This article is part of a debate on Countering the Radical Right inviting people to answer the question: “should we be worried about white men?”
There is no doubt that a recent rise in radical right extremism is concerning, and nor is there surprise that efforts to counter it are called for. Suggesting that those likely to be radicalised or commit such acts are easily identifiable through visible signifiers of gender and race, however, is not the way in which radical right extremism should be and can be countered. A brief look into the history of the UK’s counter-terrorism/-extremism approach provides ample evidence as to why defining those most likely to be radicalised, or a ‘suspect community’, is damaging to not only state efforts, but state-civilian relationships and trust. In other words, suggesting that we should be worried by ‘white men’ serves only to replicate past approaches through defining a new ‘suspect community’.
