White Nationalist Propaganda Found At Oakton Community College

DES PLAINES, IL — Fliers promoting a white nationalist group were found at Oakton Community College campus last week. Students discovered a pair of posters promoting the alt-right organization Identity Evropa in two buildings on the Des Plaines campus on Feb. 20 and turned them over to police for investigation, school officials said.

The fliers were posted by a "known neo-Nazi and white supremacist group," according to a message to student and faculty from Oakton President Joi Smith. She said school policy allows for fliers to be posted on identified public posting spaces on each of its campuses. Fliers posted elsewhere will be removed, according to the letter to students.

"While we uphold the value of freedom of speech and expression, as a college community we can also choose to reject hate speech and provide personal support for one another," Smith said. "I hope that our community can agree that we must not stand silent while facing expressions of bigotry, discrimination, or hate that have become part of our national political discourse"

The fliers contained the name of the group above the message "European Roots American Greatness," according to Paul Palian, Oakton's director of college relations. It was the first time such material has been found at Oakton, he said.

The fliers were similar to recruiting material distributed by the group at other schools. Its propaganda often features European and classical statues. The Anti-Defamation League said the group avoids the most obvious white supremacist slogans and imagery, preferring a more subtle form of messaging.

Founded in 2016, Identity Evropa denies it promotes a white supremacist ideology. It describes itself as an "American Identitarian" organization and "ethno-pluralists," calling for a place where white people "can fully express themselves and enjoy self-determination" and demanding that white people "retain demographic supermajorities in our homelands."

The group's slogan, "You will not replace us," drew attention during the August 2017 Unite the Right rally, which resulted in the murder of a demonstrator by an admitted white supremacist and the death of two state troopers.

In 2017, the ADL recorded 148 instances of propaganda from the group appearing on U.S. campuses, tripling compared to the prior year. In 2018, there were 63 reports of white supremacist groups distributing fliers and other materials in Illinois alone, the ADL said, with 30 of them involving the IE group. Full numbers for 2018 are expected to be released next week.

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Last February, about a half-dozen members of the group attempted to unfurl a banner reading "Danger: Sanctuary City" over Interstate 290 in Oak Park. According to a tweet from its now-suspended account, the group was protesting Chicago's immigration enforcement policies.

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On Wednesday, the Oakton Community College Diversity Council discussed responding to the fliers through a public discussion or posters promoting the diversity of the college community, according to the Park Ridge Herald-Advocate.

Smith, the Oakton president, said the college's diversity is what makes it such a rich community and called for choosing "inclusiveness over divisiveness" on campus.

"Oakton is a place that promotes the free exchange of ideas — a safe place where we are not afraid to have honest discussions about difficult subjects," Smith told students. "I invite you to add your voice to these discussions. You can choose to post flyers expressing your viewpoints, host forums or sponsor tables on Student Street. If we each add our voice, we will demonstrate the broad range of diversity reflected on our campus and the power of those diverse voices and perspectives. Let’s not let a few hateful voices diminish the power of the many voices that reflect our core values."