White supremacist ideas seeping into mainstream
Report details increase in propaganda incidents
Colin P. Clarke has been teaching a course on terrorism and insurgency at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh for four years, and much more of his class these days is devoted to white supremacy than in the past.
So Clarke was not surprised when a new report by the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism revealed that efforts to spread white supremacy propaganda – often through discriminatory fliers, banners and posters – more than doubled from 2018 to last year.
And the university is located just a short walk from the Tree of Life synagogue, and Clarke has seen the consequences of hateful words turning into violent action.
“It’s concerning because, for all the people who don’t move on to become threats of violence, some will, and some will get their start by seeing pieces of propaganda that will alert them to the fact this group exists,’’ Clarke said.
The ADL report represents a sobering warning about the reach of white supremacist groups, which can take advantage of the efficiency and anonymity provided by social media to disseminate ideology.
Last year the ADL recorded its highest number of propaganda incidents ever with 2,713 cases, compared with 1,214 in 2018. College campuses are a favorite target, receiving about onefourth of the propaganda against such minority groups as immigrants, blacks, Jews, Muslims and members of the LGBTQ community.
The report said all states except Hawaii registered instances of this kind of messaging, which often is cloaked in patriotic themes and serves as a recruiting tool. In addition, the ADL said the use of white supremacist rallies has given way to flash demonstrations, which are less likely to draw counter-protests and negative media coverage.
John Cohen, a former counterterrorism coordinator at the Department of Homeland Security, said white supremacists have become more sophisticated in their communication.
“In the past they were viewed as racist individuals who were on the fringe or outside of mainstream society. Now their thoughts and ideas and messaging have been incorporated into the mainstream political discourse by a growing number of elected officials.’’