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What started with hashtags and memes quickly grew more sinister under the leadership of Kevin Harris and Rebecca Barnette, who both have unapologetic ties to neo-Nazi movements. White Lives Matter formed as a white supremacist response to the #BlackLivesMatter movement on social media. As Black Lives Matter became more successful both online and in the physical world, memes circulating in social media with the tag #WhiteLivesMatter rose in popularity as a sort of counter-protest against black activists. Paul Pelosi attack highlights soaring threats of political violence In a more nebulous movement that's based predominantly online, people get attached to these ideas without being formally part of a defined group."
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" could identify its membership through dues, structures, officers, and things like that. White Lives Matters differs from "the traditional KKK, which has tried to see itself as a member organization," says David Cunningham, a sociology professor at Washington University. In addition to Confederate imagery, some supporters flaunted references to various neo-Nazi organizations.
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While the protest did not turn violent, a few members of the group were armed with what the Washington Post described as assault rifles. White Lives Matter recently made national headlines when about 20 members of the group showed up outside a NAACP office in Houston earlier this month, brandishing Confederate flags.
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While the movement's following is small, its strong online presence is an indicator of how old bigotries are being made new again in the 21st century by a number of white supremacist groups across the country. Not surprisingly, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has announced that White Lives Matter will be added to their list of hate groups. The group espouses anti-Semitic conspiracy theories about a secret world government and warns against interracial marriage, making no secret of its connections to neo-Nazi organizations. Unlike the KKK or Nazism, the "White Lives Matter" movement was born on the Internet.
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