White Noise
Is it possible for white pride to exist without sounding racist? Richard Spencer, Mike Cernovich and Lauren Southern would like to have you think so in Daniel Lombroso’s documentary on the modern white nationalist movement for The Atlantic, but the truth is, anytime someone talks about “white pride,” it just sounds different from things like “gay pride” and “black pride,” and it’s because the white race has been in the driver’s seat for so long, and any encroachment on that “majority” is seen, immediately, as a threat to the balance of power in either the world, or the United States. As a white person, I’m honestly ready for someone else to take the lead, especially if people like Spencer, Cernovich and Southern think otherwise.
“I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain.” -James Baldwin
The above quote by Baldwin gets to the heart of the issue with racism and white supremacist thought, and it opens the film before we follow Spencer, Cernovich and Southern during the Trump Presidency, at a point where their message has been resonating stronger than ever. If you were to replace hate with fear in Baldwin’s quote, it would explain a lot about the white nationalist ethos, because ultimately, the fear of being replaced at the top is what drives a lot of the thinking of seeing refugees and immigrants come to, what have always been, white-majority countries for new lives, and them bringing their culture with them rather than just simply assimilating. There is plenty that can be discussed as to modern immigration laws and practices, but much of the white nationalist rhetoric boils down to, “Go home to where you came from!” This is at the heart of the movement, and they have been emboldened, as Lombroso shows in the film, by the current President of the United States, whom has normalized their views into the mainstream.
“White Noise” follows these three white nationalist influencers as they go about their lives, make public appearances or make videos online to spread their message. This is the first, real time I’ve taken to listen to their perspectives and how they view themselves, and it’s one of the most complicated aspects of the film- by giving them a platform, is Lombroso helping to normalize their words? De-platforming speech like that of Spencer’s or Southern’s or Cernovich’s has been a big topic of discussion over the past few years, though Lombroso doesn’t really tackle it here; as a journalist, he’s comfortable giving them a chance to discuss themselves and their worldview without presenting it as a reasonable dialogue worth paying attention to. We see footage of the Charlottesville protests, with its chants of “Jews will not replace us!” and the tragic death of an anti-racism protester by someone sympathetic to Spencer’s cause. We see Southern seem to question her rhetoric about anti-feminism after an alt-right organizer, who is married, asks her out, but she also doesn’t seem to miss a beat when she’s asked about the fact that her boyfriend is of a different race as her; we also see her looking to make a documentary about the migrant crisis in Europe, and then, see her present it to the EU, to a Europe that seems passionate about her message, in a film that appears to take the humanity out of her subjects. We see Cernovich and his Iranian wife, and their child, at home, and we see him lament how Spencer’s rhetoric seems to be poking a hole in what he wants to accomplish with his message. In the end, that’s one of the key points in “White Noise” that Lombroso is looking to uncover, and that’s the grift of the alt-right, and how the internet can amplify their message if left unchecked. This is a film set on helping us stay away from that message, by seeing how the people who preach it operate. It’s an uncomfortable must-watch, regardless of what side of the spectrum you’re on.
