Sadly, I missed all the fun Tuesday at Arizona State University's Tempe campus, where demonstrators assembled to support two ASU instructors singled out by neo-Nazi groups: ASU English Professor Lee Bebout and Ph.D. candidate Robert Poe.
The ASU State Press reports that on March 3, demonstrators "protested outside ASU's Fulton Center . . . calling for ASU administration to defend their faculty members from the harassment of outside organizations, such as National Youth Front."
Protesters were countered by six or seven neo-Nazis and white supremacists of various allegiances, including Harry Hughes of the National Socialist Movement and John Hess of the National Youth Front.
NSM member Harry Hughes's video of Tuesday's dueling demonstrations
In videos and photos taken at the event, Hess is the guy with the thick brown beard, carrying a megaphone and a black flag with a red NYF symbol on it.
Young Hess has come a long way from just a few weeks ago, when he was shielding his identity as an NYF member by wearing a hoodie in an NYF video as he passed out fliers on campus targeting Bebout as "anti-white."
See also: -National Youth Front's "John Hess" Cops to "Anti-White" Fliers Targeting ASU Professor -White Supremacists Target ASU Professor and His Family Over "Whiteness" Course
Since then, Hess has copped to fliering ASU's Tempe campus, but not Bebout's neighborhood in Tempe, which also was fliered.
Another video of Tuesday's events by local activist Flora Farago
Seen at the event wearing dark glasses and camo, Hughes currently is the best-known neo-Nazi in Sand Land, a onetime pal of suicidal baby-killin' white supremacist J.T. Ready.
Hughes wrote up the event for his blog "Just another day...", and posted a video, which I've re-posted above.
As I've discussed in previous blog posts, since Bebout's course "The Problem of Whiteness" became talk-show fodder for Fox News hosts, far-right extremists have deluged both Bebout and his mixed-race family with violent threats, fliered his neighborhood with handouts calling him "anti-white," and posted both pics of his family and his address on neo-Nazi websites.
More video of Tuesday's demos at ASU from local activist Flora Farago
A recent teach-in that Poe led in support of Bebout and his course resulted in Poe's also getting targeted by the neo-fascist National Youth Front.
ASU has sought to silence both Bebout and Poe from discussing the matter publicly, apparently in hopes that the controversy will dissolve.
At the demonstration, Poe stated that he had been disciplined by ASU for his activism.
The anarchist site Down and Drought, which is allied with Poe, details some of what it says ASU has done in an attempt to silence the doctoral candidate.
Also present on the "white pride" side of the fence were Gilbert's "John Maelstrom," with the Traditionalist Youth Network, and, interestingly, a fellow of Iranian descent named Ali Aliabadi, who has been featured on the Daily Stormer and has some unconventional ideas concerning the origins of Buddhism and Zen.
In a related development, a new anti-fascist blog has sprung up: "Problem of Whiteness 101," which offers intriguing insights into the leadership of the National Youth Front.
Well worth checking out, if you haven't already.
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