Tom Metzger is the white supremacist and KKK leader who died on November 4 in Hemet, California. He was 82 years old.
Metzger’s death was announced in a post on his website, Resist.com. The announcement said that Metzger was survived by his partner, Mary Arnold, as well las his six children, Carolyn, Dorraine, John, Lynn, Rebecca and Laurie. In addition, Metzger had nine grand-children and one great-grandchild.
In 1980, Metzger controversially won the Democratic nomination for a congressional seat in Southern California. He was also the founder of his own white supremacist network, White Aryan Resistance or WAR. In 2019, the San Diego Union-Tribune quoted Metzger as telling members of his WAR collective, “We are in a white civil war. Our white leaders are traitors to their race and Jews assist them in our destruction.”
Metzger was forced to file for bankruptcy in 1990 after a jury awarded $12.5 million to the family of Ethiopian immigrant Mulugeta Seraw. Seraw was beaten to death in Portland, Oregon, by a group of skinheads who later said they had been radicalized by Metzger and his son, John’s, literature, according to a Time Magazine feature. In 1991, Metzger spent six months in prison after being guilty of taking part in a cross burning, reported the Los Angeles Times at the time.
Metzger Became Internationally Known Due to His Various Mainstream Media Appearances
Metzger became known internationally in 2003 when he appeared in the Louis Theroux documentary Louis and the Nazis. In the episode, Metzger is shown to have been working as a television repairman while also writing racist propaganda and speaking at white supremacist events on the side.
Metzger also made a mainstream appearance in 1992 when he was interviewed by Whoopi Goldberg. As well as an infamous appearance with Geraldo Rivera in 1988 which resulted in an on-stage brawl.
Metzger Said that He Did Not Vote for Donald Trump in 2016 & Didn’t Believe the President Could Achieve What He Was Promising
Metzger, unlike fellow white supremacists David Duke and Richard Spencer, was not fully supportive of Donald Trump’s policies. In December 2015, Metzger told Politico, “As long as he’s causing chaos and havoc with the citizens, he’s fine with me. I love it.” Metzger added that he was not convinced that Trump would follow through on some of his campaign promises. Metzger said, “It’s going to get people excited and it could get out of hand … He’d have to employ the military to do it, and I don’t think they’re going to do that.”
Metzger tweeted multiple times in 2020 to say that he did not vote for Donald Trump in 2016.
Metzger Accused KKK Leader David Duke of ‘Liberal Cocaine Use’ in 1991
In 1991, when he was serving as David Duke campaign manager during the Louisiana gubernatorial election, Metzger was quoted by the Associated Press as saying he had seen Duke consume cocaine legally. Metzger told the agency, “David is becoming too much of a politician. He’s forgetting where his roots are.” David Duke denied the allegations. Metzger said that the cocaine use took place at Colorado ski lodge.
Metzger went on to tell the AP that Duke’s denouncement of white supremacy left many supporters feeling alienated. Metzger said, “Every day he’s going to have to prove that he’s not a racist. If he wins, he’ll be forced to kiss little black babies just like the white babies. They think he’s a man on a white horse, but there is no such man.”
Metzger Said that He Was Not ‘Automatically the Enemy of Other Races’
Metzger said in one of his final interviews that was published on Medium.com in March 2020 that he was a “racial separatist.” Metzger said, “I am a racial separatist which I believe is in the best interest of mankind. It doesn’t follow that I am automatically the enemy of other races.” During that interview, Metzger was asked how members of the white supremacy community were handling COVID-19, Metzger said:
I can only speak for myself. White Aryan resistance is not represented by a dictatorship. I follow common-sense rules. I avoid government-induced panic thinking. I pretty much follow the philosophy expressed in the book The Crowd by Gustave Labonne.
In 1985, the Boston Globe reported that Metzger and other white supremacists to a Nation of Islam rally. The similarities between Metzger and the Nation of Islam are described by Herb Brin, a Jewish newspaper publisher, in the Globe article as, “They have a common bond in hatred of Jews.” Metzger told the Globe, “We see similarities in the principles that Louis Farrakhan is talking about: the exploitation of working people by an elitist group in Washington and by corporations and by the people who are their sponsors and masters.”
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