Jewish population—a “vicious, evil race of hate-filled psychopaths.”
Then, likely from the comfort of some café with decent Wi-Fi, Anglin talked of a march in Whitefish in defense of Spencer’s mother and “against Jews, Jewish businesses, and everyone who supports either. We will be busing in skinheads from the Bay Area.” (Spencer called the march a “joke,” and then tried to offer closure but this sure comes across as anything but, e.g. “I will punch back.”) Now, Anglin has filed paperwork with a date (MLK Day, Jan. 16) for an armed march in Whitefish, calling it the “James Earl Ray Day Extravaganza”—an homage to the man who assassinated Martin Luther King, Jr. (Montana is an open-carry state.)
So what began as a hateful (yet perfectly legal) march against Jews has now been expanded, apparently, to involve a demonstration against African Americans, too. Anglin has also promised that “a representative of Hamas will be in attendance, and will give a speech about the international threat of the Jews.”
There will reportedly be a community gathering on Saturday, and the local Sheriff “it’s important that when these types of things happen that we come together as a community and denounce hate and let people know that this is against our community values and we won’t stand for it.”
Jonathan Zalman is a writer and teacher based in Brooklyn.
