White Supremacists

This impassioned plea from a skinhead was found affixed to the sign outside of Carousel Stationery and Gifts. The writer seeks to demolish the stereotypical belief that all skinheads are minority-hating goons. Rather, the "true skinhead" of Davis seems to value universal love, ska music, pretty stationery, and light vandalism. There appear to be no records of organized white supremacists or other hate groups ever having existed in Davis according to the Southern Poverty Law Center (aka "Hate Watch", a national watchdog group). However, local African American author David L. Johnson, Jr. recounts in "Lost and Found," his memoir, a story from when he was six years old: "One night, while exploring new places we came across a gathering. In the far distance we could see fire burning on sticks... People were dressed up in white sheet like clothing. White sheets covered their heads as well." This appears to describe a KKK gathering in or around Davis in the late 1980s. Small white supremacy groups that self-identified as KKK were active in Sacramento and the Bay Area as recently as 2007. Therefore, it seems quite possible that Johnson may have witnessed activity from one of these groups.

In 2005, the Davis Police Department arrested two members of a Vacaville skinhead gang, one of whom was from Davis, and charged them with a hate crime for attacking another potential skinhead from Davis for not being racist. The defendant from Davis claims not to be a racist, but merely a fellow gang member of the Vacaville racist involved in class warfare rather than violent discrimination on the basis of race or religion. He later plead no contest and received a 28-year sentence.

Like most other small, predominantly white towns in North America in the 20th Century, there is occasionally other racist activity in Davis, primarily documented on the racism page.

The only other acts of violence on record have been eco-vandalism by the Animal Liberation Front. Incidentally, Rebekah Young is a legal fellow at the SPLC and a UC Davis Law School graduate, while Dr. Gregory Herek, a professor of psychology at UC Davis, is praised by the SPLC in his debunking of anti-gay "research".

See also: Ku Klux Klown

2007-06-15 01:32:31   While I would concur on the whole, being a college town, there isn't a large degree of discrimination based on race; from past newspaper articles and first accounts from other students, I think is relevant enough to stay up (Probably more relevant than the Humboldt State page I made). It should be cleaned up for accuracy though. —CarlosOverstreet

2007-06-27 21:13:06   I've definitely felt a white supremacists presence since coming to Davis. One time, my friends and I (a mixed race group) were waiting in line outside a movie theater and some guys in a car slowed down just long enough to shout "White power!" before speeding away laughing. It doesn't get much more blatant than that! The shouting-from-a-car has happened to me two other times. I think it's the same small group of people, though. Annoying bastards... —NumiaCairaguas

• eeep! i like knowing about stuff like this that happens in our local area so that we don't get too comfortable with the way things are. it's a good reminder that we still need education on such issues. danka for posting these occurances.

with the power of hindsight I'm pretty sure I know the morons who did this (Based on the MO). They aren't racist, just at the time bored high school seniors ~SD

2007-10-02 13:48:48   I remember the incident on J st., not sure about the sentencing though. In the early 1980's, a Chicano friend of mine got death threats when him and a black friend showed up to a party where there were only white people. Also there used to be a restaurant called "Sambos" where Bakers Square is now. And I heard that the first black person to live in Davis worked for UCD and that the Chancellor got a flaming cross put on his lawn because of it. —PxlAted

• It was the first black professor who found a burning cross on his lawn in downtown Davis. The entire Baker's Square chain used to be called Sambo's. There have a few skinheads in Davis since I can remember...and I grew up here. Some of them were real skinheads and some of them were SHARPs. And I dont' know if it was a white supremicist, but a few years ago when I was walking in downtown Davis with a black friend of mine, a car drove by slowly and yelled "go back home n****r!" and then sped off. - JamesSchwab

2008-09-09 21:04:50   Welcome to Davis! I know of the Davis victim thru less than 3 degrees —StevenDaubert

2010-06-08 14:54:03   Every picnic day, the demolition derby enthusiasts from Dixon parade a racecar through town with 88 emblazoned on its side... this is code for Heil Hitler, as H is the 8th letter of the alphabet. Maybe they don't know that they're broadcasting a secret white power message. —EdwardNiemand

• 2010-06-08 15:02:26   88 on a car might be more related to Dale Earnhardt, Jr.. Or maybe there is a one in one hundred chance of that being the number assigned to the car? —JasonAller
• It's also the luckiest Chinese number, featured quite a bit all over the place in Chinese culture. Although I'm betting that Jason's observation regarding Dale Earnhardt, Jr. is more likely. -jw
• 2010-06-08 15:38:24   I'm sure there's a simple explanation for all of this, that Dale Earnhardt Junior and all Chinese people are Nazis. —hankim
• 2010-06-08 16:53:37   Well I am glad there's an innocent explanation for the 88. :) —EdwardNiemand