In the aftermath of the white supremacy rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, Vice News released a documentary of their footage of the rally from the front lines. Prominently featured in the film is white supremacist Christopher Cantwell, who openly discusses his bigoted views at length and seemingly enjoys the attention of the camera. Cantwell pushes for an “ethno-state,” and he refers to the deaths of Tamir Rice, Michael Brown, and Trayvon Martin as examples of a black person “behaving like a savage.” At one point, Cantwell states that he believes the death of Heather Heyer was justified, saying, “I think a lot more people are going to die before we’re done here.”
The violent “Unite the Right” rally on the night of August 11th was held to protest the removal of a statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee. As white supremacist/Nazi groups and a number of counter-protesters faced off, a car drove through the crowd of counter-protesters, sending bodies flying through the air. This resulted in the death of 32-year-old Heather Heyer, and the injuring several others.
In the weeks after the tragedy, many Americans have stood in solidarity against white supremacy and Nazism, while self-described white nationalists, like Christopher Cantwell, have been identified and researched by angry internet citizens. It was quickly discovered that 36-year-old Cantwell was not only an advocate of white supremacy, but a misogynist as well. Self-identifying as a “men’s rights activist” and writing for the website, A Voice For Men, Cantwell has left a large digital footprint of misogyny combined with white supremacy.
As exposed and collected by the blog We Hunted the Mammoth, which outs perpetrators of what the site refers to as “New Misogyny,” Cantwell’s writings are descriptively offensive. Quotes from Cantwell’s posts range from “Male geniuses outnumber female geniuses eight to one” to “What do you end up with when you throw out every legal standard that has ever existed and replace it with feminist hysteria? Rape accusation culture.” He claims that women are made to fulfill traditional roles such as raising children and supporting men, but the state has given them positions of power that they otherwise do not deserve.
In his Vice interview, Cantwell even criticizes President Trump for “giving his daughter away to a Jew,” which combines his anti-Semitism with his misogynistic attitude. “I don’t think you can feel about race the way I do,” Cantwell says, “and watch that Kushner bastard walk around with that beautiful girl.”
Since its release, the Vice News documentary has been collectively viewed more than 40 million times. Cantwell has been sent numerous death threats, and was charged with several warrants for arrest for illegal use of tear gas and “malicious bodily injury by means of a caustic substance,” according to Robert Tracci, the Albemarle County prosecutor. Cantwell posted a video of himself weeping in fear of his arrest, which was mocked broadly online. He was finally held without bond after turning himself in on August 23rd.
Featured Image by Derek Gavey on Flickr
Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)
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