ATLANTA — A march that morphed into violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, earlier this year launched the alt-right into the national conversation like never before.
Alt-right groups are operating in nearly every state across the country, including here in Georgia, according to a report from the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Channel 2 Investigative Reporter Mark Winne dug into the alt-right closer to home and found varying views.
White Nationalist
Sam Dickson, an Atlanta real estate lawyer, is a self-described white nationalist, who sat down exclusively with Winne to talk about his controversial beliefs.
“I’m a spokesman for legitimate white interests. I am not hostile to minority groups,” Dickson said.
Dickson said he rejects labels like left, right or alt-right, but acknowledges he frequently speaks to alt-right groups.
“Why is it right to define people by race any more than height, weight, age?” Winne asked. “Well, it isn’t just a matter of DNA, it’s also a matter of history, of culture,” Dickson said.
Dickson said he believes desegregation was a mistake for blacks and whites and the U.S. should be divided into “racial zones.”
“It’s unnatural for people to live among people who are radically different from them,” Dickson said. “My people have a right to their own homeland.”
Former Georgia governor and current attorney Roy Barnes, who attended UGA Law School with Dickson, scoffed at his proposal.
“We are all God’s children, regardless of color or complexion, or any other difference,” Barnes said. “Christ was probably dark-complected.”
III% Security Force Militia
In Henry County, Chris Hill said as a Marine, he trained officer candidates but now he trains fellow III% Security Force militia members to help in natural or man-made emergencies.
He says alt-right is a term that hasn’t truly been defined, but he believes it is representative of his group and his beliefs.
“If alt-right is one way to describe it, just short of being racist, then I’d be honored to be called alt-right,” Hill said. “I am not a racist.”
Hill admits to issues with Islam but said he's for racial equality. He referred Winne to YouTube video showing two African-Americans from sister chapters training with his folks.
“We’re on the path of a war and it’s not based on color. It’s based on decay and morals and values,” Hill said.
League of the South
Self-described Southern Nationalist, Brad Griffin, said he believes in the core principals of the alt-right.
“The alt-right believes in the identity, the heritage and the rights of white southerners and white Americans,” Griffin said. “I don’t advocate taking away anyone’s rights.”
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Griffin is a member of the League of the South.
“It’s kinda hard to believe in equal rights and nondiscrimination when those principals don’t apply to us,” Griffin said. “I do not believe in the system we have now, where other groups are promoted but our rights are violated and we're discriminated against. It's not just.”
But attorney and Black Lives Matter Atlanta organizer Tiffany Roberts says that’s not true.
“It’s not factually accurate to say that somehow protecting the right of all Americans, regardless of their racial identity, is somehow harmful to white folks,” Roberts said. “The farther away we get from slavery and Jim Crow, the more uncomfortable and upset certain people are.”
Attorney Chris Stewart says the alt-right is just another cause of divisiveness in our country.
“It’s just another vehicle for the animosity that’s already grown so much between people,” he said.
The controversial groups exist in almost every county in Georgia.
Posted by WSB-TV on Thursday, October 26, 2017
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