Fantastic Response

We understand that there are people of good will who believe the best response to groups like Blood & Honour, Volksfront, the defunct Aryan Guard, and other hate groups is to simply ignore them. To give them any attention, goes the argument, is to give them exactly what they want.

An editorial in the University of Alberta's student newspaper made such an argument earlier this week. However, we thought we would share the response of "Dave S." who posted a response explaining why we can't ignore these groups and the often violent individuals who comprise them:

All due respect, I disagree with the solution to the problem of hate groups in our city put fourth in this article. The problem with white supremacist groups is that they operate to silence, intimidate, and attack those who are perceived to be opposed to their repugnant views. They are a cancer to any community they set up shop in, and tap into prejudices that many others may support in a “softer” way. 

If these groups are allowed to march unopposed, individuals who may be sympathetic but scared to come forward (for fear of accepting the consequences of being associated with such ass-backwards ideals) will become emboldened, because of the perception that communities will tolerate such nonsense.

I agree that solely engaging in tit-for-tat we’ll disrupt your activities is not enough. We need to work with queers, people of colour, and other communities that will be targeted by neo-Nazi’s to make it so uncomfortable for these people to organize that they have no choice but to either quit or move elsewhere.

History has shown that simply ignoring right-wing extremists is not enough…people need to band together to fight this message of hate before an organized form of it takes root and defiles our city.