In March 2018 posters from a white nationalist group were discovered at a downtown Spokane intersection. The posters came from Identity Evropa, a white supremacist group whose former leader helped organize last year’s “Unite the Right” in Charlottesville, Virginia. Evidence has surfaced revealing that IE is recruiting students from our Central Valley School District.

Identity Evropa is a racist “alt-right” effort to also recruit white, college-age men. IE focuses on building community based on shared racial identity and intellectualizing white supremacist ideology. Unfortunately Spokane Valley has a state representative that is demonstrating this same white supremacist ideology. Is the Valley becoming a haven for haters?

Since 1994 we have found the Valley to be warm and hospitable to everyone. Some of the kindest, smartest and hardest-working families we know in Spokane are gay, Russian, Jewish, Chinese, black, Latino or Vietnamese, yet these individuals have the potential to become victims of a toxin of hate. In the face of hatred, apathy is interpreted as acceptance by the perpetrators, the public and any victims. Our community must take action; if we don’t, hate persists and may be legitimized.

I encourage Spokanites to expose and denounce destructive alt-right forces.

Joan Berkowitz

Greenacres