These fliers were found at UC Berkeley and UC Davis as well as at Vassar College in New York. (Photo/StandWithUs)
These fliers were found at UC Berkeley and UC Davis as well as at Vassar College in New York, Oct. 2018. (Photo/StandWithUs)

Campuses in California and elsewhere see increase in white supremacist fliers

The amount of white supremacist propaganda disseminated through college campuses rose seven percent this academic year, according to the Anti-Defamation League.

A report released Thursday found 313 cases of white supremacist fliers, stickers and posters on campuses in the 2018-2019 year, an increase from 292 during the previous year.

The greatest number of incidents this year took place in California, followed by Kentucky and Oklahoma. Some materials targeted minority groups, including Jews, African Americans, Muslims, immigrants and the LGBTQ community. Others included white supremacist language or referred to websites with such content.

In October, white supremacist fliers were found at UC Berkeley and UC Davis that said, “Every time some Anti-White, Anti-American, Anti-freedom event takes place, you look at it, and it’s Jews behind it.”

The America Identity Movement — a group formerly known as Identity Evropa, which launched a campus recruitment project in 2017 to promote “white American culture” — was responsible for the largest share of incidents.

The ADL started tracking white supremacist propaganda at colleges in 2016, when it noticed an uptick.

During the 2017-2018 school year, putting up fliers became “a go-to tactic” of white supremacist groups, and the new results show that it is a continuing trend, the director of the ADL’s Center on Extremism, Oren Segal, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

“College campuses are seen as these bastions of multiculturalism, diversity, P.C. culture,” Segal said. “That’s exactly what these white supremacist groups oppose and a big reason why they’re trying to bring their message to these campuses.”

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Content distributed by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency news service.

Josefin Dolsten
Josefin Dolsten

JTA Staff Writer