By Garrett Jones and Raimi Liebel
Garrett Jones and Raimi Liebel are members of Young Democratic Socialists of America at UAB.
Flyers promoting a neo-Nazi affiliated group were discovered on campus infrastructure on Tuesday, September 27. Members of Young Democratic Socialists of America at UAB (YDSA) organized to remove and cover the signage.
The flyers, which read “European Blood,” “America First,” “United We Stand” and “For A New American Nation State,” included a URL to Patriot Front’s website. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) describes Patriot Front as “a white supremacist group whose members maintain that their ancestors conquered America and bequeathed it to them, and no one else.”
According to a 2023 ADL Center on Extremism Report, there was a 38% increase in white supremacist propaganda efforts from 2021 to 2022. “This is the highest number of white supremacist propaganda efforts ADL has ever recorded,” the report says. According to the report, Patriot Front was responsible for 162 out of 219 cases on college campuses.
YDSA members attempted to remove the signage, but the flyers were industrially pasted onto poles using wheatpaste. YDSA then opted to write over the flyers with colored and black-ink Sharpies. They wrote messages reading “NO NAZIS @ UAB,” “F*CK NAZIS,” and “KEEP YOUR HATE OUT OF OUR CITY!”.
Isaac Martin, a graduate student in the biomedical sciences program and member of YDSA, spent two hours removing the signage. “[Wheatpaste] is just a mixture of flour and water used as an adhesive,” Martin said. “The fact that it’s a pain in the ass to remove is exactly why wheatpasting is popular,” Martin said.
Walker Melson, a sophomore social work major and co-chair of YDSA, called for UAB to address this publicly. “I think that the university in the past has overlooked hate speech on campus and has equated it to basically freedom of speech,” said Melson.
Many students feel unsafe due to the recent hate speech events on campus. One such event occurred last November when Billboard Chris, a self-proclaimed defender against “gender ideology,” visited campus with a billboard reading “What is a woman?”.
Melson was working at the Hill Student Center at the time of the incident. “I went up to him and told him, ‘you can’t be here outside the Hill, I work here,’” said Melson. “And he began antagonizing me… in that conflict, I did go to the SMDP to report it and they sent out a group of people.”
Soleil Wallen, a junior and President of the Gender and Sexuality Union (GSU), was one of those people on the scene. “Within the past year, I’ve just seen a massive increase in hostility on campus,” said Wallen. “I’m a trans student, I’m proud of it, I feel comfortable saying that. But at the same time, I have to constantly be in fear of my safety as a trans person. It’s hard to balance my mental sanity with classes, while also trying to protect myself and my people.”
Jonathan Wiesen, a professor of German and Nazi history at UAB, believes that a statement from UAB could help students feel more supported. “I always think that the university should speak out in response to these hate incidents,” said Wiesen. “On the other hand, I think it’s more effective coming from students.”
Melson and Wallen offered messages for those negatively impacted by the flyers. “Don’t be afraid to use your voice and don’t be afraid to come together… When people are targeting us within our campus community, I think it’s important for us all to be able to speak out and be there for each other,” said Melson. “We have community and we need to do our best to do what we can to keep our communities safe,” said Wallen.
