In the few days since its publication, the NYT article “A Voice of Hate in America’s Heartland” has generated a fair share of criticism. Here Richard Faussett profiles Tony Hovater: a self proclaimed “white nationalist” from a suburban town in Ohio. The piece has left many readers appalled and disgusted. Between 2000 comments on the article and countless tweets, it has been almost impossible to ignore the mostly-negative buzz around the profile. Plain and simple NYT has been accused of normalizing a Nazi-sympathizer; making Hovater seem like your average Joe and not the true bigot that he is.
In all reality Hovater is both. As the profile states Hovater eats at Panera Bread and was registered at Target for his wedding. In addition, he also claims Jewish people hold a majority of wealth in this country and that races are better off separate.
The hate and backlash this article has received is misplaced. We don’t hate the article for painting a Nazi-sympathizer as “normal”. Rather, we hate the fact that we can actually relate to a person like this. We hate the fact that we cannot tell apart a fascist or racist from anyone else.
This is exactly the point of the profile. As the NYT responded, the point was to show how extreme hate is more prevalent in America than we might think. Hate does not always make itself visible. Our ideologies are not tattooed across our foreheads. This is the scary part: evil looks eerily similar to normal or indifferent. Your next door neighbor might as well be a Nazi-sympathizer and you may have no clue.
As Faussett points out, the article isn’t perfect. One looming question is left unanswered: How does the average American citizen turn this extreme? This piece doesn’t offer an answer and we may never have one. With this being said, the first step to uniting a divided country is to try to empathize with one another; to truly understand where another person is coming from. Yes Hovater’s views are off the wall and radical in every sense, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t bother listening. If anything we should be thanking Faussett for uncovering truths that are often so ugly we would rather ignore them. “A Voice of Hate in America’s Heartland” is the kind of journalism we need. We need journalism that educates, makes us feel uncomfortable, and that doesn’t constantly reaffirm our own beliefs. While it may be risky to give Hovater and the like a voice on such a large and well-respected platform, there is a greater risk in pretending Hovater is the only fervent bigot in America.