Woman who was once part of an alt-right group speaks out

A former alt-right group member has told how she was lured in by leaders who flattered her and made her feel like an important part of what she thought was a ‘wholesome organization’ before brainwashing her into believing there was a white genocide. 

The woman, who has given her name only as Samantha, spoke out in an interview with Nightline. 

She admitted being converted to racism and said she even spoke about ‘rope day’ – a day when she says white people would hang anyone they considered to be ‘degenerates’ from lamp posts – with members of Identity Evropa, an alt-right organization. 

 

The woman, who has given her name only as Samantha, spoke out in an interview with Nightline. She has now left the alt-right group and says she is speaking out to avoid others of the dangers they pose 

‘When you’re in there, you think that you just know the truth…[that] white people are more intellectually capable than other people… White people were the best,’ she said. 

‘I never thought of myself as a racist person, but I was. I started to believe that…there is some sort of white genocide happening. 

‘I start[ed] to use the phrasing and the language…that there is an overwhelming majority of Jewish people in media and banking…and you start to ask yourself, are Jewish people white?’ she said.

Samantha said she was lured in because the group made themselves appear ‘wholesome’. 

She was first introduced to it by a boyfriend who told her that he was a fascist and she needed to accept that part of him in order to be with him. She was living in South Carolina at the time.

To appease him, Samantha started reading up on what she thought was ‘just’ white pride. 

'Samantha' is pictured at one of the group's events. She said she thought it was 'just white pride' in the beginning and that she saw nothing wrong with it

‘Samantha’ is pictured at one of the group’s events. She said she thought it was ‘just white pride’ in the beginning and that she saw nothing wrong with it

The woman is pictured, circled, to the left, listening to one of the group's leaders

The woman is pictured, circled, to the left, listening to one of the group’s leaders

It seemed harmless to her so she plunged deeper into the theme, until discovering Identity Evropa. 

‘At the time when I joined, I really thought I was just pro-white. I didn’t think about what it really was: a hate group. 

‘It’s absolutely a hate group. Anyone that’s in there doesn’t think they’re racist. 

‘No one thinks that they’re anti-Semitic. I think the term that was used, or that started to be used, was ‘counter-Semitic’ or something, which is also bulls—… I didn’t think that I was doing anything wrong,’ she said. 

Soon, she was performing Nazi salutes on command. 

Samantha said a turning point for her was the 'Unite the Right' rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where a woman was killed being run over by protesters

Samantha said a turning point for her was the ‘Unite the Right’ rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where a woman was killed being run over by protesters 

‘I remember I was at a party, it was at some group’s house, and, you know, in walks one of the leaders of movement and someone shouted for everyone to be quiet. 

‘He said “Sieg.”

‘Pretty much everyone raised their hand and said ‘Heil.’ It happened one or two times, and then, by the third time, I did it.

‘I knew it was wrong. I remember being really apprehensive in the sense of…it was not a good look. But I did it. Everyone else was doing it.’

Samantha told a worrying story of how her boyfriend, when convincing her to take his alt-right views, described a ‘Day of the Rope’. 

'Samantha' said she now has extracted herself from the organization

‘Samantha’ said she now has extracted herself from the organization

It is described in The Turner Diaries – a controversial novel about a  white supremacist guerrilla army. 

‘The Day of the Rope is where white people, as a race, take people that they have deemed degenerates, unworthy, people of color, people of disabilities, people that are gay or whatever, whatever it deemed un-pure, unfit for the white race, and they drag them out of their houses and they hang them by lampposts,’ she said. 

Samantha was still part of the group when, in 2017, members of her group attended the Unite the Right rally. 

It was that day – when an alt-right protester plowed his car into a crowd of counter protesters, killing activist Heather Heyer, that ‘everything changed’, she said. 

She left the group and moved out of the area where she had been living. 

‘I met a few people that kind of challenged me and held me accountable for my beliefs and countered them,’ she said. 

Identity Evropa has since re-branded itself as the American Identity Movement, according to the ADL. 

Now, Samantha wants others to know how prevalent white supremacy is. 

‘People need to understand that… it’s not the kid in Wyoming who grew up with gas station beer and a toothless father who becomes [involved in a hate group]. 

‘It is your mailman, it is your surgeon, it is your doctor, lawyer. It is everyone,’ she said. 

Her story is among those included in Anti-Social: Online Extremists, Techno-Utopians, and the Hijacking of the American Conversation, a book written by New Yorker journalist Andrew Marantz. 

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk