What’s the big deal with milk? (Picture: Getty Images)

You may have noticed neo-Nazis getting really, really into milk lately.

For the last few weeks, white supremacists have been proudly declaring that they’re ‘lactose tolerant’, and are adding ‘glass of milk’ emojis into their Twitter names.

For example Richard Spencer, who is most famous for getting punched in the face, has replaced the ‘Pepe the Frog’ emojis in his name with the glass of milk.

‘I’m very tolerant… Lactose tolerant!’ (Picture: Richard Spencer/Twitter)

And Milo Yiannopoulos’ old manager Tim Treadstone, aka Baked Alaska, has added a glass of milk in between his first and last name – and #MilkTwitter to his bio.


Milo’s old manager (Picture: Twitter/Baked Alaska)

Some have even gone as far as to post things like ‘Heil Milk’ (yes, really) and ‘down with the vegan agenda’. All rather unsettling.



But, as confusing as it all seems, it’s not that extremists are suddenly trying to take down Alpro.

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It’s actually quite a bit more sinister – ‘milk’ has become a symbol of perceived racial purity.

And, as a natural follow-on, ‘the vegan agenda’ is believed to be code for ‘the Jewish conspiracy’ – although it could also just refer to any target the alt-right are against.

But why milk? Is it because milk is white? That’s dumb

Yes, it is dumb, but it’s not just because of that.

While there’s the obvious interpretation of ‘milk is white, white supremacists like white things, white supremacists like milk’, there’s also a whole pseudo-scientific ‘rationale’* behind it.

*Warning: May contain BS.

The map of ‘lactase hotspots’ posted by racists on 4Chan

A now-archived thread from 4Chan’s /pol/, headed ‘Enter the Milk Zone’, pretty much sums up the whole thing.

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It started when one user posted a world map (minus the US for some reason) of lactose tolerance in different countries, apparently showing that tolerance was higher in the UK and northern Europe.

The map was posted along with the racist poem, ‘Roses are red, Barack is half black, if you can’t drink milk, you have to go back’.

Charming.

Because the people posting the map weren’t very bright, they apparently failed to notice that lactose tolerance was just as high in parts of the Middle East, West Africa and South Asia.

So that’s where the ‘vegan agenda’ thing came from?

Sort of, although there’s another reason why the whole meme has taken off.

When Nazis hijacked Shia LaBeouf’s ‘He Will Not Divide Us’ art performance (which has since been forced to close), they were seen on camera chugging milk and dancing around topless – showing off their runic and swastika tattoos.

They were accused of racism by entertainer Paperboy Prince, and they responded that they were simply against the ‘vegan agenda’. Ahem.

Then, under the YouTube video of the ‘HWNDU Nazi party’ as it came to be known, were semi-sarcastic comments such as these…

Now it has evolved into a general indicator that someone is a white supremacist.

So there you have it.

If someone you know starts adding milk emojis to their name and talking about how well they can tolerate lactose, it’s probably time to de-friend.