Last Ride of the White Valkyries
There was an in-class assignment one day (still 306 Race/Ethnicity), to use some database of extremist groups for research, and write up two pages on the group of our choosing. On one hand, I lucked out and picked a fun (as they go) group of jerks. On the other hand, the writing was on a hard deadline, so it’s not nearly definitive or good enough for me to stand by it beyond the one submission. Not gonna post the actual pages here.
But by chance, I’d selected for review a charming group of fellows called the Vinlanders. Angry White guys who opposed minority usurpation of employment opportunities, and also generally opposed violence against minorities. They kinda just wanted to be angry and to be understood, y’know? As far as the reading was concerned, pretty much all of their notable violence was against other racist groups. The more violent crowds would call out the Vinlanders for not being hardcore enough, and they would defend their honor. When charges were eventually brought against one of the founders, he basically called other groups dumb.
So yeah, these guys were assholes, and they supposedly still exist in some form, in some areas. But as they were, well… I mean, if you accept that racist social groups are an inevitability in a free society, these guys were kinda the racists you’d want. The ones who’d look the real Nazis in the eye and say “not cool, man.”
And then punch ’em in the face.
Anyway, I was reading the site’s writeup of the group, and there was a lot to take in. Certainly more than what’s captured from memory here. So I was skimming some and drilling in for the juicier bits because the clock was ticking. And those juicy bits were honestly kinda funny- these guys weren’t murderers, just jerks. At the end of the class, the professor admitted to some concern watching us work. This was a dive into some serious shit, and the class was generally writing about some really horrible people doing really horrible things. But she could see me – the white guy in the room – chuckling my way through, and was getting really worried about what lunacy I was going to be turning in :D