White supremacists appear to be more comfortable “coming out” about their racism in Grand Junction recently.
One of the few opponents who showed up at the No Kings Day protest on Saturday, June 14, was the driver of the above white, flag-laden truck. A closer look at the vehicle shows it has a “Mesa County Search & Rescue” decal on the back window with a slightly larger “WHITE POWER” decal below it:
Trumpism seems to be emboldening white supremacists in Grand Junction. Above is one example.
The person who spotted the white power truck took photos of it and emailed them to the Mesa County Sheriff’s office questioning the appropriateness of Mesa County Search & Rescue being promoted alongside a “white power” message:
The Mesa County Sheriff’s Office responded that the person “is no longer affiliated with Mesa County Search and Rescue:”
Additionally, a reader who walks frequently in downtown Grand Junction said he’s twice seen this man walking downtown wearing a T-shirt with this symbol on it. The reader also saw the front of the shirt but didn’t get a photo of it:
The reader recognized that elements of the symbol, like the diamond shape, the arrow and the lightning bolts, are associated with white supremacist groups, but after he was unable to find the exact symbol, he emailed a photo of the shirt to Mark Pitcavage, Ph.D. , Senior Research Fellow and Policy Adviser at the Center on Extremism, Anti-Defamation League and asked if they knew the origin of it.
Dr. Pitcavage wrote back,
“A colleague of mine assisted me in identifying this shirt. We believe you saw a version of the below shirt, featuring Wotan Jugend, a white supremacist group that started in Russia and has spread to other countries. ‘Wotan Jugend’ basically translates from German to ‘Odin’s Youth.’ ‘Urheimat is German for “original homeland.'”
Here is another symbol of Wotan Jugend with the exact symbol seen on the back of the shirt of the man walking downtown:
A 2019 article about Wotan Jugend describes it as a “hard core Russian Neo-Nazi group” that is “devoted to a brand of neo-Nazism so blatant, including openly glorifying Hitler, that even its leader admits is too ‘hardcore’ for the public space.” The authors of the article further describe the group:
Wotanjugend, which its founder described in 2016 as an online “mini-university for supporters of right-wing ideology,” has praised far-right terrorists like Timothy McVeigh and Anders Breivik as “heroes.” Their website shares Russian-language translations and articles; offline they organize neo-Nazi concerts, host classes on “racial theory,” give firearms training sessions and even put on private concerts with a very subtle clues of neo-Nazism, such as a framed picture of Adolf Hitler flanked by swastikas on a candlelit altar.
So white supremacy seems to be alive and well in Grand Junction.
We need to point it out when we see it, so we can push this kind of racism back into the closet, where it belongs in an enlightened society.
Kudos to the letter writer for saying this…”this overt display of racism has nothing to do with…Trump counter-protesters.”
Classy.
It’s profoundly sad—and infuriating—to see white nationalists and neo-Nazis feeling emboldened in our community. But in the end, these people are just pitiful excuses for human beings, clinging to a hateful ideology that has always been on the wrong side of history. Being scumbags will be the only legacy these people will be known for. Thank you for shining a light on this. We have to call it out every time and make it clear: Nazi scum should not feel welcome in Grand Junction.