The White Supremacist Lives Down the Street

 Sassy Politics with Christi Chanelle
  The White Supremacist Lives Down the Street

White supremacy isn’t a headline—it’s a house down the street.

In this episode, I’m pulling the curtain back on something way too close to home. One of the leaders of the hate group that marched through Kansas City last week? Yeah—he went to high school 15 minutes from me. Lives in Grapevine, Texas. Shops where we shop. Eats where we eat. And he’s not hiding.

We’re talking about what happens when hate stops lurking online and starts organizing right in your neighborhood. I break down the group behind the Kansas City march, what they’re planning, and why this can no longer be considered “somebody else’s problem.”

We end this episode with one question: What do we do now?

Because silence is complicity. And suburbia isn’t safe when hate has a mortgage.

Listen now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you stream.
Follow: @ChristiChanelle
Website: ChristiChanelle.com

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Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Local Extremism
• 1:05 Thomas Russo's Radicalization
• 2:17 Patriot Front's Kansas City March
• 3:20 Call to Action Against Extremism
• 4:44 Personal Realization and Conclusion

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

The leader of a white supremacist hate group didn't come from some small dark corner in the internet. He came from my town. I'm Christy Chanel, and this is Sassy Politics, grapevine, texas. Not a a headline, not a warning label a real place where families grow, where kids walk to school, where life feels safe. But one of ours, thomas russo, graduated from capel high school. Today he leads patriot front, a nationally recognized white supremacist group, the same group that marched through Kansas City this Memorial Day weekend. He didn't pop up out of nowhere. He wasn't imported from another state. He is the radical your neighbor doesn't see, and he's proof that hate doesn't just come for our towns it grows in them. Prove that hate doesn't just come for our towns it grows in them.

Speaker 1: 1:05

The man down the street, thomas Ryan Rousseau, born in 1998, raised in Grapevine, attended Capel High School. He wrote opinion pieces in school, arguing for guns on campus and against trans inclusion. He was already building an identity of exclusion and control. After Charlottesville in 2017, he broke from Vanguard America and formed Patriot Front, and now he leads masked men through city streets with fascist chants and banners calling for blood and soil in broad daylight. This isn't just some extremist. This is the founder, the architect, a kid who used to walk the same halls in Coppell High School that my own children did.

Speaker 1: 1:57

On Memorial Day weekend, tiktok lit up with footage Patriot Front marching in Kansas City. They were masked, uninformed, chanting white nationalist slogans, organized, synchronized, clean branding. But behind that polished veneer is an ugly violent ideology. They don't march to change policy, they march to intimidate. And their leader he's from here. Grapevine didn't just raise someone who joined a hate group, we raised a guy giving the orders. What's happening here is happening everywhere. Patriot Front chapters are distributing propaganda in at least 25 states. They post stickers, hang banners and stage quick hit rallies to generate media buzz, which they got in Kansas City. They target high schoolers and young men, often through social media and pseudo-patriotic language.

Speaker 1: 2:59

And if someone like Russo can radicalize right here in Grapevine, a middle-class, suburbian Texas town, that no community is immune, this is not about red states or blue states. It's about recognizing that hate doesn't wear horns. Sometimes it wears a letterman jacket and walks at graduation. So what do we do now? Name it, say his name, say the group, say the ideology. Don't soften the language. Watch your schools. Patriotic Front recruits young. It starts with memes, trad pride, nationalism. It ends with hate. Educate your neighbors. If they don't know Russo's name, tell them. If they think this is just fringe, show them the Kansas City footage organized locally Leaders, school boards, neighboring groups. Pressure your institutions to teach history, real history, and monitor extremism. Resist passively and actively, online, in town halls, in school elections. Do not let silence protect this ideology. You know, it was really strange Because I saw these videos On TikTok.

Speaker 1: 4:15

I had that reaction of oh my god, I cannot believe they're walking the streets like this In Kansas City With U-Hauls, that they're all jumping into U-Hauls allowing this. What are they going U-Haul's allowing this. What are they going to do about it? Do we ban? Do we protest? U-haul Like I know? Freedom of speech, right, right, no, not for hate. That's completely different. And then I looked it up. I saw that he lives 15 minutes from me. The leader of a white national hate group lives 15 minutes from me and it took my breath away. When the leader of a hate group grows up down the street, neutrality is no longer an option. It's complicity. Lovely Mishabai, thank you, you.