Defying Good Sense

At this point, it would be absolutely inexcusable for TAC to be discovered partnering with or supporting racialists again. Even though they are signatories of Declaration 127, we have already shown them to have twice been caught with their hands in the völkish cookie jar. They loudly proclaim their dedication to inclusion, and have even gone so far as to condemn other groups for their unwillingness to sign. Were they to be caught out with yet another racialist tied to them, the hypocrisy would be more than overwhelming: it would be nearly satirical.

So, of course, that’s exactly what’s about to happen.

Enter Yngona Desmond, AKA Valerie Wright, AKA the “Vinland Volva.” Wright, an author and self-appointed scholar/seer/shaman/”sieðu”, partnered with TAC in the middle of 2016. This immediately raised the eyebrows of those who knew her reputation for folkishness, insidious racism, and willingness to exclude non-whites from what passes as “her religion.” Despite TAC’s insistence that such a stance is intolerable to members, Kindreds, or partners aligned with them.

Indeed, Declaration 127 itself exists simply because of a statement in which “…the AFA declared point blank that non-white and LGBT Heathens were not welcome in their tradition.” As we have seen before, TAC’s inability to create even a superficial vetting process has allowed someone with sketchy ties and beliefs to slip in under the radar, even though the information that should have prevented this can be found by a marginally dedicated searcher in minutes.

A Fifteen Minute Google Search

It doesn’t take a professional investigator to uncover Wright’s stance on people of color in Heathenry. At most, it takes a few minutes Google searching the terms “Yngona Desmond” and “Ethnic European Folkway,” the well-known folkish euphemism for “White-Only.” In fact, our friends over at the AFA are kind enough to define it for us explicitly: “Let us be clear: by Ethnic European Folk we mean white people.” Certainly, no partner to TAC (or any other signatory of Declaration 127) should be bandying about AFA buzzwords, but Wright gives up the ghost almost immediately.

At first glance, this specific quote seems relatively harmless. After all, it’s a simple discussion of linguistics. Certainly, it would be very easy to make a case that reading discrimination into these words is overthinking it. There’s nothing directly hateful here. There is, however, that troublesome implication that “our folkway” is something set apart from “another culture’s folkway.” We, as Ethic Europeans are set apart from other people. We aren’t above them, of course, just distinct. You know.

Separate. But Equal.

Obviously, this is outright racial exclusion even if there isn’t violently bigoted language here. That exclusion, whether driven by vitriol or not, is directly out of line with both Declaration 127 and TAC’s own bylaws. It took less than half an hour for TACWatch to uncover that TAC’s newest partner was another rotten apple, but once again that was time TAC wasn’t willing to spend.

Of course, both the quote from Varg Vikernes at the top of the post and this most recent example were from years ago. It’s likely that Yngona has had time to grow, and has abandoned the flawed and hateful ideology of Ethnic European Folk Religion.

Unless of course, several more screenshots can be taken from her new blog, dated as recently as December of last year.

 

Digging With a Spoon

If the offerings from TAC’s punchbowl are starting to taste perpetually turdish to you, you aren’t going crazy. Twice before, the federally recognized religious institution was caught between the sheets with known proponents of racialist ideologies in defiance of its own bylaws. Twice before, that organization chose to ignore warnings from external sources even when those sources were known to be kind of good at this sort of thing. Twice before having been called on the carpet for these sort of shenanigans, the leadership at TAC signed Declaration 127 to assuage any suspicion that they had faltered in their lofty mission of providing a safe place for all Heathens.

And then, predictably, they had partnered with a woman who explicitly believes that only white people can be Heathen and that notorious supremacist Varg Vikernes is a quotable heartthrob. In the end, they never questioned her about these beliefs either. While Yngona’s partnership has been severed by the time of this writing, it was done by Yngona herself, due to TAC’s abysmal handling of Darren Taylor’s misogyny.

What makes it all worse is that the information hasn’t at any point been difficult to find. TACwatch isn’t run by trained investigative journalists; we’re just people with an internet connection and a few minutes to kill on lunch break. If we’re able to find these connections and ideas in the span of a few moments, it’s totally unacceptable that an organization that collects money from patrons while avoiding tax obligations on those donations can’t do the same. It isn’t that the job is difficult; it’s that for whatever reason TAC doesn’t want to do it.

 

As in the previous two articles, we could speculate on the reasons why.

Instead, we’ll leave it at this:

We’re watching you, TAC. The whole world is watching you.

NEXT UP: TAC is a Safe Place (For Men): A Religious Leader Discusses Your Genitals.

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UPDATE 4/24/17 21:54 EST:

Well, that was quick. Yngona came in our Facebook group to defend herself against our charges. She did just terrific.

 

Our bad, Yngona. You’re cool with all the non-white people of ancient Europe.