Anti-Defamation League: Recruiting tried on Ohio campuses

CLEVELAND — White supremacists, emboldened by the current political climate, have launched an unprecedented outreach effort to attract and recruit college students, according to the Anti-Defamation League.

Since the school year began, the non-profit civilrights agency has identified 107 incidents, including six in Ohio, of white supremacists posting fliers on college campuses. They include 63 incidents since Jan. 1.

Five incidents of supremacists targeting campuses in Ohio were listed, including two at Ohio State University and single events at Kent State, Miami and Ohio universities.

At Ohio State, anti-diversity posters were placed on a bulletin board inside Hagerty Hall last November, thetab. com reported.

The university reported a year ago that it was among a number of colleges reporting that a white supremacist group has sent fliers containing intolerant and hateful messages to network-connected printers or fax machines.

At Miami, several white nationalist posters appeared at Miami University in November.

A poster on a public posting board outside the university’s Business, Engineering, Science and Technology Library read: “Tired of Anti-White Propaganda in college? You aren’t alone.” It included a QR code that led to a racist, anti-Semitic website, cincinnati.com reported.

Racist fliers and posters have been reported on parking garages, street signs, billboards, utility poles and along corridors. Schools in California and Texas have seen the most activity, the organization said.

Hate groups have also increased their presence at colleges through visits, rallies, speeches and alt-right online spaces, Jonathan Greenblatt, the chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League, told The New York Times.

“Social media allows them to go to very targeted audiences in specific ways,” he said. “Fliers starting to show up saying that any one of these organizations is here and present will not only raise eyebrows but I think really heighten concerns among organizations of students and that’s what they want.”

According to the ADL active groups include:

Identity Evropa, an “altright” group concerned with preserving “white American culture” and promoting white European identity. The group claims it has distributed fliers on more than 30 university campuses and this year launched “Project Siege,” an effort to speak directly to students on campus.

American Vanguard, another group created in 2016. The group, based in Southern California, is responsible for the majority of white supremacist fliers and events tracked over the last several months.

American Renaissance, an anti-Semitic and racist group, launched a hate-filled campus campaign, which for now seems to be limited to hanging “pro-white” propaganda posters.