Attention, neo-Nazi white supremacists: You and your beliefs are not welcome in Fresno | Opinion

Attention neo-Nazi white supremacists: You’re not welcome in California’s fifth-largest city, so kindly move your “meet & greet” someplace else.

May I suggest a more fitting location, such as a toxic waste disposal site?

In a flyer that was widely circulated on social media and has drawn attention from local law enforcement, a group called the Aryan Freedom Network touts a Jan. 28 event in Fresno.

No further details were divulged on the group’s website. Those who emailed requesting the time and location of the Fresno “meet & greet” were sent back a reply containing a membership application — along with a request for $25 to cover the mandatory background check.

Gotta weed out anyone whose ancestors aren’t 100% white European Christians. Not to mention nosy journalists.

Opinion

The Aryan Freedom Network claims to have chapters in 23 states, including one in Fresno. The No. 1 item on the group’s mission statement is “Support the creation of an autonomous White Aryan European homeland in North America.” No. 2 reads: “To end non-White immigration to Europe, North America, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.”

It only gets dumber, and more ridiculous, the more you click. The website features a litany of wildly racist and anti-Semitic material in the form of written manifestos (some sections could use a copy editor) and downloadable flyers including several depicting Hitler and Jesus Christ together.

This warped world view doesn’t fit anywhere really, but especially here. Let’s not kid ourselves, though: Fresno has a history of racism, both overt and systemic, and those repercussions are still felt.

However, we’ve slowly evolved into a city that celebrates its ethnic diversity and considers it a strength. Fifty percent of the population is Latino, according to the latest census figures, 26% are “White alone,” 14.2% are Asian, 6.8% are Black, 1.2% are Native American, 0.2% are Pacific Islanders and 14.5% are multiracial.

Last week on Twitter, Fresno Police Chief Paco Balderrama posted a picture of himself standing among the department’s 21 newly sworn-in officers. The many skin tones in the photo aptly represent the city they serve.

From what I read in news articles and online sources including the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Aryan Freedom Network is a newcomer to the white supremacy scene. Or at least a repackaged one. The group’s alleged leaders are Dalton Henry Stout and his father, George Bois Stout, a purported arms dealer based in De Kalb, Texas.

During the last two years, the AFN has organized gatherings in several states. Prior to that, the Stouts reportedly ran a KKK affiliate known as the Church of the KKK whose website was among those hacked by an anti-fascist Israeli organization in early 2021, exposing pictures, names and personal information of many of its members.

“Neo-Nazi and other white supremacist groups believe that Jews have an all-seeing eye,” the hackers told the Jerusalem Post.

“Our desire is to make their fantasies a reality, and exploit their conspiracy theories as a form of psychological warfare. We want them to know, wherever they are in the world that (we) will find them and expose them.”

Oh, well. When an organization deals in hate, such are the breaks.

Being that this is America, the Aryan Freedom Network has a right to peacefully congregate. But we as citizens also have a right — some might say the responsibility — to speak out as loudly as possible against their presence in our community.

We don’t want such groups meeting and greeting in Fresno. Go peddle your racism elsewhere. Preferably at the bottom of a mine shaft.