West Michigan Far Right Watch for August 14 – 21

Today we begin a new kind of post, where we look at the far right in West Michigan and what they are up to. These posts will be brief, with less analysis than what GRIID usually provides. However, we believe it is important that we keep tabs on the far right in this area and provide a summary of what they are up to and what kind of messages they are promoting in this community.

Within the last week, we wrote about a Students for Trump Rally that was held last Saturday in downtown Grand Rapids. Charlie Kirk, with Turning Point USA, was the keynote speaker for this rally and we provided some background on Kirk’s promotion of White Supremacy. 

Last Saturday, we also saw the Proud Boys marching in Kalamazoo. We wrote a critique of how the commercial news media reported on the Proud Boys and how the police only arrested people who were there to confront the racist Proud Boys. 

Then on Monday, the far right Think Tank known as the Acton Institute, posted an interview with the Executive Editor of Acton’s main publication, the Rev. Ben Johnson. Johnson was interviewed on the Lars Larson Show, which is a far right radio program that can be heard around the country. Listen to what Rev. Ben Johnson has to say about Black Lives Matter and how much he dismisses this movement. 

We plan to post future installments of West Michigan Far Right Watch, so if our readers come across something about the Far Right in West Michigan, please let us know. It’s important that we know what those who seeks to do harm are up to, to provide an analysis of this harm and to encourage the community to actively resist the far right in this community.