WA state lawmakers speak out against ‘whites only’ group in Centralia

Washington state lawmakers are speaking out against a business in Lewis County after it was revealed last week that the store promotes a “whites only” religious group known as the Asatru Folk Assembly.

The Chronicle first reported on the business in Centralia owned by a person named Tanner Thayer that sells art and music associated with AFA.

Since then, Centralia’s Mayor Kelly Smith Johnston has spoken out against the group. State lawmakers are now echoing those sentiments.

The three Republican state lawmakers who represent the 20th Legislative District, which contains nearly all of Lewis County including Centralia, told McClatchy this week that they are opposed to racial segregation in their community.

“I believe racial segregation is harmful and wrong in every setting,” said Senate Minority Leader John Braun, R-Centralia. “It’s why I have trouble with some of the racial rhetoric that is so popular in political circles today. The United States is still a melting pot and most of us are a conglomeration of ancestries. The exposure to other religions and cultures is what forms our culture here in America.”

Braun told McClatchy that Thayer “is free to believe what he wants and say what he wants” and that those rights are guaranteed to everyone under the First Amendment.

“But that doesn’t mean he’s right,” Braun added. “No organization, religious or not, should shut out those who want to join them based on race.”

Rep. Ed Orcutt, R-Kalama, said he was first made aware of the shop when KING 5 also reported the story.

“It is very disappointing,” Orcutt told McClatchy. “Racial discrimination of any kind has no place in our communities. Let’s better unite our community.”

Rep. Peter Abbarno, R-Centralia, also told McClatchy that he is disappointed to see a racially discriminatory sign in the storefront of the business.

“There’s simply no place for that in Washington state, particularly in our community,” Abbarno said in an email. “As I said during my January 16th address on the House Floor honoring the legacy of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Centralia is a city founded in 1875 by our George Washington, an African American who was born in the time of slavery and traveled here with his family looking for a ‘decent place in this world.’ I believe he found it and it’s incumbent on all of us to live up to the aspirations of our city’s founder.”

Braun noted the irony of the store being set up in the only town in Washington founded by an African American.

“His generosity supported many of the early settlers through rough economic times,” Braun said. “Kindness toward others, regardless of race, is the spirit behind the origins of Lewis County. It’s that spirit that I know and encourage.”

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, AFA was originally founded in California in 1969 as the “Viking Brotherhood.” While the group has changed several times since then, today AFA is “the largest neo-Völkisch hate organization in the United States.”

“Members of the AFA subscribe to a belief that pre-Christian Norse and Germanic religions can only be practiced by individuals with ancestral roots in those Northern European regions — or more specifically, white people,” according to the SPLC page about AFA. “While AFA leadership has often couched the group’s bigoted views in ‘cultural preservation’ rhetoric, the ‘Declaration of Purpose’ on the group’s website belies those curated claims in stating: ‘If the Ethnic European Folk cease to exist, Asatru would likewise no longer exist. Let us be clear: by Ethnic European Folk we mean white people.’”

In 2021, SPLC tracked 32 neo-Völkisch groups across the country, including a group in Lewis County. SPLC noted that chapters also now exist in other parts of the world.

KING 5 reported that while there are two other Asatru organizations in Lewis County, the Asatru Land Union and Asatru Northwest, neither are connected to Thayer or the Asatru Folk Assembly.

AFA’s website claims that the group has 1,000 members. Thayer, who owns the shop in Centralia, also sells albums of “Asatru Folk Hymns” on the AFA’s main website as well as at the store.

McClatchy repeatedly tried to contact Thayer for this story, including visiting his store, but was unable to contact him.

A grassroots Facebook group called the Southwest Washington Anti Racist Movement (SWARM) located in Lewis County told McClatchy they have been monitoring AFA for several years, after community members tipped the group off to activities at the Sacred Spiral Sanctuary in Ethel, Washington.

The owner of that sanctuary, Elwin Herman, attended and spoke at a regional AFA gathering in 2020 alongside AFA’s founder, according to SWARM. When SWARM began to look into the ties, they discovered a network of white nationalists who were organizing in the Lewis County area under the Asatru banner, they told McClatchy.

“We believe it is important to shine a light on white nationalist organizing in Lewis County because the danger to the community will only continue to grow for as long as it goes unchallenged,” SWARM said in an email. “We hope that a coalition of local community members is able to bring awareness to the threat of white nationalist organizing in the area and to help put them out of business.”

Herman recently told The Chronicle in Centralia that she was not aware at the time of the 2020 gathering that it was an AFA event. The Chronicle reported that while Herman was familiar with members of the Asatru Land Union, she declined to “provide more detail on their relationship as many people who practice Pagan worship tend to not be public about it.”

Herman’s husband is a former Ku Klux Klan member, but Elwin Herman said he had broken all ties with the group by the time they got together, according to The Chronicle’s reporting.

SWARM noted on their Facebook page that not all local lawmakers are onboard with the mayor’s calls to denounce Thayer’s store.

Leah Daarud, a city council member in Centralia, said in a Facebook statement that other members of the council voiced their outrage towards the mayor’s statements at a March 14 city council meeting.

“In our role as local government officials, we represent thousands of humans,” Daarud said in the statement. “All with different beliefs, heritage, culture, interests and experiences.

“Once we take local public office, we are bound by ethics and law to restrain from action when taking a position or acting includes a violation of religious freedom or any constitutional right,” she continued. “Please note, much of the council vehemently disagrees with the mayor’s approach here.”

Herman called Daarud her “personal hero” for speaking out against the mayor.

Mayor Johnston noted on her Facebook page last week that she spoke with Thayer at his store and had an “in-depth conversation.”

“When I asked if he believes whites are superior to other races, he said that races are ‘different,’” Johnston said. “When I asked again, he did not refute the idea that whites are superior. I shared with him the story of our founder, George Washington, and how he founded Centralia based on principles of inclusion and welcome. I said this is the legacy we honor and that I would publicly oppose him and Asatru.”