Steve MacLellan

Interesting how the term “white
nationalism” has somehow begun to supplant the more honest phrase “white
supremacy,” both here and in the United States.

Everyone
seems to be using it now. It will be an election campaign topic in our
general election this fall, and the American one late next year.

And
let’s be clear, it’s a euphemism. The word nationalism, to most people,
has a virtuous whiff; historically, it’s been conflated with terms like
patriotism and loyalty and solidarity with one’s civic tribe.

When
the word is modified with a racial adjective, though, any distinction
dissolves. A white nationalist stands with white people, advocating for
white prerogatives and the protection of white governance.

A
white nationalist would claim that flying the confederate flag on a
state building is an expression of cultural history, rather than racial
sentiment. A white nationalist would claim, as the television host Megyn
Kelly once
did on Fox News, that Jesus was white, and, by implication, God, too.
(Jesus would have been a dark-skinned Sephardic Jew, not a blue-eyed,
bland-faced fellow with wavy brown locks).