The White Aryan Resistance
The White Aryan Resistance was a Neo-Nazi racist extremist movement that was formed in 1983 and headed by Tom Metzger at Warsaw in Indiana.Its main area of operation was in the States of California, Arizona, Indiana, Michigan, and Washington. It is a racist skin head gang. However, some skin head gangs are non-racist (Leet, Rush, & Smith, 2000). The formation of this group was motivated by the idea that whites belong to a superior race to those of nonwhites (Christensen, 1994). As askin head gang, membership comprises mainly of young people aged between 13 to 25 years.
Members of the White Aryan Movement can be distinguished from other gangs by some remarkable characteristics ascribed to the movement alone. In particular, members of this gang do not wear any uniforms, take no secret oaths, and carry no membership cards (Valdez, 1997). Another crucial feature of the White Aryan Resistance is its philosophy of white supremacy and the hatred it has for non-whites. Towards these groups, the movement advocates for violence against none-whites and also prejudice against homosexuals. The movement is also Anti-authoritarian and pro-working class. In the anti-authoritarian perspective, Metzger advocates for a movement where members do what they can and do not follow a strict schedule from a recognized leader. The White Aryan Movement publishes pamphlets that it distributes to members. Most members are of average education and unemployed. However, those in employment do menial jobs. The downfall of the White Aryan Resistance in 2005 was facilitated by financial meltdown as a result of a civil suit for the killing of a black Ethiopian student, Mulugeta Seraw in which the group took part. The movement was adjudged to pay a compensation of 12.5 million dollars as compensation to the murder of the student by its recruits in 1988. One of the convicts for the murder, Kenneth Mieske blatantly admitted that they had killed the black student due to prejudice they had against his race (Christensen, 1994).
The ultimate aim of the White Aryan Resistance is to have a complete separation of the races such that different races live differently. The main ideology is that the white race is superior to all other races and should be more privileged than the other races.
Aryan Youth Movement
Metzger also formed the Aryan Youth Movement. The opportunity to form this movement first occurred to Metzger in 1979 when a Californian High school student, Greg Withraw formed an association called White Students’ Union for which Withraw was beaten up and castigated by his colleagues. Being the only sympathizer to Greg, Metzger took him in and later changed the union to Aryan Youth Movement (Valdez, 1997). He then made his 20 year-old son, John Metzger the head of the gang. The Aryan Youth Movement was the youth version of the larger White Aryan Resistance under Tom Metzger. The focus of the Aryan Youth Movement was mainly the youth, especially those in High Schools and universities across the United States from which they were recruited. John encouraged the formation of unions of white students to provide an avenue through which his father would propagate his agenda just like he did with the larger white Aryan Resistance. After recruitment, youths were encouraged to engage in violence towards non-whites since the view of the group was that non-whites were inferior.
The responsibility of Aryan Youth Movement was to propagate hate towards non-white groups at a time when racism was generally abhorred in the whole of the United States. The Aryan Youth Movement was founded on the belief of racial supremacy of the whites just like the larger skin head group from which it sprang. The belief that the youth could be effective in fronting the agenda of the larger skin head group, the White Aryan Movement, encouraged Tom Metzger to support the Youth Movement.
References
Christensen, L. W. (1994). Skinhead street gangs. Boulder, Colo: Paladin Press.
Leet, D. A., Rush, G. E., & Smith, A. (2000). Gangs, graffiti, and violence: A realistic guide to the scope and nature of gangs in America. Incline Village, Nev: Copperhouse Pub. Co.
Valdez, A. (1997). Gangs: A guide to understanding street gangs. San Clemente, Calif: Law Tech Pub. Co.
