IT’S perplexing why racist extremists would target Columbus as fertile ground in recruitment efforts for their cause to establish white separatist movements. The city has worked for decades to make itself a community that’s inviting to people of all races and nationalities, and for more than 50 years the city has had an active Human Rights Commission.
However, the Midwestern Alliance put up recruitment posters around Columbus in late October to attract like-minded individuals, slightly more than a month after the Traditionalist Worker Party conducted a practice march in downtown Columbus.
The Midwestern Alliance posters support its goal of creating white ethnic states in the Midwestern states, citing the increase of non-whites.
The Traditionalist Worker Party has been labeled as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center and one that advocates racially pure nations and communities.
However, the Columbus community is resolute in its commitment to be a welcoming one, with inclusion a top priority.
That cannot change, as was reiterated by Mayor Jim Lienhoop immediately after both developments.
“There is no place in the city of Columbus, or society at large, for racist ideology espoused by the group represented on this flyer, or any other white supremacist group. Their views are in direct opposition to the values we live by of equality, justice and fair play,” the mayor said after the second incident.
We agree completely.
Hate has no place in Columbus — or anywhere.
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