Skins of the Southwest

[AlphaCentauri]

New Mexico’s white nationalists keep to the Web—and themselves.

Every six months or so, a newcomer to New Mexico posts a message on Stormfront.org looking for friends, meeting groups, restaurants, bars—all the normal things a recent transplant would need to seek out community. What’s unusual about Stormfront.org is that it’s hard to tell if newcomers are legit: They could be undercover FBI agents, lurking Anti-Defamation League operators or, indeed, investigative journalists.

The Web site’s motto is “White Pride World Wide,” and it’s the central message board of the “white nationalist” community, a catch-all term for groups including neo-Nazis, skinheads, Ku Klux Klansmen, Confederate separatists, Minutemen border-vigilantes, Global Jewish Conspiracy theorists and common, everyday racists.

Since January, two new threads have begun spinning about New Mexico, with at least half a dozen white nationalists complaining about living in largely Hispanic communities, but mostly discussing the best time to throw a barbecue.

“We aren’t white gangbangers, we have nothing to do with the Aryan Brotherhood meth-heads, we condemn terrorism and we aren’t Nazis,” an Albuquerque skinhead who joined the message board in 2005 tells SFR via Stormfront.org’s private message service. “I know one white nationalist pursuing a PhD. We aren’t fringe.”
http://sfreporter.com/articles/publish/cover-040908-skins_of_the-southwest.php