White Student Unions: White Nationalist Minor League?
Editor鈥檚 note: Further information about Sharp鈥檚 activities in the white nationalist movement has come to light. Sharp is a member of the white supremacist website Stormfront, where his user profile lists him as a sustaining member who joined in December 2011. , though it appears Sharp has changed his nickname on both Stormfront and YouTube since Liberty Lamp posted the shots yesterday. As a result, his original username, 鈥減sharp94鈥 no longer appears on Stormfront. He is now 鈥渟portline鈥 (formerly 鈥渇rozenpie77鈥) on Stormfront and 鈥渂arron levi鈥 (formerly 鈥渇rozenpie77鈥) on YouTube.
Matthew Heimbach created quite a stir at Towson University in Baltimore when he created his 鈥淲hite Student Union鈥 last year and proceeded to launch night patrols to keep students safe from black-on-white crime.
Now, such organizations are sprouting on more campuses.聽 This week, we got news that a at George State University in downtown Atlanta. Its mission is to 鈥渦nite white students to advocate for their interests and the interests of white people, while celebrating heritage, culture, promoting a sense of 鈥榳hite identity,鈥 and working in unison with other campus organizations to tackle issues that affect us all.鈥
Until yesterday, the WSU鈥檚 website linked to the Traditionalist Youth Network (TYN), which it referred to as a 鈥渟ister organization.鈥 The white nationalist TYN, which was started earlier this year with Heimbach鈥檚 help, appears to be serving as an informal umbrella for white student unions.
The Georgia State student newspaper, The Signal, that when the WSU鈥檚 founder, Patrick Sharp, an 18-year-old student from Birmingham, Ala., was confronted with some of the images on the TYN site, he denied that his group is racist and said that he to participate. Soon thereafter, the link and reference to TYN as a sister organization had been erased from the group鈥檚 website. The TYN, meanwhile, still lists the Georgia State WSU as a chapter.
Given the TYN鈥檚 links to white nationalism and the very public history of the White Student Union at Towson, it seems disingenuous for Sharp to claim that black students are welcome in his White Student Union.
Sharp may not be open about his white nationalism, but he has left Internet footprints that certainly point in that direction. Earlier this year, for example, he posted at the white nationalist site. The post highlighted a book about 1960s civil rights activities in Birmingham, Ala., by 鈥淧aul Kersey,鈥 who blogs at Stuff Black People Don鈥檛 Like and at the white nationalist site . 鈥淪eeing as how this is my city,鈥 Sharp wrote, 鈥淚鈥檒l have to check this out.鈥
The Atlanta-based blog Biscuette did into Sharp and his WSU. In a聽 post yesterday, 鈥渓e biscuette鈥 noted that on Sharp鈥檚 Facebook page his 鈥渓ikes鈥 included the TYN, a 鈥淲hite History Month鈥 page (a sponsor of an upcoming motorcycle ride against a mythical 鈥渨hite genocide鈥) and Verum Justica, an anti-Islamic group that models itself after ancient Christian crusaders. He also responded to a post by TYN regarding the formation of the WSU. The profile was unavailable yesterday but was back up today. Nevertheless, it appears Sharp has made most of it private, as the more inflammatory "likes" that Biscuette pointed out are no longer visible, nor are most of his posts.
Heimbach is not so coy about his white nationalism. He recently posted a piece on the TYN site titled 鈥淚 Hate Freedom,鈥 which said: 鈥淣on-whites do not have the rights or freedom to move into white nations. This is our home and our kith and kin. Further, 鈥淭hose who promote miscegenation, usury, or any other forms of racial suicide should be sent to re-education centers, not tolerated.鈥
On its website, the Towson WSU links unabashedly to white nationalist websites and to groups like the , the descendant of the White Citizens Councils formed in the Deep South to oppose desegregation in the 1950s and 1960s. 聽The neo-Confederate is also listed on the Towson WSU site; the League calls for a second Southern secession and a society dominated by whites. American Renaissance is another link; the group鈥檚 founder, Jared Taylor, has claimed that, 鈥淲hen blacks are left entirely to their own devices, Western civilization 鈥 any kind of civilization 鈥 disappears.鈥
In May, Heimbach announced that the Towson WSU would merge with the TYN.
Heimbach鈥檚 co-administrator at the Traditionalist Youth Network is Matt Parrott, former head of an Indiana chapter of the crudely racist CCC and founder of Lighthouse Literature, a white nationalist online bookstore that closed in July 2012 after about 18 months in business
Heimbach鈥檚 WSU 鈥 a direct descendant of his Towson chapter of , which collapsed in the spring of 2012 鈥 garnered lots of media attention when it launched 鈥渃ampus patrols鈥 ostensibly to protect students from crime. A February post at the Towson WSU site claimed that the patrols were meant to protect students from 鈥.鈥 The post claimed that, 鈥淔or those who are not Towson students it seems hard to fathom that every single day black predators prey upon the majority white Towson University student body.鈥
Heimbach is, in fact, extremely active in white nationalist groups. He is the president of what the CCC calls its Baltimore 鈥渟ubchapter.鈥 He鈥檚 also a member of the League of the South and a frequent attendee at white nationalist conferences and gatherings like meeting outside Nashville, Tenn., where he asked speakers how to move forward in creating a white homeland.
The Towson WSU鈥檚 notoriety has managed to spawn at least one other imitator. This past spring, , a 57-year-old community college student in Texas, started a white student union (not listed at TYN). He is also attempting to establish a 鈥渨hite history month鈥 on campus to combat what he claims is 鈥渄iscrimination against Caucasians,鈥 and he鈥檚 trying to get official college recognition of his group. Railey, who is pursuing a degree in applied science, was in the past elected a Tarrant County, Texas, precinct chair and has served as an election judge. In 2012, he that the presence of a copy of at a polling place was 鈥渆xtremely inappropriate and probably a federal election law violation鈥 because it was 鈥渁n attempt to intimidate, bully, and threaten white voters.鈥
Railey, who calls himself 鈥淢str Rick,鈥 keeps a blog, which links to American Renaissance and to the (formerly American Third Position), a white nationalist political party. He claims that he has become 鈥渆namored鈥 of the 鈥淲hite Ethno-Centrist Movement.鈥 鈥淲hite people are my people,鈥 he writes, and 鈥渃hallenging the deeply entrenched anti-white bias of multiculturalists [sic] orthodoxies is a moral imperative for whites.鈥