On Saturday, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern joined thousands of New Zealanders to mourn the lives lost in two shootings at mosques in Christchurch that on Friday took the lives of 50 people. The lead suspect in the attack is a 28-year-old named Brenton Harrison Tarrant, a fitness trainer from Grafton, Australia, who wrote in an online manifesto that he hoped to “to create conflict between the two ideologies within the United States on the ownership of firearms in order to further the social, cultural, political and racial divide ... ensuring the death of the ‘melting pot’ pipe dream.”
Ardern swiftly denounced the shooting as an act of terrorism, and pledged her commitment to the nation’s Muslim community. However, it left some wondering, especially after a string of violent shootings around the globe, whether these attacks are outliers or part of an emerging pattern of white nationalist violence that merits serious consideration.
“The rise of white nationalism in Europe has been on a crescendo for years and years, and it’s reaching a fever pitch [there and in the U.S.],” WGBH News Analyst and CEO of the GroundTruth Project Charlie Sennott said. “There’s a lot of bad dark corners of nationalism that have been rearing their ugly heads in so many corners of the world. ... This is a time to be really concerned about this form of rising populist authoritarianism.”
Racial violence is not new. The suspect in the October shooting at a synagogue in Pittsburgh peppered his social media accounts with references to neo-Nazism. In early 2017, a 29-year-old white male, who was known for his anti-immigrant sentiments, opened fire in a mosque in Quebec City, killing six and injuring 19 others. The Anti-Defamation League estimates that an average of 64 people a year were killed by right-wing terrorism between 2015 and 2018, leaving some with little question about whether this is a trend.
Sennott expressed, however, that President Donald Trump is not the sole cause for racially-motivated violence. There were pre-existing tensions before his presidency, experts say, particularly from white people who felt economically displaced by immigrants and the government.
Trump has been frequently critiqued for referring to Mexicans as “rapists” and claiming “Islam hates us.” As president, Trump hasalso faced heavy criticism for saying there were "some very fine people on both sides" when neo-Nazis clashed with counter protestors in Charlottesville and for calling certain nations "sh*thole countries." When asked by reporters for his thoughts on the attacks, Trump said they were “monstrous,” but that he saw no connection to white nationalism or racism.
“This president has just repeatedly tripped over himself on these really important issues when messaging matters,” Sennott said. “[You have to] draw a clear line that there is no room for hatred or this kind of racist, white nationalist, violent rhetoric. You have to be able to do that if you’re going to be the president of the United States. We’re all profoundly embarrassed by our president in the aftermath of this shooting.”
