My former institution Case Western Reserve University has not been spared the rise of neo-Nazi propaganda that has been seen nationwide. Within the last few weeks, there have been incidents of swastikas drawn of bathroom walls, one of which houses the office of multicultural affairs and then today the Plain Dealer reports that flyers advertising a neo-Nazi website were found around the campus.
Flyers containing links to a neo-Nazi website were found outside several Case Western Reserve University buildings, according to a police report. The flyers found Tuesday morning contained links to the website for the Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi, white supremacist and Holocaust denial commentary and message board. The university issued a statement saying, ”We condemn these posters as a cowardly attempt to intimidate and divide.”
Although sad, this was an inevitable development. There is no reason why CWRU should be free of this climate of hate. But you like to think that the small world around you consists of people who share your values. When these things come so close to home, you realize that behind some of the friendly smiling faces that you see around you are dark and ugly thoughts.
It has not helped the image of the university that it has also decided to downgrade a tenure-track professorship in African-American history to a temporary two-year position. Such a decision could not come at a worse time for an institution that has tried to promote an image of diversity and inclusion.
I’d agree this is sort of depressing. I wouldn’t necessarily worry about it until you find they’ve taken over some club and are using university space to gather and get their hate on, though. Or promoting outside gatherings on campus more than once.
What you described sounds a lot like the real world analog version of spam email. Low cost, low effort, scattershot distribution and hope you find some gullible people. It’s basically telling you there is no real movement of that type in your area yet big enough to be worth talking about.