Racism in Paganism
It exists, and it’s making the rest of the Pagan community look bad.
To tell you the truth, I didn’t watch all the Freedom Convoy Protest over this weekend. I did find out a few things about it, though.
- The Guinness Book of World Records still consider the Egyptian Convoy of 2020 to be the longest. https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/largest-truck-convoy. There were only 113 trucks involved in this Canadian one.
- 90% of Truckers in Canada are already vaccinated because they want to keep their job and travel with their essential goods to and from the U.S. Only 10% of them are not vaccinated.
- There weren’t just truckers in this protest. There were other people who weren’t vaccinated that came along. This also included White Supremacists groups like the Soldiers of Odin. They were the ones that spread a lot of hate during this weekend’s protest and turned what was supposed to be a Covid protest into a racist and anti-Semitic one.
- There are still some form of Convoy protest still happening at the Canada-U.S. border. One of them got out of hand near Coutts, Alberta where the truckers shut that one down. The RCMP are now getting involved in getting rid of these protesters peacefully.
On one of my Pagan Facebook groups, there was a notice from the Heathen Confederation of Canada. The note said that they are against groups such as the Soldiers of Odin who are not Heathen or Pagan, but White Supremacists.
I am not a Heathen; I am more Wiccan/Pagan. I don’t worship any of the Norse gods, but I do know people who do, and they are not racist.
My Road to the Path
What got me into paganism many years ago was the idea of worshiping not just a god but also a goddess. The other benefit is that this is an earth-based spirituality. Otherwise, worshiping mother earth.
Even though most pagans are white, there are minorities who are also into witchcraft. If you don’t believe me, please read this book, Bringing Race to the Table: Exploring Racism in the Pagan Community by Crystal Blanton. That is a book of essays from the minority pagan point of view. Hence, paganism includes everybody from all walks of life, regardless of gender, race, or sexuality.
It just makes me angry there are a few White Supremacist groups out there disguising themselves as pagan or heathen. They are using Norse symbols like Thor’s Hammer, the Valknot, and other such runes and turning those into hate ones. I would rather strip those symbols from racist ideology and giving them back to the non-racist Pagans, university history professors, archeologists, and the Vikings themselves. The latter is because it was their symbol to begin with. I don’t want the same thing to happen to those like what happened to the Swastika.
The Swastika was originally a Hindi, Buddhist, and Jain Sanskrit word meaning “well-being.” That was, until the Nazis ruined it. Now it’s a symbol of hate. I don’t want this to happen to any of the Norse Runes.
Oh, and to those White Supremacist, reading this, who think that the Norse people were a pure white race. That is not true. They conquered and invaded other cultures and lands. Otherwise, they mixed their blood with the local population of their conquest. There is no such thing as a pure white race. That is a big huge myth.
The Music From the Goddess’ Vault Podcast.
On a particular day in 2018, I was watching a Canadian news magazine show. They had a feature on the Soldiers of Odin. The reporter did mention that a few Pagans were also involved with this hate group, which got my attention. Fortunately, they focused more on the hate and less on the pagan aspects of these idiots. The Soldiers of Odin organization are popping up all over Canada.
After watching that, I did a little online research into racism in paganism and unfortunately; it exists. I even did a show about it here:
https://soundcloud.com/christina-szeman/music-from-the-goddess-vault-podcast-racism-episode.
By the way, before I forget, there is a term in paganism and heathenism that should be abolished, called folkish. It means that the only people who should worship, say, the Viking gods, are those whose ancestry is Norse only.
I think that anyone, regardless of race, can worship the Norse gods. I mean, we have the Marvel Universe of Thor, for example.
A few years ago, there was another racist act in the Heathen community that I notice. It was a text message from one of the prominent members of a group of the same ilk in South America. This message was racist with this person calling them the S word. Nonetheless, everyone in the Heathen community did kick this person out promptly. But I still feel sorry for them because they still have to deal with something like this when a major event comes along (Like the Convoy and what happened in the White House January 6th, 2021). I know they are sick of constantly sending out messages saying that racism has no place in heathenry or paganism all the time.
I, too, had an incident a year after I aired that podcast. A racist troll left me a message saying that it’s the black people’s fault for all this racism. I was shocked. I did accidentally post this on social media, only to get the fans to say “Don’t Feed the Trolls”. Likewise, I then took that one down. But I ended up deleting this comment and was glad that I never responded to it. And it gave me an idea for another show: https://soundcloud.com/christina-szeman/music-from-the-goddess-vault-podcast-dont-feed-the-troll-episode.
Groups and Organizations:
Fortunately, there is the group Heathens Against Hate https://www.heathensagainst.org/. Their mission is to educate everyone about this issue.
The Problem
I don’t know why White Supremacist are attracted to heathenry and paganism. Perhaps one of you reading this can tell me why. I want to kick these a***holes out. I don’t like to tell non-Pagans that we don’t worship the devil, and we are all not racist. Therefore, we need to fix this White Supremacist problem in this community.
References
Against the Folkish “Pagans”. (2018, October 12). Hellenic Faith. Retrieved February 1, 2022, from https://hellenicfaith.com/2018/10/12/against-the-folkish-pagans/
Campion, M. J. (2014, October 23). How the world loved the swastika — until Hitler stole it. BBC. Retrieved February 1, 2022, from https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-29644591
Mcmaster, G. (2020, July 30). White supremacists are misappropriating Norse mythology, says expert. University of Alberta. Retrieved February 1, 2022, from https://www.ualberta.ca/folio/2020/07/white-supremacists-are-misappropriating-norse-mythology-says-expert.html
Samuel, S. (2017, November 2). Can Ásatrú Be Rescued from the Racists? The Atlantic. Retrieved February 1, 2022, from https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/11/asatru-heathenry-racism/543864/
SPLC Southern Poverty Law Centre. (2021, March 21). RACIST MUSIC, NEO-PAGANISM AND NATIONALISM DRIVE GROWTH OF HATE MOVEMENT. SPLC Southern Poverty Law Centre. https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2001/racist-music-neo-paganism-and-nationalism-drive-growth-hate-movement
VICE — A racist brand of Paganism is becoming wildly popular. (n.d.). Facebook. Retrieved February 1, 2022, from https://www.facebook.com/VICE/posts/a-racist-brand-of-paganism-is-becoming-wildly-popular/2098709860162261/
