RACE RELATIONS OP-ED
White Supremacy: Its Black & Brown Supporters
The most painful of observations
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Mauricio Garcia’s ethnicity is meaningless
The writer Arturo Dominguez wrote a very thoughtful essay this week about Latinos who are, in effect, white nationalists. Most won’t likely benefit from spreading hateful ideas, but some continue to be active participants, spreading racial hate and violence. Mauricio Garcia, the man believed to be responsible for shooting and killing nine people in Allen, Texas, has been exposed as a white nationalist. Not only did Garcia spend considerable time on Neo-Nazi websites prior to the tragedy, but he also had tattoos on his body that signify his alignment with white supremacy. Similar to the massacre white supremacist Dylann Roof committed in Charleson, South Carolina, in a 2015 attack, his motivation was to terrorize. At the time, Roof sought out innocent people attending church to strike a blow for white supremacy.
Garcia was not the first well-known Latino white supremacist to take the limelight, and he won’t be the last, either. Enrique Tarrio, leader of the Proud Boys, who was recently convicted of seditious conspiracy for the actions of January 6, is Latino. Proud Boys is a white nationalist organization that has some Latino membership. However, the existence of white supremacist Latinos should not be seen as an attack on anyone claiming Latino heritage. This discussion is about the threat that white nationalism poses to the public, regardless of their race or ethnicity.
Byron Donalds is a Black man who is also a racial apologist.
Only about a week after the Allen, Texas shooting, Donald Trump was given a Town Hall event on CNN. Many viewers found it disturbing that a well-established media outlet would give a forum to someone who espouses white nationalist talking points, whose selfish antics jeopardized our democracy, but it was also shocking for some to see an African American man, Bryon Donalds, show open support for a white nationalist.
