Candidates for public office representing Wheeling, WV, and fellow Wheeling and West Virginia community members:
In this time of mutual caring and consideration for one another’s well being, we hope you are well.
It is with great sadness and concern that we report that recently areas of Wheeling were vandalized with a large number of racist, anti-semitic, xenophobic, and white nationalist paraphernalia targeting People of Color, Jews, and the Black, Indigenous, and LGBTQIA+ communities.
In response, we are stating as Wheeling community members and as West Virginians that we unequivocally, publicly denounce white nationalism - especially hate motivated vandalism, trespassing, and intimidation - and look to Wheeling’s and West Virginia’s candidates for public office to do the same.
Over the weekend of May 16-17, as many as 40 professionally-printed stickers, fliers, posters, and an overpass-spanning banner were found hanging in the Wheeling area, concentrated mostly downtown. The fliers openly identified with one of four active national hate groups in West Virginia who self-identify as fascists, and who continue to be leaders of the wider white nationalist movement after participating in the Charlottesville “Unite the Right” hate rally in which one woman was killed.
The messages of the propaganda and vandalism in Wheeling included: German language slogans of the 1930’s German Nazi party, glorification of genocide, and white nationalist slogans, ideology, and imagery.
Multiple community members instinctively took down several of the fliers, shared alarming photos of them, and reported them to city leaders (elected officials, police, etc), while pushing for a public response condemning these acts and assuring community safety.
In this process it was further learned that this is not the first time this kind of white nationalist vandalism has occurred in Wheeling, and that it is instead a semi-regular public occurrence. Unfortunately, this is not a situation specific to Wheeling, and the larger white nationalist, fascist, and nazi movements around the state have been growing in size and boldness, and are continuing to grow into a present danger to the entirety of West Virginia. While this most recent instance of organized hate, coupled with too many similar instances at the national, state, and local level are beyond regrettable, we believe this is nonetheless an opportunity.
The people of Wheeling and the larger West Virginia community remain committed to stopping this unacceptable white nationalist activity in our city and state, and we publically stand against it.
In this situation, we believe it’s important to afford the candidates running for public office in Wheeling and the rest of West Virginia the opportunity to use their freedom of speech to counter hate speech and voice their personal perspectives on white nationalism. Specifically:
1) Do you publicly condemn white nationalism?
2) Are you committed to protecting the inclusion, rights, and safety of all members of the Wheeling and West Virginia communities including: Black, Indigenous, People of Color (POC), Jewish, Muslim, members of the LGBTQIA + community, and others scapegoated by white nationalists?
3) Do you support creating a racism task force and/or naming racism and white nationalism a public concern the same way other nearby cities have done?
Community supporters: We may not all agree on everything, and that’s OK, but we appreciate any and all, especially these leading community supporters, who can agree and unite to stand against this blatant, public hate.
*Ohio Valley Peace
*Black Lives Matter - West Virginia
*Mountaineers for Progress
*Northern West Virginia Mountain Party
*West Virginia IWW
*House of Hagar Catholic Worker
*Friendly City Antifascists
*Queer Appalachia
*Holler Health Justice
*Catholic Committee of Appalachia
References:
WV will fire corrections officers for doing Nazi Salute: NYTimes Dec 31, 2019
“Officer who fatally shot Tamir Rice hired as a cop again”: Bellaire, OH. Associated Press. 10/5/2018
“City Council Votes to Declare Racism a Health Crisis.” Pittsburgh Post Gazette. Dec 11, 2019
“Racism Deemed Public Health Crisis in Columbus.” Spectrum News 1. May 17, 2020
