In 2018, as President Donald “Both Sides” Trump continued to equivocate about white supremacist terrorists, and while former Justice Department Chief and heir to the Keebler Elf empire Jeff Sessions hunted down Black Identity Extremists (who proved to be as elusive as the mythical Bigfoot), radicalized white racists enjoyed a banner year for killing Americans.
Welp...So much for that whole reverse racism “black supremacist” nonsense.
The Anti-Defamation League released its annual report, “Murder and Extremism in the United States 2018,” on Wednesday, which tracked murders perpetrated by all types of domestic extremists over the past year. According to their research, right-wing extremists killed more Americans in 2018 than they have in any year since 1995. The 50 extremist-related murders also made last year the fourth-deadliest year since 1970.
The murders were overwhelmingly linked to white Americans. Only three deaths (or 6 percent of the extremist-related murders in 2018) were perpetrated by a black person. And despite what the anti-immigrant Trump administration would have you believe, none of the people charged with an extremist-related death snuck into the country with a Mexican caravan. In fact, in 2018, a grand total of zero killer radicals were born outside of the United States.
Some other notable findings in the ADL report, paraphrased:
- Every single one of the perpetrators had ties to at least one right-wing extremist movement, although one (17-year-old Corey Johnson) had recently switched to supporting Islamist extremism.
- Guns were responsible for 42 of the 50 extremist-related deaths last year.
- Two of the deadliest acts of extremist-related domestic terrorism since 1966 occurred in 2018 (the mass shooting at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue and the school shooting in Parkland, Florida.).
- At least 39 of the 50 killings (78 percent) were committed by white supremacists.
- Over the past decade, 3 out of 4 murders committed by right-wing extremists came at the hands of people directly involved in the white supremacy movement.
- While you might be afraid of Antifa and Black Identity Extremists, only 3.2 percent of the killings between 2009 and 2018 (the past 10 years) were committed by left-wing extremists, including black nationalists.
“It’s time for our nation’s leaders to appropriately recognize the severity of the threat and to devote the necessary resources to address the scourge of right-wing extremism,” said Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the ADL.
The organization urges that policies are needed to combat extremism, including political leaders and law enforcement authorities speaking out against it. The group notes that civics and anti-bias education can help fight this pervasive trend, as well as better responses to hate crimes.
The report does not list all hate crimes and mass shootings—only ones with “positive evidence connecting the murderer to an extremist group or movement.” For instance, the October shooting deaths at a Louisville, Kentucky, Kroger were not listed because there is no evidence tying the killer, Gregory Bush, to an extremist group or movement. Even though Bush reportedly told a witness that “whites don’t kill whites,” he was probably just a run-of-the-mill crazy, racist white man.
The ADL’s list of domestic extremist groups also did not include the terrorists who give out candy corn on Halloween, Nicki Minaj fans, Tucker Carlson, lunatics who like sugar on grits, R. Kelly, people who write checks in the 10 items or less line, the Chicago Police Department, or Covington Catholic’s Future Racists of America club.