In the 1970s and 1980s, overt white supremacists and their organizations were largely marginalized in American society. As a way of staying relevant and expanding their influence, the leaders of the white right decided to repackage themselves and the movement to become more "respectable," which meant putting on suits and ties and modifying their message of hate and its presentation. Central to this campaign involved changing themselves from white supremacists, operating under various labels such as the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis, into "white nationalists," a term that would eventually evolve to include the "alt-right," identitarians, so-called race realists, ethnonationalists, Western chauvinists and more. In reality, the supposed differences between "white supremacy" and "white nationalism" are largely pedantic, if not simply double talk, obfuscation and evasion.
So to be clear, white supremacists believe that "white people" are a "superior race" and that black and brown people, Jews, Muslims and other nonwhites are inferior be it because of biology or "culture." White nationalism is the political project through which the goal of white dominance and total control over society is obtained and maintained. In such a society, nonwhites are to be subordinated and eventually removed. In the most "extreme" versions of the white supremacist project non-whites are to be enslaved or eliminated. The more "generous" versions of the white supremacist political project allows a role for a small number of "honorary whites" who believe in those values and idolize Whiteness and "Western culture."
