Far-Right ‘White Lives Matter’ Rally Coming to Fort Worth This Weekend

Far-rightists plan to march this weekend in several cities, including Fort Worth, under the banner of “White Lives Matter,” a rallying cry regularly used by white nationalists and neo-Nazis in Texas and beyond.

Promoted on several Telegram channels, the rally’s supporters intend to protest outside Fort Worth City Hall and have asked supporters to put up “white lives matter” flyers “all over the place.”

The DFW Telegram channel administrators insisted that the rally wouldn’t include neo-Nazis or Klan supporters, but they still felt the need to warn participants to refrain from performing “roman salutes” or using “any ‘nazi’ symbols.”

In one Telegram post addressed to the press, the DFW group said: "Want to cover this march? Cover this, parasites."

The post went on, “We are your worst nightmare. We are what you are most scared of. We are normal White People who keep this country alive. We are the Tax payers [sic]. We are the Church goers [sic]. We are the ‘normies.’ We are the ‘manipulable’ [sic]. We are the organic body you parasites feed off.”

They are not grammarians, obviously.

The post continued by insisting that the rally wouldn’t include Klansmen or Nazis, but then promoted the “white genocide” conspiracy theory that purports widespread extermination of white people is happening.

The Telegram channel included several baseless claims about a nationwide trend of supposed hate crimes against white Americans, but the administrators admitted that it’s “impossible to find the actual stats on the subject …”

In several posts, the group falsely accused the Black Lives Matter movement of regularly attacking or even killing white people. In others, participants were warned of the possibility that federal authorities could infiltrate their movement, or that protesters could be doxxed.

Although the administrators urged rally-goers to remain “peaceful,” they didn’t rule out the possibility of a confrontation. “Antifa is an anti-White organization and will attack us no matter what,” one post read.

In the statewide “White Lives Matter Texas” channel, administrators suggested that some protesters come armed. “Most places in Texas you should be allowed the freedom of open carry,” the post read. “If you have a license to conceal carry then you should know all the rules involved.”

The statewide channel also included posts detailing the way walking sticks, canes and bicycles could be used as weapons of “self-defense.”

The administrators also instructed protesters to arrive in black bloc, in which they all arrive clad in black to preserve their anonymity, and to wear masks.

Despite assurances that the rallies scheduled to take place in Fort Worth, as well as a handful of cities from New York to Washington state had no affiliation with Nazism, administrators in the Texas channel shared photos and news articles of White Lives Matter rallies in Austin and Houston in 2016.

In one of those rallies, protesters surrounded the Houston NAACP office with guns and chanted “White Lives Matter,” among other slogans. In another, they gathered outside the local Anti-Defamation League watchdog’s office, many of them armed.

During those rallies, the participants included members of the Aryan Renaissance Society, an avowed white nationalist group, and some affiliated with the Atomwaffen Division neo-Nazi group.

In January 2018, HuffPost reported that Atomwaffen members were linked to at least five murders in eight months.

On Friday, VICE reported that several of the White Lives Matter Telegram channels had been infiltrated by anti-fascists ahead of this weekend’s protests. The anti-fascists gathered information on the "White Lives Matter" supporters by persuading them to join fake channels.

In Texas, the group has also planned rallies in Houston and New Braunfels. In the Houston Telegram channel, administrators shared anti-immigrant videos, including one that read, "This land is our land."

That video ended with the message: "Nation. Race. Culture. Reject your replacement."

Despite the claims to not be racist in some channels, the Houston administrators were less coy. Responding to a comment in which a user said "all lives matter," one organizer wrote admitted that "a couple skins, fascists, national socialists etc" would be attending.

"[T]his ain't the right place for you, you're in a racist group my man," they added [sic].

The Southern Poverty Law Center, an Alabama-based watchdog, has described White Lives Matter as a "racist response" to Black Lives Matter, as well as a "neo-Nazi group that is growing into a movement as more and more white supremacist groups take up its slogans and tactics."