IREHR at Olympic College

On April 25 IREHR Advisory Board member and researcher Chuck Tanner gave two presentations to audiences of students, instructors and administrators at Olympic College (OC) in Bremerton, Washington. The presentations were broadcast to the college’s Poulsbo and Shelton campuses as well. Tanner described the history of the white nationalist movement, its core ideologies and key white nationalist groups. Tanner set the development of white nationalism in the context of historic struggles for civil rights and discussed what can be done to counter such activity.

Tanner gave an overview of recent white nationalist organizing in Kitsap County, where Olympic College is located. Since October 2017 the white nationalist Patriot Front has attempted to recruit at OC Bremerton, distributing posters and placing propaganda in library books. The Northwest Front, which promotes a whites-only ethno-state in the Pacific Northwest, has a Bremerton address and its leader, Seattle-based neo-Nazi Harold Covington, continues to produce a regular podcast called “Radio Free Northwest.”