How Hate Groups Affect Eastern

In the State of Washington, the Southern Poverty Law Center tracked 28 active hate groups in 2018. In Idaho, the SPLC tracked 10 active hate groups in 2018.

In Washington, there are 13 statewide active hate groups and at least 3 known local chapters just in the Spokane area. Northern Idaho, which is just a 30 minute drive from Eastern's campus, has at least 4 active hate group chapters and 4 more groups that are active statewide. That puts the greater Spokane area, including Eastern's campus, at a total of at least 7 hate chapters with the potential of 24 active hate groups that are tracked by the SPLC. These figures do not include organizations that I have found that preach hate speech, bigotry, and supremacy that are not tracked by the SPLC; groups such as the "Three Percenters" and "The Church at Planned Parenthood."

Eastern Washington University is directly affected by these groups and it shapes how the campus operates. Out of the 10 students I interviewed for this project, all 10 knew that this area had active hate groups and 9/10 of them felt that it affected their life in some way. Almost every student that was a person of color said it impacted how comfortable they were on campus, and rightfully so.

In February of 2018, a nation wide hate group that goes by the name "Identity Evropa" hung flyers around campus and in the surrounding area that preached views of white supremacy.

An Eastern Washington University professor, Paul Lindholdt, had a few words to say about them too - https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2018/mar/29/paul-lindholdt-free-speech-has-no-room-for-espousi/

The protests that took place on campus on November 7th of 2019 by "The Church at Planned Parenthood" also heavily impacted campus life. Out of the 10 students I interviewed, all 10 said that the protests made them feel less safe on campus.

In many places on EWU's website, you can find references for Eastern being awarded the top college in Washington for diversity. Diversity, as defined by the HEED award, is not only including racial diversity, but also gender, LGBTQ+, disability, veteran status, low-income, first generation and transfer students. By using this award to promote and market itself, Eastern attracts many underrepresented groups of peoples to come to their university. Ideologically, the notion and award are great and very progressive. When students do come here for the diversity and inclusiveness that they were sold on and are met with white supremacist fliers and protest groups that harass and assault them for not being straight, white, male, and Christian, then it becomes understandable that students may not want to return for a second year at Eastern. Students will end up looking for a different college that offers a similar education for them that is without explicit hatred, bigotry, and supremacy.

Eastern Washington University finds itself in an area of the country that is surrounded by many ideologies that it claims to be fighting against. These harmful ideologies that would like to see our society regress to overtly oppressing groups that are not straight, white, Christian males seem make their way onto campus from the Spokane area. In a space that is for primarily education and then peaceful protesting, activism, business, etc. come secondarily; actions like these make students look at the university for help. The help they have found is non-existent recently as the university dismissed recent messages of hate, harassment, and assault as a "First Amendment right." Students are reportedly being turned away from CAPS when they need help dealing with traumatic experiences. You can find these stories by looking at my project and the partner project under the Eastern Revealed website.

Now more than ever Eastern Washington University and its faculty leaders need to take a more aggressive approach in dealing with these matters. Issues of hatred need to be called what they are and condemned. Make the students feel safe to be on campus. Let the public know that the surrounding ideologies do not represent what the institution is. Instead of funding being cut to programs for students, their education, and well-beings, they need to have funding for their students now more than ever. Push back against hatred. We should be a beacon of inclusivity for the area, not just the campus.