The gunman in last weekend’s massacre at an outlet mall in Allen, Texas — which left eight people dead and at least seven injured — wore a vest inscribed with the letters RWDS, short for Right Wing Death Squad, and had tattoos of a swastika and an SS lightning bolt insignia.
He was also Latino, a fact that has bewildered some people in the wake of this tragedy.
Over the last 10 to 15 years, the story of Latino political alignment has largely been about the consolidation of young Latino voters on the left. Latino voters contributed to Democratic victories in key battleground states like Nevada and Arizona.
But Latino participation in extremist political projects has a long history in the United States, going back to the John Birch Society [and]… rampant misinformation across platforms such as WhatsApp and long-held racism in the Latino community are leading people to the far right.
Agents of white supremacy can come in more than one shade, creating an increasingly multiracial coalition….[B]being white and being Latino are not mutually exclusive…
This small but growing minority of Latinos engaged in right-wing and white supremacist extremism is important to understand. If our visions of white supremacist and far-right violence only include white actors, then we are hobbled in our ability to understand and limit the spread of these deadly ideologies.
Connect the Dots 101 
Leave a comment