The Crushing Cost of White Supremacy on America

Cliff’s Note: This is the first contributor column by our new COO, Fred Poag. Everyone give Fred a warm welcome, and read this piece! We’re lucky to him him!

On September 5th, 2025 an electric automotive battery plant that’s still under development in Georgia was raided by ICE. Over 450 workers were detained and many arrested. Three hundred of those were South Korean workers.

To date it’s the largest single ICE raid in US history. And in the running for its most idiotic.

These workers were under the B-1 Business Visitor Visa program, which is short term not a long-term visa meant to establish residency and ultimately obtain U.S. Citizenship. They were in Georgia to get Hyundai’s electric battery plant up and running.

The plant, located west of Savannah in Ellabell, Georgia, was an economic development project that was projected to bring in billions of dollars to the region.

But now it’s anyone’s guess as to whether Hyundai will want to actually keep the plant or scrap the whole thing. One thing is almost certain, any expansion plans for Hyundai in the region—or U.S. in general—will be under serious reconsideration.

Dixieland Delights: Institutional Racism with a side of Secession

"We regard every man in our midst an enemy to the institutions of the South, who does not boldly declare that he believes African slavery to be a social, moral, and political blessing." - Atlanta Confederacy, 1860

Back when I lived in East Tennessee in 2012, I saw up close the cost of voting against your own economic interests for the sake of bigotry. It’s been part of a long tradition in the South—to economically cut off your nose to spite your face.

Even if that cutting is designed to only help a certain class of elites.

It’s why the South ultimately seceded over the issue of slavery in 1861 even though there was a dedicated, vocal minority opposition that were capitalist. They were also largely racist, but understood that the institution of Black Slavery was costing them economic opportunities at home and abroad.

As a history professor of mine liked to say “It’s easier to change the name of the god on the temple than it is to change the practice.”

And when it comes to white supremacy The United States has had a shit ton of practice.

Gimme that Olde Tyme Bigotry

What is an American?… The white Europeans who settled America and conquered the West… believed they were forging a nation—a homeland for themselves and their descendants. They fought, they bled, they struggled, they died for us. They built this country for us.

America, in all its glory, is their gift to us, handed down across the generations. It belongs to us. It’s our birthright, our heritage, our destiny. If America is everything and everyone, then it is nothing and no one at all. But we know that’s not true. America is not a ‘universal nation’.

Those remarks were delivered by Eric Schmitt, junior United States Senator from Missouri, at the fifth annual National Conservatism Conference.

The NCC is an organization that proclaims their mission is to stand in opposition to China and the “powerful new Marxism at home.”

But that they also “see the rich tradition of national conservative thought as an intellectually serious alternative to the excesses of purist libertarianism, and in stark opposition to political theories grounded in race.”

Translation: Anything outside of White, Patriarchal Christian Nationalist America lacks value. In fact, we’re going to stand in opposition to it.

So the role of the Spanish in American history; colonizing Texas, the entire Southwest…even cities like Los Angeles that still bear Spanish names. They were obviously White too, right?

Nope. Not according to Eric Schmitt, who specifically mentioned The Pilgrims, but subtly, to give himself some wiggle room.

We Americans are the sons and daughters of the Christian pilgrims that poured out from Europe’s shores to baptize a new world in their ancient faith. Our ancestors were driven here by destiny, possessed by urgent and fiery conviction, by burning belief, devoted to their cause and their God.

Now all of this might seem like just a casual, overgeneralized sentiment, but it’s a carefully crafted speech. The use of the word “pilgrim” is purposeful.

Because even though many on religious journeys are of referred to as a pilgrims, when Americans use that word it conjures images of men with belt buckles on steeple gates carrying blunderbusses. There’s a mythology built up that supports a particular image with that word.

Namely, White and Protestant.

Here’s the real white supremacy tell.

Words like “fiery” and “burning” as terms of conviction and belief. He’s talking about his ancestors doing it for “their beliefs” and “their God,” which just happen to be the same as his beliefs and his God.

Those words are meant to conjure up an image of an exclusionary God. One for whom many non-believers were burnt at the stake, and for whom another dark tradition was founded in which Missouri is heavily steeped.

The Collections Calls for White Supremacy are Coming In

So what was the South Korean government’s response to the ICE raid in Georgia?

According to the AP South Korea is already considering withdrawing from their plant in Georgia.

South Korea, already a top investor, pledged to invest $350 billion in the U.S. when the two sides announced a trade deal in July.

It made more investments in new construction, such as factories, on previously undeveloped land than any other country in 2022. Last year, it ranked 12th in the world with $93 billion in total American investment — including acquisitions of existing companies, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.

Corporate media is reporting that Trump is trying to undo the damage, but the damage has been done. While it might not scuttle the deal currently in place, more investment coming from private sources in South Korea is now in doubt.

It wasn’t before.

And given the backlash this is receiving in South Korea, I’d be skeptical of South Korean companies increasing their investments in the US.

Let’s see what else we’ve lost thanks to Stephen Miller’s Traveling Fascist Circus. I’m gonna stick with travel and hospitality since that’s an industry in which I worked, and understand well:

• Auto travel from Canada to the United States: Down 38%

• Air travel from Canada to the United States: Down 25%

• The US Travel Association projected the U.S. would see a $200.8 billion increase in revenue from 2024 to 2025 from foreign tourism. Instead, we’re now projected to take a $30 billion dollar loss this year.

• Canadian boycott on U.S. goods: American Whiskey is down in some markets, such as Ontario, as much as 80% (Canada used to be the biggest export market for Kentucky & Tennessee Bourbon Whiskey)

• Iconic American brands such as Coca-Cola, Jack Daniels, Philadelphia Cream Cheese, and Hellman’s have all seen significant drops in their market share overseas. Del Monte filed for Chapter 13 Bankruptcy earlier this year because of the tariffs.

I could go on, walk you through the Trump-induced economic fallout in numerous industries: Construction, Agriculture, Government Services, Healthcare, Hospitality, Business, Academia.

Every category of our economy has already been deeply impacted, and it’s only going to get worse. A lot worse.

Those South Korean autoworkers arrested and detained in Georgia weren’t the first to be mistakenly scooped up by Trump’s American Gestapo, and they certainly won’t be the last.

And why?

So some small minded, SPF-90-skinned bigots can feel just a bit more superior. But the price we’re all going to pay for that is already steep and getting worse.

So be prepared in the coming months every time you look in your wallet.