“Forming White communities isn’t just one small part of what we can do, it is the ultimate goal of all our efforts.”
Those are the words of Eric Orwoll, founder of the Return to the Land Association, a far-right group that has formed a tiny, whites-only community in the Ozarks of Arkansas as part of a segregationist movement that is quickly gaining popularity online among some conservatives and alt-right supporters.
According to RTTL’s website, the group is a private membership association that only welcomes individuals with European ancestry who have traditional views. The association’s first Ozarks community was founded in October 2023 and spans roughly 160 acres of land in northern Arkansas.
“We seek to create a decentralized movement, formed of various individuals and societies returning to the land,” RTTL’s website says. “We will promote strong families with common ancestry and raise the next generation in an environment that reflects our traditional values.”
No Jewish people or anyone who adopts “non-European religions,” including Islam, are permitted to live there, as well as people belonging to the LGBTQ+ community.
An in-depth SkyNews report about the community states that so far, only 40 people live there. But applications to join range well into the hundreds. Potential members are vetted, and video interviews are mandatory to confirm the identities and ethnicities of applicants.
Families who join are also incentivized to have children.
A GiveSendGo campaign raises donations for parents of newborns. In May, RTTL posted an update stating that a family who just had their sixth child was given $1,000.
The fundraising page states that the initiative is a “testament to our collective commitment to ensuring a vibrant and flourishing future, where the laughter and innocence of children continue to brighten our community.”
Orwoll calls the community the first “fortress for the white race.”
And there are more settlements to come. According to the association’s website, the organization wants to launch more communities in the Deep South and the Appalachian region.
“We need ways to fight for our side that permanently change the landscape of America,” Orvoll wrote on X. “We need our own spaces in every region of the country where White identitarians can congregate, grow community, build trust, and organize. We have more than enough resources to do it.”
His idea for RTTL stems from his adoption of a far-right theory that mass immigration and cultural indoctrination have triggered a “white genocide.” To counteract this purported eradication of white culture, he started the movement to form communities that preserve white ancestral traditions and customs.
“When I was a kid, I suppose I interpreted racism to be judging someone solely on the basis of their race. And is that a good or bad thing?” he told SkyNews. “I think the basic moral consensus treats it as automatically a bad thing without a lot of reflection.”
During his visit to Orania, a white separatist town in South Africa founded by Afrikaners, Orwoll said he’d like to build the off-the-grid settlements into self-sufficient communities with better-developed homes, more public amenities, mixed-use properties, and recreational centers.
Is this legal?
RTTL is currently researching legal protections that might protect them from civil rights and housing discrimination lawsuits and injunctions.
The group maintains that because it’s a private association that doesn’t sell real estate, it’s shielded from civil rights laws.
RTTL leaders launched several GiveSendGo campaigns. One is focused on raising money to hire attorneys who can help the group strengthen the legal framework they’ve shaped, review their operating agreement, leases, and other legal documents, and ensure they are in compliance with federal and state regulations.
Orwoll anticipates lawsuits to be forthcoming and he wants to be prepared to be “as bullet proof as possible.”
Donors have given more than $50,000 so far to the campaign.
“The attorneys we’ve consulted believe what we’re doing is legal,” Orwoll told OzarksFirst. “Americans have the right to freely associate and form intentional communities on whatever basis they choose.”
Other campaigns that have raised over $100,000 are slated to help with “regional tours to vet leadership, find new parcels of land, and officially starting more new chapters across the U.S.”
One donor of that campaign had a passionate request, “!PLEASE MAKE GENETIC TESTING ON SITE AS MANDATORY FOR MEMBERSHIP! There are THOSE people, who may have a similar skin tone, but who are NOT our people. They will try to infiltrate and destroy, as they always have done.”
The Anti-Defamation League has gone after RTTL, deeming the group’s operations illegal and imploring state leaders to look into the matter.
“We urge the Arkansas Fair Housing Commission, local elected officials, and law enforcement to act swiftly to ensure that Northeast Arkansas remains a welcome and inclusive community, not a refuge for intolerance and exclusion,” Lindsay Baach Friedmann, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) South Central, said in a statement.
“Whites should have the ability to live among their own people if that’s what they want to do, and mass immigration is quickly making that nearly impossible in many Western nations,” Orwoll said. “If individuals decide to live in multi-racial communities, then they should be allowed to do so, but we don’t want racial forced on us in every aspect of life.”
Great Job Yasmeen F. & the Team @ Atlanta Black Star Source link for sharing this story.
