A 17-year-old Black teen, Solomon Henderson, reportedly committed the Antioch High School shooting before ending his own life.
In his manifesto, he expresses, “I was so miserable. I wanted to kill myself. I just couldn’t take it anymore. I am a worthless subhuman.” He goes further, “Only the mentally ill will praise me after my death, and the only good n——r is a dead n——r, which includes me.”
Alt-right talking points aren’t exactly what you expect at brunch, either — let alone from a relative. My family and I went to a new Atlanta restaurant a few months ago. The food was great, but that’s not what stood out about that day.
At some point, my younger relative and I headed to the bathroom. As soon as we walked in, he wrinkled his nose and said, “It stinks like an Indian.” I froze for a moment, hoping I had misheard him. Trying to give him a chance to correct himself, I asked him to repeat what he had said. He looked at me and said, “They stink. I saw the poop wars on TikTok. They must all stink — literally everyone agrees.”
Sensing the tension in the air, he quickly washed his hands and left. I stood there in silence. I knew what he was referring to — an annual dung war that takes place in Kairuppala, a small village that, as of 2011, made up only 0.00039% of India’s population. What unsettled me wasn’t his words but the bigger question behind them. Who — or what — had convinced him that this was representative of all Indian people? More broadly, why are he and so many other men of color I know vulnerable to falling into these bigoted behaviors?
According to the Southern Poverty Center, the Alternative Right, more commonly known as the alt-right, is a far-right ideology that puts white, straight, masculine identity at the forefront. It then convinces those who are attracted to this ideology that they are being put in danger by things like social justice, political correctness, and marginalized identities. Usually, when we think of the alt-right and the hate they spread online, it’s easy to picture a certain stereotype — nerdy, white, and probably acne-prone. However, what is often viewed as a predominantly monoracial movement has slowly been shifting.
Men of color are particularly vulnerable to alt-right propaganda because they are more privileged due to their gender, despite being disadvantaged. After all, they aren’t white. Much of the alt-right brainwashing capitalizes on the fact that those being manipulated often feel insecure or angry about something — whether it’s fueled by the dichotomy mentioned before, rejection, sexual frustration, or even isolated incidents like personal family events, this is a type of manipulation aptly described in researcher and YouTuber Ian Danskin’s video, ”The Alt-Right Playbook: How to Radicalize a Normie.” This frustration can breed hatred, even toward oneself.
As Masood Farivar of Voice of America puts it, “The extremist fringes boast support from virtually every corner of the American melting pot.” In recent years, we have seen figures like Enrique Tarrio, an Afro-Cuban man who leads the notorious alt-right neo-fascist military group Proud Boys; Candace Owens, a far-right conservative political commentator; and Ali Alexander, a far-right activist, and organizer of the “Stop the Steal” movement centered around the alleged fraudulent 2020 election.
But to say that these new figureheads are the sole reason the alt-right has grown more diverse, especially among young people, would be false. Social media apps also play a significant role in radicalization.
Several TikToks prompt viewers to pick between something embarrassing or being Indian or Somali where the user making the video implies that facing humiliation is preferable to being of one of these ethnicities, or the “Dad, I like dic-” trend, where someone begins to say a misleading phrase (suggesting their son might be gay), prompting an extreme, violent reaction — only for the complete sentence to turn out completely different and the person in the video to calm down and come in for a hug.
While these videos, often spearheaded by Black men, are sometimes dismissed as immature behavior by boys who don’t know any better, they reflect a disturbing reality: boys of color are being drawn into these hateful spaces online.
In the comment sections of these videos, the word “copium” frequently appears. For example, when a girl calls out how outdated homophobic humor is, a boy might reply with “copium.” The term originated from the notorious alt-right breeding ground 4chan. While it an be used innocently, it is most commonly used in response to calls out of bigoted behavior.
This “dark humor” can evolve into something much more sinister, leading young, impressionable minds down a dangerous path toward more harmful ideologies.
“[I’m] attending a predominantly Black school but still hearing people spew racist internet trends like it’s nothing — like it’s funny!” says Kenna Taylor, a 10th grader at Westlake High School. She also shared that she has dealt with many boys who were convinced that her being a lesbian was “just a phase” and that they could turn her straight. In the same school environment, a source, who wishes to be anonymous to maintain privacy, reported witnessing a biracial girl (Black and Asian) being called a “ch—nk” by multiple boys in class because of her ethnicity.
Although many communities of color in America tend to lean more democratic in their political views, it’s not uncommon for their cultural values to align more with conservative ideologies, influenced by longstanding traditions within these groups.
According to Claire Jean Kim and her theory of “racial triangulation,” many Asian Americans feel the need to indulge in conservative politics and model minority stereotypes to blend in with the growing influence of white conservatism in America. This reinforces the hierarchy between their community and other minorities like Black Americans. Kim describes this dynamic in The Nation, stating, “It is the convergence of Non-white Alt-right this nascent, conservative Chinese immigrant nationalism with an older, conservative white nationalism that is driving anti-affirmative action politics today.”
Another article, “For Chinese Americans, Race is a Weapon” by Promise Li in The Nation, also explains how “Asian American anti-affirmative action activists have not been simply ‘used’ by white activists and duped into this white supremacist policy. They are active, militant co-conspirators with white conservatives.”
The internet plays a significant role in the ideological shift seen in young boys of color. In an article by Teen Vogue titled “Young Latino Men Are Fed Anti-Immigrant Messages and Misinformation Online,” Samuel Larreal describes how Latino men are frequently targeted with alt-right conspiracies and misinformation linked to the “Manosphere” — online communities centered around podcasts and websites that promote sexist and other bigoted viewpoints. Larreal notes that this “media vacuum” makes young men more susceptible to false narratives.
A study detailed in the article by Harmony Labs, commissioned by United We Dream Action (UWDA), found that younger Latino men tend to be more disengaged from politics and live in an “insular virtual world.” Conservative and alt-right misinformation often disguises itself as non-political content, such as sports or entertainment, which can make it harder for young people to realize they’re consuming political material, recent examples include the CEO and president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Dana White slowly intertwining sports entertainment and the MAGA manosphere together in light of the recent political climate.
Distinguishing whether behavior is just immature humor or the start of something much more dangerous might seem up for debate. But when push comes to shove, even if it’s a joke, it isn’t good.
When hateful things can be laughed at and defended, situations like Kanye West appear. Many laughed when they saw him rocking those MAGA hats, and some of his fans defended this behavior. But what we get out of this years later is this same man who used to sing about Black injustice and inequality selling $20 swastika T-shirts.
