ISD Glossary
ISD’s Glossary provides clear definitions of key terms related to extremism, hate, information operations and tech accountability. This page is continually reviewed to ensure accuracy.
White Lives Matter
The slogan “White lives matter” has its origins in a racist campaign initiated by white supremacist groups in the US in 2015 in response to the then-emerging Black Lives Matter movement. This campaign purported to seek to address racism against white people but in reality was a vehicle to promote perceived white race victimhood narratives and conspiracies regarding white genocide and replacement.
White Nationalism
White nationalism is advocacy for a separate white society or white nation, also sometimes referred to as a white ethnostate. The Anti-Defamation League describes white nationalism as a euphemism for white supremacy; the term is now used to “refer to a form of white supremacy that emphasizes defining a country or region by white racial identity and which seeks to promote the interests of whites exclusively, typically at the expense of people of other backgrounds”.
White Supremacism
White supremacy is a system of belief that posits the superiority of whites over non-whites, and advocates that white people should be politically and socially dominant over non-white people. This can extend to a belief in the need for violence against, or even the genocide of, non-white people.
