Leak Claims To Show Richard Spencer In Racist, Anti-Semitic Tirade
An audio leak purporting to contain a recording of white nationalist leader Richard Spencer going on a racist and anti-Semitic tirade was published Sunday by “alt-right” provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos.
Yiannopoulos claimed that the audio was recorded in an “emergency meeting” after the death of counter-protester Heather Heyer at the “Unite the Right” white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017. The person being recorded used slurs against Jews and black people as others encouraged him.
“Little f—-ing kikes,” the voice said. “They get ruled by people like me. Little f—-ing octaroons. My ancestors f—-ing enslaved those pieces of f—-ing s—-. I rule the f—-ing world. Those pieces of s—- get ruled by people like me. They look up and see a face like mine, looking down at them. That’s how the f—-ing world works.”
The voice also promised to return to Charlottesville – “every f—-ing weekend if I have to. This is never over. I win. They f—-ing lose. That’s how the world f—-ing works. We’re going to destroy this f—-ing town.”
The Charlottesville march was seen in retrospect as the high point for both the white nationalist movement and for Spencer himself, who cast himself as a more erudite and enlightened white nationalist. Subsequent public revulsion over the events at Charlottesville, combined with a series of lawsuits and criminal investigations, have since crippled the organized white nationalist movement – though some groups continue to stay active on the margins, and white nationalist-inspired gunmen have allegedly killed dozens in the past year.
Yiannopoulos claimed that the audio had been circulating amidst a schism within the so-called “alt-right” that was caused by the conservative campus group Turning Point USA’s attempts to expel outright white nationalist college students from their organization.
Aiden Pink is the deputy news editor of the Forward. Contact him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @aidenpink
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO