Author: Kevin Abrams
On Tuesday, Oct. 8, students filed into Thorne Hall to hear the story of Tom “T.J.” Leyden, a former skinhead who, after working his way up the ranks to become a notable figure in the white supremacy movement, experienced a personal epiphany which caused him to abandon his hatred, and begin promoting a message of tolerance and understanding.
Prior to his speech, Leyden was given an introduction by Assistant Dean for Student Life, Tamara Rice. Citing recent examples, Rice put Leyden’s message in something of a historical perspective. Less than two months ago, during the Democratic National Convention, three men were arrested in Colorado.
On them, police found two rifles, one with a telescopic sight, among other armaments. One of the men was found wearing a swastika. The suspects have since confessed that their target was presidential nominee Barack Obama.
Additionally, about a week ago, authorities found white supremacist literature and drawings of swastikas in the bedroom of Brandon McInerney, the 14-year-old who murdered his gay classmate, Lawrence King, earlier this year. “Tragically,” Rice concluded, “hate is alive and well. In the United States, in California, in Los Angeles.”
Leyden then took the stage, and soon began to explain his background. In the late 1970s, he got very involved in the punk rock movement, which, as he described, was “about anarchy[. . .] strictly about violence.”
Shortly after discovering this new lifestyle, his parents divorced, and he was moved to Redlands, California. It was here that, at the age of 15, Leyden started his own gang which preyed on any minorities found in its neighborhood.
Eventually, Leyden said he had been sent to jail so many times that officers there still know him on a first-name basis. He says, however, that to this day he does not have a single felony on his record.
At age 21, Leyden joined the U.S. Marines and brought his racism and his prejudice along with him. Speaking about the Department of Defense’s policy, Leyden explained that “even if you belong to a racially motivated hate group, you’re still allowed to serve in the armed forces,” so long as one is considered a “passive member.” Leyden was defined as one of these passive members, despite his collection of racist literature, music, and tattoos.
To provide an account of how this policy could be harmful, Leyden provided the examples of Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber, and John Allen Muhammad, who carried out the sniper attacks in the D.C. area in 2002. Both men were trained in the Army, with McVeigh himself being classified as a “passive” racist.
“The military made me a better racist,” Leyden said. “They made me grow up. They taught me organizational skills, leadership abilities, recruiting techniques. Things I had not known before.”
After leaving the marines, Leyden became a “racist recruiter,” bringing middle-school kids, usually around age 12, into his movement. The reason he went after kids so young, he said, was their impressionability. Around this age, children begin their transition from concrete to abstract modes of thought. At this age, Leyden says, “every kid wants a sense of belonging.”
Leyden also discussed the perceived prevalence of racist movements in American society. “Racists are not just rednecks in pickup trucks with baseball bats,” Leyden said. In addition to its occurrence in the armed forces (Leyden estimates that approximately 1,400 neo-Nazis are currently serving in the military, if not more), he claimed that racist movements are spreading via websites, video games, music, and even children’s toys — pointing out that Nazi-style action figures can be purchased for children at stores such as Toys “R” Us. Leyden also pointed out that racist ideologies have also, in the past, been promoted by various intellectual, political, and spiritual leaders.
Leyden’s change of heart came many years later, after he became a father. “I was [originally] raising my boys to be Nazi’s,” Leyden says on a video posted on his website. “I brought my son home from the hospital and there’s a swastika flag over his crib.”
However, once one of his children began explicitly adopting his ideology and language, making a racist comment at a very young age, things began to change. It was at this point that Leyden began contemplating as to whether or not he wanted to actually raise his children as “second-generation skinheads.”
“I asked myself this question,” Leyden said. “Am I willing to sacrifice my children for my beliefs? The weird thing was, the answer didn’t come back ‘yes.’ If I’m not willing to sacrifice my children for my beliefs, then what’s wrong with my beliefs?” In today’s world, Leyden argues, racism is not a problem to be ignored. “I hate to tell you this, but there are about 75,000 hardcore white supremacist recruiters out there doing the exact same thing [. . .] that I used to do,” he said.
Passive acceptance, as he calls it, is also part of the problem. “When we remain silent in [a racist’s] presence [. . .] we’re saying: ‘I think the way you think.’ [ . . .] You’ve actually become part of the disease of spreading racism.”
“There’s two things I’m gonna ask you guys to do for me,” Leyden said during his presentation. In the tradition of tolerance, he asks people to “fight racism with your mind, not with your fists.” Secondly, he asks people everywhere to “become a mentor.”
“Make sure this world stops creating people like me” he concluded. At least, people like who he used to be.
This article has been archived, for more requests please contact us via the support system.
