Perspective: ExtremismNazi Symbols and Racist Memes: Combating School Intolerance

Published 25 November 2019

The number of Americans between the ages of 15 and 21 who saw extremist content online jumped by about 20 percent, to 70.2 percent from 58.3 percent, between 2013 and 2016, according to a new study. As more such material spills from the web to young people and into classrooms nationwide, educators increasingly find themselves under pressure to combat this new front of hate. Many educators say they feel ill-equipped to recognize what students absorb from the web, much less to address it.

On 15 March 20198, an 18-year-old senior at Battle Ground High School in Washington State was engaged in his favorite activity: Visiting the chat platform Discord to play Melty Blood, a favorite game of his and a group of web friends from around the world. The senior admitted to the FBI that they sometimes dabbled in extremist material — like videos claiming that Jews control America — that white supremacists have propagated via Discord in recent years, the senior explained.

Neil MacFarquhar writes in the New York Times that on that day, one of the players posted a lengthy manifesto on Instagram, to which the Washington State senior responded: “WAR IS ON THE HORIZON WE SHALL NOT LOSE WE SHALL SURVIVE.”  

MacFarquhar writes that “Much to their astonishment, an answer popped up within 15 minutes: “This is my final message, this is my farewell.” Soon afterward, the account went dark. An hour later, Brenton Tarrant opened fire at a Chirstchurch, New Zealand mosque, killing 51 and injuring 49.

MacFarquhar adds:

The number of Americans between the ages of 15 and 21 who saw extremist content online jumped by about 20 percent, to 70.2 percent from 58.3 percent, between 2013 and 2016, according to a study by James Hawdon, a sociology professor who runs the Center for Peace Studies and Violence Prevention at Virginia Tech.

F.B.I. statistics logged 273 hate crimes in K-12 schools in 2018, down from 340 the previous year, but well above the 158 in 2013.

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As more such material spills from the web to young people and into classrooms nationwide, educators increasingly find themselves under pressure to combat this new front of hate. Given the rise in school shootings tied to far-right extremism, teachers — like law enforcement officials and parents — now face the difficult task of trying to identify which students risk being radicalized.

Many educators say they feel ill-equipped to recognize what students absorb from the web, much less to address it.

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Nazi symbols are easy to spot, but more subtle references drawn from white power ideology also surface, like students asking to organize a white student union.