Extremism, Anti-Semitism In North Carolina: 65 Incidents In 2019

CHARLOTTE — In 2019, there were 65 incidents of extremism and anti-Semitism in North Carolina, according to the Anti-Defamation League.

The figure for 2019 increased from the 50 incidents reported in our state during 2018.

The occurrences in North Carolina were among the 4,015 examples of extremist and anti-Semitic incidents that happened nationwide in 2019. The figure reported for 2019 is up almost 32 percent from the 3,052 incidents reported in 2018, according to the ADL.

Here is a collection of the incidents in the Charlotte metro that the non-governmental organization included in its registry:

Anti-Semitic Incident - Harassment: June 2019

• Location: Charlotte
• Description: Foundation Shalom Park received a threat of violence against its facilities.

Anti-Semitic Incident - Harassment: August 2019

• Location: Charlotte
• Description: Instagram user sent direct messages to two other users that were anti-Semitic and threatening.

Anti-Semitic Incident - Harassment: September 2019

• Location: Charlotte
• Description: A student at Providence High School discovered that a threatening and anti-Semitic note in her backpack.

White Supremacist Propaganda: Dec. 9, 2019

• Location: Charlotte
• Ideology: Right Wing White Supremacist
• Description: American Identity Movement, an alt right group, distributed propaganda at the University of North Carolina that featured the group's logo.

White Supremacist Propaganda: Dec. 17, 2019

• Location: Charlotte
• Ideology: Right Wing White Supremacist
• Description: American Identity Movement, an alt right group, distributed propaganda at Central Piedmont Community College that read: "Merry Christmas."

The Anti-Defamation League tracks the incidents through news and media reports, government documents (including police reports), victim reports, extremist-related sources and the Center on Extremism investigations, according to a “Frequently Asked Questions” section on the ADL’s website.

The Anti-Defamation League’s interactive map includes information on incidents involving anti-Semitism, white supremacist propaganda, white supremacist events, extremist-police shootouts, terrorist plots and attacks and extremist murders.

Along with providing the first-of-its-kind interactive and customizable map detailing extremist and anti-Semitic incidents around the nation, the ADL also provides information on the annual quantity of white supremacist propaganda that gets spread throughout the country.

The Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism reported 2,713 cases of circulated propaganda by white supremacist groups in 2019, compared with 1,214 cases in 2018.

Oren Segal, director of the League’s Center on Extremism, pointed to the prominence of more subtly biased rhetoric in some white supremacist material, emphasizing “patriotism.”

By emphasizing language “about empowerment, without some of the blatant racism and hatred,” Segal told the Associated Press, white supremacists are using a “tactic to try to get eyes onto their ideas in a way that’s cheap, and that brings it to a new generation of people who are learning how to even make sense out of these messages.”

The Anti-Defamation League, which was founded in 1913 to combat anti-Semitism as well as other biases, describes its mission as “to stop the defamation of the Jewish people and to secure justice and fair treatment to all.”

You can find the complete interactive map on the ADL’s website.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.