Webinar: Understanding and Preventing Online Recruitment of Youth Into Hate Movements

It is reasonable to assume that any child or teenager who is spending hours a day or a week online has been exposed to neo-Nazi or white supremacist propaganda, whether they know it or not. Sometimes propaganda is presented as “edgy humor” or may take the form of dishonest adults misrepresenting themselves and forming friendships with youth online. During the global pandemic and quarantine, many youth are spending greater amounts of time online while not in school, and may be dealing with the effects of fear, isolation, loneliness, and even trauma. Knowing this, hate groups see prime targets for recruitment. Offering promises of meaning, community, pride, and an outlet for anger, hate movements are recruiting across social media platforms, YouTube, forums devoted to depression and autism, online multiplayer video games, and nearly anywhere that young people may be gathering online. This panel will discuss how online recruitment of youth into hate movements operates and suggest some topics of discussion for parents and others who work with youth on this topic. The panel will also be discussing some broader issues related to supporting youth dealing with trauma and depression under the global pandemic, and how families and youth workers can watch for mental health challenges and support youth at this time.

*Dr. Joan Braune is a Lecturer in Philosophy at Gonzaga University and a member of the International Council of Experts for the Gonzaga Institute for Hate Studies. She is also a community activist and frequent public speaker on hate groups, and she is currently writing a book on the resurgence of fascist movements in the United States.

*Eric Warwick is an autistic/disabled paraeducator in Spokane and disability rights activist. She does research on the targeting of youth with autism by white nationalists as both recruits and victims and has presented her research at the Pacific and Western Disability Studies Symposium and Autistics Present.

*Lupe Wolfe is a school social worker at a Spokane Valley elementary school and sits on the board of the Washington Association of School Social Workers. She will be speaking on how parents and teachers can provide support to youth who are dealing with trauma or otherwise vulnerable during this time.

*Presenters are speaking about their own research and experience, not representing any particular organization or employer.

This is part of our Webinar Wednesday series and is co-sponsored by: EWU Women’s and Gender Education Center, Excelerate Success, Planned Parenthood of Greater WA & N. Idaho, ACLU-WA, Western States Center, Spokane Regional Labor Council, and SEIU 1199NW.