The Absolut World ad: Memories of white ethnonationalism

April 14, 2008

Here in the U.S., our nationality is not supposed to be defined by ethnicity or race. But for much of our history, it was. Despite our diversity, the U.S. was long in the grip of white racial nationalism, which held that only whites were true citizens of this land. By the early 19th century, many white Americans believed that they were members of a superior Anglo-Saxon "race" destined to shape the world. The nonwhites they encountered on their way were deemed inferior and doomed to subordination or extinction.

It so happens that it was during early conflicts with Mexico that Americans began to understand territorial expansion in racial terms. Rather than view the Texas Revolution of 1836 as a struggle by aggrieved American colonists against tyrannical rule in Mexican territory, white Americans largely saw it as a racial clash. As historian Reginald Horsman has written, even Sam Houston saw the struggle, which resulted in the creation of a short-lived Texas Republic, "as one between a glorious Anglo-Saxon race and an inferior Mexican rabble." Likewise when considering the U.S. annexation of Texas in 1845, James Buchanan, President Polk's secretary of State, argued that "our race of men can never be subjected to the imbecile and indolent Mexican race."

Rodriguez, of course, views this as the bad old days and promises that today's Mexicans and Mexican-Americans have absolutely no interest in retaking the territory Mexico lost. We'll see.

The article brings home the fact that the vast majority of whites today condemn the history of white ethnonationalism so apparent in the early decades of the 19th century and still lingering in the early decades of the 20th century. Yet, ethnonationalism is alive and well throughout the rest of the world. And many of the ethnic activists who are the deadly enemies of white ethnonationalism actively promote their  own ethnic interests.

It is becoming increasingly apparent that a people without a sense of ethnonationalism is defenseless against the onslaughts of others. The percentage of whites  in traditionally white countries continues to decline, and the white percentage of the world population is now around 10%.

Whites feel guilty for the accomplishments of their ethnonationalist ancestors. Yet their own place in the world is due in large part to the exploits of their ancestors. If they don't wake up, they are going to lose a lot more than Mexico lost.