White supremacist propaganda on U.S. college campuses surged by more than 200 percent between the 2016 and 2017 fall semesters, a watchdog group said in a report released Wednesday.
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) recorded 346 incidents since Sept. 1, 2016, in which fliers, stickers, banners or posters associated with white supremacy were seen on U.S. campuses, including 216 schools in 44 states and D.C., its report said.
Among the 346 instances cited by the ADP were 41 logged during the fall semester ending Dec. 31, 2016, and 147 during the fall semester ending Dec. 31, 2017 — an increase of 258 percent.
“White supremacists are targeting college campuses like never before,” said Jonathan Greenblatt, the ADL’s national director and CEO. “They see campuses as a fertile recruiting ground, as evident by the unprecedented volume of propagandist activity designed to recruit young people to support their vile ideology.”
The propaganda reported by the ADP covered a range of messages, spanning from fliers promoting the need to “save the white race,” to direct attacks against minority groups including Jews, blacks, Muslims, non-white immigrants and the LGBT community, the report said.
The ADP said it was aware of 15 instances of white supremacist propaganda on U.S. campuses during the first month of 2018, or about one every other day, including fliers seen as recently as last week advertising Patriot Front and Vanguard America, two particularly active white nationalist groups, according to its report.
Identity Evropa, a self-described “fraternal organization for people of European heritage,” was the most active group with respect to organizations referenced on white supremacist propaganda, the ADL said. Fliers, posters and other propaganda touting the group made up 158 of the 346 campus incidents recorded since September 2016, or about 46 percent, the report said.
The ADL “has either done poor research about our organization, or has a motive for labeling us as something other than what we are,” Identity Evropa said in a statement sent to The Washington Times.
The ADL also seems to miss the conspicuous contradiction of their support for groups that advocate for the preservation of Israel as a Jewish homeland, and their condemnation of groups that advocate for the preservation of societies populated by people of European heritage.”
The ADP warned in a report last year that anti-Semitic activity across the U.S. had surged by about 67 percent over 2016, including a “significant increase” the group said it spotted following the Aug. 12, 2017, “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where participants including neo-Nazis and white supremacists clashed with counterprotesters amid chaos authorities ultimately linked to three deaths.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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