Race war

{{race}}{{hatnote|This page is about quasi-apocalyptic lunacy. For actual race war, see [[genocide]].}}
A '''race war''' is a large-scale conflict between different groups that perceive their divisions to be primarily [[race|racial]].

The phrase is usually used to describe a hypothetical conflict between whites and minorities in a predominantly white area. This idea commonly forms a part of the ideology of [[racist]] groups, often taking on an [[apocalypse|apocalyptic]] element; the term sometimes used by these groups is "racial holy war", or "'''RaHoWa'''". These ideas usually take the form of [[conspiracy theories]], mostly revolving around a coming war between the races. Any event involving race relations (or any event at all) is [[shoehorning|shoehorned]] into a narrative purporting that these events suggest growing racial tensions that will inevitably lead to all-out war.

==Notable race war theories==
A race war was predicted by [[Charles Manson]], a scenario which he dubbed "Helter Skelter". Bolstered by his bizarre interpretations of Beatles lyrics, Manson claimed that Black people would wipe out the rest of America's population — all except Manson and his Family, who would be hiding in the desert. The Black victors, Manson felt, would realise that they were incapable of ruling and so the Family would be able to take over the nation.<ref>https://web.archive.org/web/20061027140441/http://www.charliemanson.com/helter-skelter.htm</ref>

[[Neo-Nazi]] [[Ben Klassen]] wrote frequently on a proposed race war. His lunatic screeds include the following statements:

{{quotebox|When a people stoop so low as to abjectly bow to the traitorous power structure to "honor" [[Martin Luther King|Martin Lucifer Koon]] as a hero above their own traditional White heroes, ([[George Washington|Washington]], [[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson]], etc.) then it is time to declare open war.<ref>Ben Klassen, [https://creativityalliance.com/wp-content/uploads/ebooks/HolyBooks/eBook-BenKlassen-RAHOWAThisPlanetIsAllOurs.pdf ''Rahowa! This Planet is All Ours''], 1987.</ref>}}

{{quotebox|We must now either wage a [[Jihad]] of our own or perish miserably in a worldwide flood of mud, just as surely as 22,500 people in Colombia perished in a local deluge.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20150415090012/https://rtpiao.wordpress.com/rm-more-deadlier-than/ More Deadly Than the H-Bomb]. Archived from rtpiao.wordpress.com, 15 April 2015.</ref>}}

==Black uprising==
In the USA, many racist conspiracy theories have revolved around the notion of a "Black uprising", in which the entire African-American population will rise up to become the dominant race and/or kill off the whites. The common motivation alleged to be behind these secret plans is to take revenge for [[slavery]]. The details of this conspiracy have changed through history, but this common element remains.

===Ante-bellum===
Many slave owners living in [[The South]] before the [[American Civil War|Civil War]] were incredibly [[paranoid]] about potential slave revolts. These fears were driven by the actual occasional slave revolt or a slave who ran away or attempted to kill his master in some way, such as through poisoning his food, as well as larger-scale foreign slave revolts such as the 1804 Haitian Revolution in which the victorious slaves killed nearly all of the white population of Haiti. Slave owners often slept with their guns, formed militias, and built shelters in case of a revolt. Whites actually attempted to suppress conspiratorial rumors and reports of actual unrest by slaves in the press in the belief that the slaves would be encouraged by such reports. They 
believed
 convinced themselves that slavery was a "civilizing" institution and that, without it, [[Black brute|the Black people would run amok]] and widespread acts of violence would follow. There was also a constant fear of Northern abolitionists secretly inciting slave rebellions.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20150415090013/http://what-when-how.com/conspiracy-theories-in-american-history/slave-revolts/ Entry for "slave revolts,"] excerpted from ''Conspiracy Theories in American History'', ed. Peter Knight.</ref><ref>[http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=23533 The Texas Slave Insurrection Panic of 1860 and Secession], H-Net</ref>

===Post-bellum===
{{main|Black brute}}
During [[Reconstruction]] and the [[Jim Crow era]], racial conspiracy theories were driven by the [[Black brute]] [[myth|mythos]]. Various theories circulated about Black usurpation of all levels of government, the destruction of "white racial purity" through [[miscegenation]], and imminent war between the races. Fabricated stories of Black crime fueled racist [[paranoia]] and led to race riots, [[lynch mob]]s, and [[moral panic]]s.<ref>One example: Alwyn Barr. [http://www.jstor.org/pss/274970 The Texas "Black Uprising" Scare of 1883.] ''Phylon'', Vol. 41, No. 2, 2nd Qtr., 1980</ref> The slave owners' militias gave way to paramilitary organizations like the [[Ku Klux Klan]]. Black culture was considered to be [[Satan]]ic due to the proliferation of {{wpl|Syncretism|syncretic religions}} and practices like [[voodoo]] and various African traditions. In the early 20th century, the use of certain drugs among Black people, especially [[marijuana]], led to calls for their [[War on Drugs|criminalization]]. It was believed that Black people would corrupt the youth of the nation, bringing them under the influence of ''Satan himself'', through their ''deadly reefer'' and nefarious music, ''blues and jazz''! [[Moral panic|And many pearls were clutched.]]

===Civil Rights era===
While the various conspiratorial claims from earlier times survived into the post-[[World War II]] era, the new and improved racist conspiracy theories involved Civil Rights organizations being part of a secret [[communist]] plot. This played into the general [[McCarthyism]] of the era, as well as the notion that Black people were susceptible to "outside influences" (just replace abolitionists with Reds). [[Red-baiting]] was a common tactic among [[segregation]]ists.<ref>[http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=9526 Red- and Black-baiters Unite], H-Net</ref> Rock 'n roll and R&B replaced jazz and blues as Satan's favored music of the day.

Riots in Black ghettos in the mid-to-late-1960s led to increased concern over race-based civil disorder, and the federal government took steps to prevent and mitigate future riots.

===Barack Obama===
Many of the conspiracy theories circulating on the [[birther]] and hard [[wingnut]] circuit recycle many of the tropes from yesteryear. Besides [[Obama citizenship denial|denying Obama's citizenship]], some conspiracy nuts have attached a variety of other theories to their birtherism. These generally revolve around the idea that Obama is a [[Black supremacy|Black supremacist]] intent on extracting reparations from the American public.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20100224220136/http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2010/02/23/limbaughs-reparations-crowing-hits-a-new-racist-low/ Rush Limbaugh's "Reparations" Crowing Hits a New, Racist Low], Steve Benen</ref> Quotes from his books are often [[cherry-picking|cherry-picked]] or [[PIDOOMA|fabricated]] to "prove" this.<ref>[http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/coilofrage.asp Coil of Rage], [[Snopes]]</ref> "Obama as black radical" is also a popular trope, with the {{wpl|Jeremiah Wright controversy|Jeremiah Wright incident}} being trumpeted and attempts to tie Obama in with the Black Panthers being made, such as the [[New Black Panther Party|New Black Panther case]], photoshopped images of Obama as a Black Panther, and rumors that he is secretly related to Malcolm X.<ref>[http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/photos/panthers.asp Surprise Party], Snopes</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20100820121645/http://israelinsider.net/profiles/blogs/is-obama-the-secret-son-of Is Obama the secret son of Malcolm X?] Israel Insider</ref> The really [[crank]]y versions of this theory posited that Obama was attempting to implement a Black police state. This conspiracy theory claimed that he stole the 2008 election with the help of [[ACORN]] and recast the [[FEMA concentration camps]] as prisons for white people that will inevitably be locked up by Obama's secret army.<ref>[[The Obama Deception]] is commonly cited as "proof" of this.</ref> (Continuing with the music theme, rap and [[hip-hop]] have replaced rock and R&B as the current-day musical bogeyman, as demonstrated by the "Common incident."<ref>[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/12/jon-stewart-fox-news-common-outrage_n_860956.html Tone Def Poetry Jam segment on The Daily Show]</ref>) 

Race riots as a result of the Michael Brown shooting and the death of Eric Garner reignited fears of racial conflict inside the United States.

===Extremist Black racists===
Fringe elements within the Black community, such as some members of the [[New Black Panther Party]], periodically encourage wide-scale uprisings of Black people against white people (or members of other races, most especially Asians, though sometimes Hispanics as well). Most Black people are not interested in broad-scale violent conflict.

==Outside the US==
Since race is a subjective socially and politically constructed phenomenon, many conflicts in human history can technically be described as a "race war". For example:
* The Eastern Front of World War II. Germans considered Slavic peoples to be racially inferior and planned to exterminate most of them, eradicate their culture, and turn the remainder into slave labor.
* The Japanese Empire's conquests across Asia. The Japanese considered themselves to be racially superior to other Asians.
* The Israel-Palestine conflict, including the Nakba and the First and Second Intifadas.
* The [[Rwandan Genocide]].
* The Nigerian Civil War, fought between the predominantly Hausa-Fulani government of Nigeria and the predominantly Igbo secessionist government of Biafra.
* The Kurdish-Turkish conflict.
* The Anglo-Irish War.
* The Darfur conflict in Sudan.
* The repressive white government of [[Rhodesia]], followed by the expulsion of white farmers from [[Zimbabwe]] after the fall of the regime.
* The ethnic free-for-all in the Balkans after [[Yugoslavia]] collapsed.
* The ongoing conflict in Irian Jaya/West Papua.
Certain ethnic nationalists in [[Europe]] have speculated on a future conflict between white European natives and foreigners, resulting in such 
semi-coherent
 incoherent drivel as this being written:

{{cquote|us English are about 10million? adults and youth. how many are against us, mulsims, coco pops in general, lefties, those with splinters maybe? if our 10 million faught against the others, how many would survive? how many muslims would survive, their enemy is bigger for sure, but who's side would the splinters and lefties side with? we know from the euro 2004 election that 800,000 voted bnp, 2.6m voted ukip, so 3.4 million voted for independence. ok, 1 or more million conservative voters maybe on our side and some old labour movers if push come to shove, and not forgetting the people who don't vote, so 10 million might be accurate. will our 10mill beat of the rest? will the elite rulers support us in the thick of battle? i would think so, i can't imagine the Queen wanting a non white country to rule. our best tool is the forces, you'd think 90% would be on our side? 80% at least. but lets not forget, those very elitists encouraged the multicultural experiment and aren't doing much to stop it. 1 mill of us, 1 mill muslims, 1 mill of several other cultures keeps the population divided, easy to rule over.|||[[Anglo-Saxon Foundation]] member "mistergoode"<ref>https://web.archive.org/web/20150415090015/http://www.englisc-gateway.com/bbs/index.php/topic/9651-public-borrowing-soars-to-highest-level-since-1946-after-darling-pledges-ill-spend-my-way-out-of-the-recession/?&p=15532</ref>}}

==Race wars in fiction==
A race war culminating in whites successfully wiping out all non-white races is described in [[William Luther Pierce]]'s book ''[[The Turner Diaries]]''.

A role-playing game entitled ''[[Racial Holy War]]'' was created by Rev. Kenneth Molyneaux, and revolved around white heroes battling "Repulsive Latrinos" [''sic''], "Retarded [[Nigger]]s", "Camel-Riding Sand Niggers", "Asinine Gooks", and "Perverted Kikes".<ref>http://web.archive.org/web/20011223145057/www.wcotc.com/revm/rahowa.html</ref> In addition to the vile subject matter, the "game" "rules" are so poorly designed as to render it unplayable. [[Irony|It also unintentionally makes whites the weakest race, as all the other races have (albeit incredibly racist) superpowers, while the supposed "master race" gets nothing.]] It is generally considered the second-worst RPG of all time. You seriously don't want to know what could be worse than ''Racial Holy War'', as such knowledge is usually fatal.<ref group=note>But if you don't place much value on your sanity, it's [http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/14/14567.phtml this].</ref>

On a similar note, the video game ''[[Ethnic Cleansing (video game)|Ethnic Cleansing]]'' depicts a race war in an incredibly bizarre manner. The game follows a single white guy as he wanders about shooting at Black folks, Mexicans, and [[Jew]]s, before eventually reaching the end boss, a bazooka-wielding Ariel Sharon.<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4DmZConcOI</ref>

==See also==
*[[Genocide conspiracy]]
*[[Red Summer]]
*[[Tulsa Race Massacre]]
*[[White extinction scenario]]

==External links==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20100727032830/http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2010/07/24/the-coming-race-war The Coming Race War], Feministe

==Notes==
{{reflist|group=note}}

==References==
{{reflist|2|80%}}

[[Category:Conspiracy theories]]
[[Category:Genocide]]
[[Category:Racism]]

Categories: Conspiracy theories, Genocide, Racism