The Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL) Center for Extremism released new data on June 27 concluding that there was a 7% increase in white supremacist recruitment efforts on college campuses in 2019.
The ADL documented 313 instances of such activity from Sept. 1, 2018 to May 31, 2019. That number was 292 during the same timeframe in 2017-18. From January to May 2019, California saw the most cases with 33 incidents. Second was Kentucky with 18 instances, and Oklahoma was third with 16 instances.
The white supremacists’ recruitment efforts included using flyers, stickers and posters featuring “veiled white supremacist language” as well as “explicitly racist images and words that attack minority groups, including Jews, blacks, Muslims, non-white immigrants and the LGBTQ community,” according to ADL Los Angeles.
ADL Center for Extremism Director Oren Segal told the Journal that the 2017-18 academic year saw a 77 percent increase in white supremacist recruitment efforts on college campuses because that was the year it became their “go-to tactic.”
White supremacists “view colleges as these bastions of diversity, multiculturalism, PC culture — everything that they oppose,” Segal said. “For them it’s a cheap and easy way to bring their message to their enemies. Now, for this school year, we’re seeing this consistent high level that seems to have become the norm.”
White supremacists’ tactics include couching their propaganda in more benign language to “lure” college students into going to their respective websites, Segal said. According to the ADL’s website, examples of such propaganda include the use of phrases such as “diversity destroys nations” and “keep America American.”
However, Segal said there hasn’t been anything to indicate a significant rise in white supremacist membership since white supremacists started focusing on college campuses for recruitment.
“White supremacists view colleges as these bastions of diversity, multiculturalism, PC culture — everything that they oppose. For them it’s a cheap and easy way to bring their message to their enemies.” — Oren Segal
“I think they’re clearly trying to create publicity for themselves, generate public outrage and generate fear and anxiety on these campuses,” Segal said. “But the secondary goal is to cast as wide a net as possible. Some people on campus may be turned on to their messages.”
Segal pointed to the American Identity Movement, Patriot Front and the Daily Stormer Book Clubs as the main groups behind the recruitment efforts. “These are all essentially white supremacist groups who not only have attended rallies and do other events around the country, but have put a premium on this sort of propaganda distribution,” he said.
Among those groups is the Daily Stormer Book Club, which placed flyers on Citrus College in Glendora in October stating, “Every time some anti-white, anti-America, anti-Freedom event takes place, you look at it, and it’s Jews behind it.”
Segal said that the “silver lining” surrounding this activity is that University presidents and leadership are issuing statements condemning hate.
“Writing statements and amplifying values of diversity and inclusion… is an important response,” Segal said. “Some schools hold a town hall meeting and an educational program to demonstrate support of the campus community and rejection of this hatred. So these are all opportunities for response and education.”
ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement, “This data clearly demonstrates that white supremacists in the United States are emboldened by the current political and social climate. 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.”
ADL Los Angeles Regional Director Amanda Susskind similarly said in a statement that the organization is working “with campus law enforcement, administrators and other university stakeholders to identify these incidents and respond to them effectively.”
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