EXTREMISMExtremist Groups Uphold Long Tradition of Exploiting National Tragedies for Publicity
While Texas authorities respond to the devastation from the July 4 Hill Country flooding, which has killed at least 119 people and left over 170 still missing, Patriot Front, a Texas-based white supremacist group, is using the disaster to generate positive publicity under the guise of disaster relief.
While Texas authorities respond to the devastation from the July 4 Hill Country flooding, which has killed at least 119 people and left over 170 still missing, Patriot Front, a Texas-based white supremacist group, is using the disaster to generate positive publicity under the guise of disaster relief.
On July 9, the group shared footage purportedly taken outside Camp Mystic in Hunt, Texas; it appears to show members clearing debris and cutting down trees. In a second video shared later the same day, Thomas Rousseau, the group’s leader, stated: “There’s lots of volunteers across the region, but something sets us apart. We are prioritizing the interest of our people in this mission…Our institutions have been corrupted and weakened…They do not love their people like a nationalist does. And they cannot serve this nation like only a nationalist can.” This speech illustrates how these actions are intrinsically tied to the group’s efforts to sell their vision of a white American ethnostate.
Meanwhile, Nation of Islam (NOI) members affiliated with 10,000 Fearless — a community support and advocacy network that was created in response to NOI leader Louis Farrakhan’s 2015 call for “10,000 fearless men” to get involved in their communities — also traveled to the region to assist with disaster recovery. An NOI member who participated told The Final Call, the NOI’s newspaper, that “Minister Farrakhan said ‘watch the weather’ for a reason,” echoing familiar NOI talking points about how extreme weather events and natural disasters are evidence of the alleged impending collapse of America and the world.
Patriot Front and NOI’s activity in Texas is not unusual: many groups have a history of exploiting natural disasters or tragedies for their own political or ideological gain, including after Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Maria. When it comes to actually providing support to communities in need, extremist efforts are typically small, disorganized. At times, they have even impeded the efforts of trained relief workers and created additional problems for law enforcement, diverting their attention from providing support in critical moments.
