In 2015, the Asatru Folk Assembly, a religious group devoted to the worship of the Norse pantheon, opened its first physical house of worship in Brownsville, California, calling it Odinshof — the “Temple of Odin.” In a celebratory post on the AFA’s Facebook page, Odinshof is revealed to be a red building adorned with Nordic runes and flanked by a celebratory, posing crowd — every single one of whom is white, the California sun shining through their sheaves of blond hair.

The vision presented by the Asatru Folk Assembly relies on the notion of a “folk” — a racially pure white body of worshippers.

The triumph is punctuated with a curious imprecation, with a tint of fascism: “Hail the Gods! Hail the Folk! Hail the AFA!” Much like the crowd pictured in the Facebook post, the “folk” being hailed by the AFA are unambiguously white. On […]