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 |  Subject: Semitic-impositionist, ADL: College campuses see continued rise of white supremacist propaganda  Tue Jul 16, 2019 2:56 am | |
| White supremacist propaganda distribution on college campuses increased nationally for the third straight year, but dipped slightly in Florida, according to data released by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).
The propaganda messages range from veiled white supremacist language to explicitly racist images and words that attack minority groups, including Jews, blacks, Muslims, non-white immigrants and the LGBTQ community. Other fliers seek to deceptively promote “American Identity” without any explicitly racist message, but rather link to a website where such content is available.
The data was collected for the period from Sept. 1, 2018 to May 31 of this year and shows 11 incidents involving fliers distributed on Florida campuses, down slightly from 14 incidents in the previous year.
Still, the persistence of white supremacist propaganda on Florida campuses remains a largely overlooked problem and an ongoing cause for concern, according a spokesperson for the ADL, who added that campuses provide a fertile ground for white supremacists to attract impressionable students to their cause. This is one reason why several of the main alt-right factions continue to target U.S. colleges and universities with such frequency.
“While Florida’s college campuses saw a slight decrease from the previous academic year, we have seen an increased focus on campuses since 2016,” said Sheri Zvi, ADL’s Florida Regional Director. “We must be vigilant to prevent this type of activity from spreading.”
Nationally the ADL’s Center on Extremism documented 313 cases of white supremacist propaganda on college campuses – including fliers, stickers and posters – compared to 292 during the 2017-2018 academic year, representing a 7 percent increase. This year’s increase comes on top of a 77 percent increase during the (2017-2018) academic year.
The 2019 spring semester saw more extremist propaganda on campus than any preceding semester, with 161 incidents on 122 different campuses across 33 states and the District of Columbia. For the complete academic year, California had the most incidents with 58, followed by Kentucky with 22 and Oklahoma with 19.
“This data clearly demonstrates that white supremacists in the United States are emboldened by the current political and social climate,” ADL CEO and National Director Jonathan Greenblatt said. “Our campuses and communities should be places for learning and development, not places for racists and bigots to propagate hate speech and search for potential recruits.”
Nearly all of the incidents originated from the alt-right segment of the white supremacist movement. The group responsible for the most flier incidents was the American Identity Movement (AIM), formerly known as Identity Evropa, with 115 incidents. Patriot Front, a white supremacist group that was founded in 2017 after a split from Vanguard America, followed with 30 incidents.
“University presidents and campus leadership must remain vigilant in speaking out against the hateful messages of these groups,” Greenblatt said. “Given the alarming increase of these incidents, words alone are not enough – it must be followed by action. Educating faculty and students on the values of diversity and inclusion, along with improving training for campus officials charged with responding to bias incidents and hate crimes, are just a few of the ways campuses can fight back against this scourge of hate targeting our youth.”
In 2018, ADL launched “Hate Uncycled” – a resource to help campus administrators address incidents from many lenses, including prevention, preparation, response, healing and education. The goal is to dismantle the complexities of bias and hate through regular assessments and implementing campus climate initiatives and incident response practices.
In addition to on-campus activity, ADL has also documented a dramatic increase in white supremacist off-campus propaganda incidents. In the first five months of 2019, ADL counted 672 off-campus incidents, compared to 868 for all of 2018. Patriot Front was responsible for 440, or two-thirds, of the incidents, followed by AIM with 158.
https://www.jewishpresspinellas.com/articles/adl-college-campuses-see-continued-rise-of-white-supremacist-propaganda/
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