According to a spokesperson from the Southwest Washington Anti-Racism Movement, also known as SWARM, when a community member reached out with a concern last week, the organization quickly got to work disseminating the information online: There is a shop in downtown Centralia promoting ties to a white supremacist group.
In the days that followed, the issue fell upon the ears of Centralia Mayor Kelly Smith Johnston. And, after the mayor made a Facebook post that saw hundreds of engagements, the news of a potential white supremacist in the Hub City was widely circulated.
Tanner Thayer, owner of a music shop at 223 S. Tower Ave. in Centralia, authored “Asatru Folk Hymns,” which is sold by “Asatru Folk Assembly,” a Norse mythology-based religious group that touts its desire to “preserve” whiteness openly. He also has a poster for the hymnal hanging in the shop’s window. The Icelandic word “Asatru” is a religion based on worship of ancient Viking spirits. It’s also known as Heathenism or modern Paganism.
Also known as AFA, Asatru Folk Assembly has co-opted the original meaning of the word, still practicing the religion but specifically excluding non-white people. It’s been called a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The group also operates a whites-only church in Minnesota.
Per the group’s own website where Thayer’s book can be purchased, “We in Asatru support strong, healthy white family relationships. We want our children to grow up to be mothers and fathers to white children of their own. … Activities and behaviors destructive of the white family are to be discouraged.”
Smith Johnston’s posts states she went to the store and had an in-depth conversation with Thayer where she pressed him on the issue, twice asking Thayer “if he believes whites are superior to other races,” she wrote.
The first time, Smith Johnston wrote, he answered the races are “different.” The second time, he “did not refute the idea that whites are superior.” She asked him whether he knew AFA was an identified racial hate group, the post states, and she then “learned that Tanner supports Asatru and understands the associations.”
Leaders from the Centralia Downtown Association said they’re familiar with Thayer, but had no knowledge of his ties to AFA, nor were they familiar with the group before this week, they said. After Smith Johnston’s post, the organization posted a snippet from its umbrella organization, Main Street, on Facebook pertaining to equity and inclusion.
“We are dedicated to advancing a deeper understanding of and action around anti-racism,” it reads in part.
The Chronicle attempted to contact Thayer at his shop and through the Centralia Downtown Association, but has not received a response. Beside his hymnal poster, a QR coded poster brings one to a page titled “Kultur Studio.” Merriam-Webster defines “Kultur” as referring to “German culture held to be superior especially by militant Nazi(s).”
Kultur LLC was issued a business license under Thayer’s name in September 2022, according to the state Department of Licensing. According to Lewis County Plats, Thayer purchased the storefront on Tower Avenue six months ago and also owns 10 acres by River Run Ranch Road in Randle.
A spokesperson from the Southwest Poverty Law Center was not available before The Chronicle’s press deadline on Friday, but a conversation on this topic was set up for early next week.
SWARM, which has recently posted about other Lewis County residents with ties to the AFA, posted about Thayer, saying his presence represented a “growing threat” to the community.
“We encourage people to notify their friends, family and neighbors,” a spokesperson said in an email to The Chronicle. “We also encourage community members to refuse to do business with white nationalists and to make them feel unwelcome by whatever means available, whether that be excluding him from the CDA’s (Centralia Downtown Association) merchant coffee hour, to refusing him and his associates service at local businesses. People have the freedom of association and hopefully now they have a more informed decision when it comes to associating with Tanner and the AFA.”
Smith Johnston notes in her post that Centralia’s founder, George Washington, who was Black, founded the city on “principles of inclusion." Also, she told Thayer she would “publicly oppose him.”
The downtown association, too, mentioned Washington, with one board member saying his message of inclusion “is a part of our history and a core of who we believe we are.”
Accompanying a photo of Washington and his wife immortalized in a statue at George Washington Park, the mayor closed her post by saying: “So let me be crystal clear here: as Mayor of Centralia, I welcome people from all races and ethnicities. I strive to create an inclusive city. And I oppose people and businesses that promote racist ideals. I invite you to do the same.”
