The shooting rampage by an “avowed white supremacist†that killed six people at a suburban Sikh Temple near Milwaukee “came at a time of both growth and disarray in the supremacist movement,†James Dao and Serge F. Kovaleski wrote in The New York Times.
The data collected by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate groups, shows that “the number of ultra-right-wing militias and white power organizations has grown sharply since the election of President Obama in 2008,†Mr. Dao and Mr.Kovaleski wrote, adding that “the movement is more decentralized and in many ways more disorganized than ever, experts and movement leaders say.â€
“There is plenty of frustration and defeatism in the white nationalist movement,†Don Black, director of Stormfront, the largest white nationalist online discussion forum in the world, said in an interview. Calling Mr. Obama “a symptom of the multiculturalism that has undermined our country,†Mr. Black added that “there is no preeminent organization today.â€
Yet the shootings also shined a light on an obscure cultural scene that is helping keep the movement energized and providing it with a powerful tool for recruiting the young and disaffected: white power music, widely known as “hatecore.â€
For more than a decade, Wade M. Page, a former soldier who the police say was the lone gunman - and who was himself killed by a police officer on Sunday - played guitar and bass with an array of heavy metal bands that trafficked in the lyrics of hate.
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