The U.S. Military Has a White Supremacy Problem

[Nevilledog]

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Talia Lavin
@chick_in_kiev
I wrote about white supremacy in the US military, and how it's been a problem for ages with structural incentives in place to keep it around! Bonus appearance of a neo-Nazi Marine I uncovered 6 mos. ago who is still a deployed machine gunner:

The U.S. Military Has a White Supremacy Problem
What is the Biden administration going to do about it?
newrepublic.com
8:29 AM · May 17, 2021

https://newrepublic.com/article/162400/us-military-white-supremacy-problem

In late October 2020, Lance Corporal Joseph Mercurio, a Marine with the 2nd Battalion of the 4th Marine Regiment, hit “send” on an Instagram comment: “The Jewish religion is that of Satan,” he wrote—responding to a photograph of me. His username on Instagram, “joe88mercurio,” incorporated a known neo-Nazi code: 88 stands for “Heil Hitler,” as H is the eighth letter of the alphabet.

In his bio, Mercurio stated his affiliation with the Marines: “USMC 0331,” a numerical designation indicating that he was responsible for handling machine-guns in direct combat. Below, he included a quote from an interview with neo-Nazi Richard Spencer—“There is no equality in nature, there’s difference”—and a quote from the white supremacist band Skrewdriver, from a song lauding Nazi troops in World War II as the “forces of light” in a “holy war.”

I had published a book on the white supremacist movement in the United States days earlier, and Mercurio had sought me out on Instagram to make his ire felt. Irked by the idea of a deployed machine-gunner being so open about his extremist sentiments, I screenshot the comment he left on my post, as well as a post by Mercurio showing him tagged alongside military colleagues at the training base Camp Pendleton in Southern California, and posted it to Twitter.

Within a day, a Marine spokesperson told military-news outlet Task & Purpose that Mercurio was under investigation. The publication had uncovered further racist and antisemitic material on Mercurio’s Facebook page: a cartoon from neo-Nazi site The Daily Stormer, accusations that Trump had betrayed the U.S. for Israel’s sake, and comparison of anti–police brutality protesters to “wild animals.” According to Marine spokesman Captain Joe Butterfield, the investigation would be thorough. “We are serious about holding ourselves accountable,” he said.

*snip*

[WhiskeyGrinder]

1. The whole country does, which is why its institutions do. K&R.

[Aristus]

2. I sure saw a lot of it when I was in.

I ETS'd in 1993.

I can only imagine that with the surge in hate group membership throughout the 90's that it got significantly worse after I got out.

[llashram]

3. divided

we will fall. Had them in my day in Vietnam. Nothing different. Getting excellent training though.

[Buckeyeblue]

4. It's because liberal families stopped encouraging military service for their kids

This is a problem going back over 50 years...maybe further. Norman Mailer addressed this problem in his non-fiction novel, Armies of the Night. I'm paraphrasing but essentially Mailer's argument was that the military had moved hard right, partially because kids from liberal families were no longer enlisting. He suggested that we need to have more kids from liberal families enlist to keep the balance.

I've always thought this. Poor, evangelical white kids are the most likely to enlist. At least that is what I see around here. They love their guns and their Confederate flag. The join and are surrounded by people who only reinforce their views.

[uponit7771]

5. Looks like the center of the problem is in the Marines and Navy

[NQAS]

6. Will someone please explain to me. . .

why people in the military who are found to be associated with extreme RW groups espousing hatred and violence against (fill in the blank) are not immediately released from service with, if not a dishonorable discharge then not with an honorable discharge.

Just toss 'em. And if it's not a crime you can prosecute, then figure out a way to make it a crime you can prosecute. And stop the mealy-mouthed and watered down responses. Sorry, Sec. Austin, if this is still going on after your stern words, then you have a problem. And we have a problem, as you're training potential terrorists.