From ADL
Propaganda emanating from white racist extremist groups doubled in 2020, says a new report from the Anti-Defamation League. The increased activity included the distribution of racist, anti-Semitic and anti-LGBTQ fliers, stickers, banners and posters. This report comes concurrently with one from the Austrian government which showed that 31% of its nation’s citizens expressed anti-Semitic attitudes.
The ADL charged that the three groups alone, Patriot Front, New Jersey European Heritage Association and Nationalist Social Club, were responsible for 92 percent of the activity.
Some observers cite the Covid-19 pandemic as a cause of increased racism in the world. Many blamed Asians, China specifically, for the Coronavirus. Just this week in America a man murdered a number of Asians at three different spas in Atlanta. The situation was made worse by the fact that the President of the United States himself insisted on blaming China for the pandemic.
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Patriot Front propaganda (ADL)
Donald Trump also did little, or nothing, to stem the increase in racist activities during his term of office. He famously stated that there were good and bad people on both sides when Nazis attacked people during a protest in South Carolina. Trump also told the racist Proud Boys group to “stand back, stand ready,” before election day in 2020, whatever that was supposed to mean.
The 2020 data collected by the ADL shows a huge increase in incidents of white supremacism over those recorded in 2019. A total of 5,125 cases reported (averaging more than 14 incidents per day), compared to 2,724 in 2019. This is the highest number of white supremacist propaganda incidents ADL has ever recorded. The number of propaganda incidents on college campuses dropped by more than half, perhaps due to COVID restrictions.
(Courtesy ADL)
The 2020 propaganda appeared in every state except Hawaii, with the highest levels of activity in Texas, Washington, California, New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Virginia and Pennsylvania. The ADL offers an interactive map which shows the hot zones of racist activities.
As for Austria, 2,000 people took part in a survey where they were asked if they agreed with certain anti-Semitic statements which were presented to them. While 31% of the respondents did agree with them, the good news is that this constituted a decrease from previous years.
The continued high levels of anti-Semitism and racism in America and Europe should be a cause of concern for everyone, but especially for Jews. These findings show that the world is still not such a safe place for anyone who is different from the majority population of the country where he lives.
