North Texas neo-Nazis spread hate at UTD

The American Blackshirts Movement has been placing neo-Nazi stickers across UTD’s campus since at least April 19, adding to the pre-existing issue of fascist groups operating and advertising on campus.  

The American Blackshirts Movement is a far-right fascist group founded in 2023. Per their official X, formerly known as Twitter, account, the movement supports policies including “Americans first,” zero immigration into the U.S., border security, family values, the antisemitic dog whistle of “anti-usury” and livable wages. The group specifically aligns itself with a modernized form of Italian fascism.  

In the American Blackshirts’ Telegram channel, an anonymous user posted images of various UTD campus locations with the caption, “Texan Blackshirts covered up degenerate propaganda.” The image included before and after shots in which stickers for LGBTQ, anti-fascist and left-leaning groups were covered up with new stickers such as a sticker of a white, blond man attacking a rainbow TV with the message, “No nation for indoctrination”; a sticker depicting a masked white man holding the flag of the American Blackshirts Movement with the message, “This man is your friend, he fights for freedom”; and a sticker with large white text that says, “America for Americans! Invaders out!” with the American flag in the background.  

Antisemitism, homophobia and anti-immigrant sentiments are commonplace in the stickers found across campus and the social media accounts associated with the movement. The group has been active across Texas with various demonstrations in Houston, Grapevine and Dallas. UTD political science alum River Bluhm said the current streak of fascist stickers was not a surprising development, since other hate groups had previously posted their materials on campus and interrupted events hosted by groups like Pride at UTD. Bluhm said she first became aware of on-campus hate groups in 2022 when she was a member of Pride at UTD and has tried to keep an eye on their developments ever since. She said that students should keep an eye on the far-right Catholic group known as the New Columbia Movement which has worked closely with the American Blackshirts movement.  

“I first specifically became aware of the New Columbia Movement when one of their members disrupted a drag event on campus and harassed attendees,” Bluhm said. “I, and some other officers in queer and trans student organizations, banded together at the time to compare notes and do more research on these groups and their activities, which is when we found out about the DFW chapter of the New Columbia Movement and its ties to the American Blackshirts, who have been actively posting stickers on campus ever since.” 

The disruption in question occurred Sept. 12 when Kyle Randle, a former NCM member and then-UTD student, interrupted a post-sermon drag show hosted by the Synergy Wesley Foundation, an LGBTQ affirming Christian group. Wesley had invited Issac Simmons, the first drag queen and gay person to be officially ordained by the United Methodist Church, to preach as part of National Coming Out Week. Randle interrupted the event on the grounds that he thought it was “disordered” and “perverted.”  

Alexandra Edwards, a professor at Texas Christian University who is currently researching North Texas fascists groups, said she has found they are unusually numerous in the Dallas area. One on-going legal case Edwards has been following is a lawsuit that NCM filed against the Elm Fork John Brown Gun Club after the two groups fought, because the gun club defended a Fort Worth drag show that NCM wanted to disrupt. Randle, now a UTD alum who studied economics, is one of the plaintiffs in this suit. Edwards said that in her coverage of the legal case, she was doxed and harassed online by both neo-Nazi groups and elected officials in Tarrant County because of the actions of people like UNT alum Kelly Neidert, a self-described Christian Fascist who has been active in the North Texas area since 2019.  Edwards said NCM, the American Blackshirts and Neidert appear to be part of a recent wave of white supremacism inspired by Nick Fuentes, a far-right political personality and live streamer who collaborates with neo-Nazi groups like Identity Evropa and gears his ideology toward “terminally online young men.” 

 “It is a more religious-coded version of the edgelord groyper [an online group of far-right political activists] world that perforates so many online spaces,” Edwards said. “But it is difficult to tell how genuine, if at all, the religious aspect of the organization is.” 

Edwards said the visual branding and messaging of NCM and the American Blackshirts was heavily reminiscent of white nationalist groups like Patriot Front. The NCM website contains the manifesto of the organization, which presents itself as neither capitalist nor socialist but instead a third ideology, paralleling the references the American Blackshirts Movement makes to the beliefs of Italian fascism. However, Edwards said that not all of the groups contributing to the far-right atmosphere in Texas that she has found in her research are as open about their beliefs. 

“Often you will see that most of these groups, like TPUSA, operate with this kind of veneer of respectability,” Edwards said. “They are not outright Nazis,  they’re just conservative college students who want to impact the world with their conservative views, and with this facade they are able to more effectively organize behind the scenes.” 

Edwards said she believes that a lot of these hate groups have been emboldened in their activities because it is an election year and Donald Trump remains on the ballot. Edwards said that a lot of what these groups aim to do is to make hating immigrants and the queer community socially acceptable talking points that any young conservative might bring up as a casual view instead of being seen as extreme viewpoint. This is done through subtle stickers and flyers spread out on campuses, Edwards said, which have been seen not only at UTD, but also around the UT Arlington, University of North Texas and Texas Christian University campuses. Era Yousef, a second-year VPAS graduate student, said that the stickers and flyers posted by these groups were a disruption to her experience as a student at UTD. 

“I think they are really distracting from the academic environment that a university ought to be,” Yousef said. “I feel that when you go to a university, the primary goal is to get your education and further your academic career. However, when you are faced with concerns as to whether or not far-right groups are active on campus, then it takes away from your ability to focus on that education because now you have to worry about your safety and the safety of all the people these groups typically target.” 

Edwards, Yousef and Bluhm all said that they felt it was important to intervene early and shut down far-right movements before they could gain traction. Yousef said that in her experience, campus administration often made excuses citing free speech when questioned about allowing far-right speakers and messaging to spread hate on campus. Rafael Martín, vice president and chief of staff, said that students can report hateful stickers to the Dean of Students Office, as stipulated by UTDSP5001’s subsection 7, or to UTDPD; however, Bluhm said that when she had contacted the Dean of Students Office about fascist stickers on campus, she never received a response. Pride at UTD removed the stickers themselves.  

Bluhm said that in her experience as a student leader, it was more effective to organize with other student leaders, learn to identify fascist propaganda and safely remove it independently rather than rely on campus administration. Edwards said it is most effective for a community to establish that any neo-Nazi behavior, however nascent, will not be tolerated and to shut down antisemitic, anti-queer, anti-immigrant and other discriminatory ideologies before they can become commonplace in a community.  

“There are real-life stakes and consequences when movements like these begin to grow,” Edwards said. “If you don’t intervene now while they are just starting to bubble up, then you’ll end up with something like a Charlottesville rally, where you have fascists driving their cars into crowds of protesters.”