Leak Claims To Show Richard Spencer In Racist, Anti-Semitic Tirade
Image by Getty
By Aiden Pink November 4, 2019
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
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
