Ten Key Findings

1. 

Between January 2016 and January 2021, swastika incidents occurred in all 48 contiguous states and the District of Columbia. Commonly targeted locations include religious institutions, public parks, private property, and local businesses. However, higher education institutions and K-12 schools were the most frequently targeted locations.

Of Particular Note: Over 18% of the incidents occurred on private property such as businesses, homes, and automobiles. Approximately 20% of incidents occurred in public spaces such as urban walls, public parks, and public facilities. K-12 schools, colleges, and universities across America experienced 42% of the documented swastika incidents, triggering alarm in many educational contexts.

2.

Between January 2016 and January 2021, Jewish people and communities were most often targeted by swastikas and often with coinciding violent verbal threats. This finding indicates how the swastika is still a very active weapon of antisemitism, catalyzing fresh acts of assault and trauma that map onto past histories of discrimination and violence against Jews in the United States and abroad.

Of Particular Note: While it is unclear who exactly is being targeted in over 900 of the 1340 documented swastika incidents that we reviewed, we identified 192 incidents in which Jewish community members were specifically targeted. Jewish community members were targeted in synagogues, Chabad houses, and Jewish community centers as well as their homes and businesses. In K-12 and college settings, swastikas commonly surfaced on the desks and dorm doors of Jewish students as well in more public places such as elevators and bathrooms. Accompanying phrases such as “Jews Belong in the Oven” often compounded the swastika’s violent threats to Jews, going so far to directly call for their annihilation and disempowerment and thereby contributing to the intensifying insecurity felt among Jews that has oft been reported in recent years.

3.

While the Jewish community received the largest brunt of swastika attacks, Black Americans and many other historically underrepresented individuals were also and often targeted, indicating how antisemitism in the contemporary United States enacts widespread multi-directional hate and violence and is directly linked to racism, white nationalism, and white supremacy.

Of Particular Note: Of the documented incidents in which targeted individuals/communities were identifiable, Black Americans were targeted in 85 documented incidents, with one incident entailing the burning of a Black America family’s home. Over 100 of the documented incidents targeted unidentifiable non-white peoples but clearly called for keeping certain communities white and maintaining white power in the United States. The LGBTQIA+ community also was specifically targeted, as were LatinX, Muslim, and other historically underrepresented populations in the United States. Immigrants also received a palpable brunt of swastika attacks, with explicit demands, on more than one occasion, to “go back home.”

4.

Swastika incidents persisted unevenly between January 2016 and January 2021. Swastika incidents rose near Jewish High Holidays, but they escalated around the 2016 presidential election, Donald Trump’s inauguration in January of 2017, and the 2017 Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville, NC.

Of Particular Note: Over 70 swastika incidents were documented around the 2016 presidential election in which Donald Trump won the Electoral College, with over 40 swastika incidents occurring the month of his inauguration in January 2017. This evidence may be unsurprising, considering that around that same time, the FBI, anti-hate organizations, and various news sources were reporting that Donald Trump’s rhetoric was directly related to increased incidents of hate, bias, and violence happening around the country. In the 20 swastika incidents that occurred within 10 days after the Unite the Right Rally in August 2017, Trump was referenced in 8 of those incidents with expressions of support such as “Go-Trump.”

5.

Swastikas surfaced in diverse media in a variety of structures and locations across the United States. Swastikas were commonly spray painted on the exterior surfaces of businesses, homes, automobiles, and public buildings. Yet metal and wood etchings of swastikas often appeared in schools and libraries, with bathrooms being a popular location. Swastikas also surfaced in natural elements such as snow and a multitude of unusual if not disturbing media and arrangements.

Of Particular Note: Perhaps unsurprisingly due to its quick application, swastikas surfaced in spray paint in over 500 of the document swastika incidents. Yet while spray paint was most commonly used to mark public walls, sidewalks, and park benches, swastikas surfaced in a surprising range of other media–from human excrement on bathroom walls to mulch on elementary school playgrounds to etchings on trees in public parks. In perhaps the most disturbing of incidents, swastikas were formed through the arrangement of human bodies captured on social media, and, on more than one occasion, through the arrangement of solo cups in drinking games that came to be known by names such as “Swastika Pong.”

6.

Words and phrases often accompanied swastikas, and the content of these verbal expressions varied from political identifications and condemnations to racist and homophobic slurs to explicit threats of physical and genocidal violence.

Of Particular Note: Of the 1340 documentations of swastika incidents that occurred between February 2016 and January 2021, words or phrases accompanied swastikas in nearly 400 of those incidents. Analysis of these words and phrases, in combination with the location of incidents, helped to identify who was being targeted by swastikas as well as the perpetrators’ attitudes toward those targeted communities. Many verbal expressions embodied overt antisemitic, racist, and homophobic sentiments. While some expressions such as “We are Everywhere” made indirect threats, other phrases clearly espoused violent actions such as gassing and killing Jewish people and other minoritized communities. In the text corpus, the following words were most popular: Trump (77); White (58); N***** (55); Jew(s) (35); Power (29); KKK (27).

7.

Verbal and visual Nazi references and appeals to white nationalism and white supremacy commonly accompanied swastikas in documented incidents between January 2016 and January 2021.

Of Particular Note: Textual or pictorial references to Nazism (or neo-Nazism) were identifiable in over 140 documented swastika incidents. Among those textual references, “Heil Hitler” or “Heil Trump” (sometimes spelled as Hail) or “88,” which stands for “Heil Hitler,” were popular phrases. Nazi imagery such as SS lightening bolts was also not uncommon. Common appeals to white supremacy and white nationalism that accompanied swastikas, and often the word “Trump,” include popular slogans such as “White Power” and “Make America White Again, ” as well as numbers such as 14–short for 14 Words,” which, as the ADL explains, is a reference to the popular white supremacist slogan: “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.”

8.

Information about perpetrators of swastika incidents is limited due to lack of eye witnesses, reporting practices, and other factors. Locations of swastika incidents, such as schools, suggest that many perpetrators may be quite young. Data does indicate that in the incidents for which demographic details are available, offenders are most often male and white.

Of Particular Note: Only 14% of sources explicitly identified the race, gender, and other demographic details of individuals who were held responsible for swastika incidents that occurred between February 2016 and January 2021. However, according to those few sources, approximately 80% of total perpetrators were reported to be male, and nearly 40% were identified as white. Students comprised 15% of the reported perpetrators. Nearly 10% of reported perpetrators self-identified with white supremacist or nationalist ideologies and/or organizations.

9.

Research findings indicate that there is no consistent protocol for responses to swastika incidents across educational institutions and communities in the United States. Yet common responses to swastika incidents included public statements, new policy or committee formations, and protests, vigils, and demonstrations. While the Anti-defamation league, Rabbis, and Holocaust scholars were sometimes called upon to guide responsive action, direct victim support for swastika incidents was rarely reported. And while police investigations were common, arrests were rare.

Of Particular Note: In addition to their documentations in public outlets, swastika incidents sparked a variety of responses from individual and community members. Clean up by city or school officials or everyday citizens was documented in 396 of the documented swastika incidents with many efforts involving completely erasing the swastika’s visible trace or transforming the swastika into more benign and beautifying images. Communities frequently responded with public statements and new policy or committee formations and less frequently with protests, vigils, and demonstrations. Even less often, schools carried out disciplinary action (10%) and introduced policy changes (10%), and communities responded with criminal charges (>11%). While police reports were also common, and the police were involved in some way in over 50% of the documented responses, arrest was rare and far between. (See the Community Response Report for more details about community responses.)

10.

Swastika incidents documented between 2016 and 2020 by online local, national, educational, and religious sources were most often referred to as vandalism and graffiti. Less common was the identification of swastikas incidents as antisemitism and/or racism.

Of Particular Note: Swastika incidents that occurred between February 2016 and January 2021 were documented by multiple online sources including local, national, educational, and religious sources, and occasionally on social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. The names used to identify these incidents varied from bias incidents to symbols of hate to Nazi symbols, among others. Swastika incidents were identified as racist messages and anti-Semitic in less than 20% of documentations. In over 60% of the documentations, swastika incidents were identified simply as vandalism or graffiti, or sources simply noted that there was a swastika and/or an incident had occurred.