Ravenden, Arkansas, is home to a 160-acre whites-only “intentional community.” It was founded by a disgraced jazz pianist—who was arrested for but not charged with attempted murder—and a former porn star who is also an expert-level French horn player.
As detailed in a wild New York Times article, this is Return to the Land, a whites-only neo-segregationist enclave built on race theory.
Founded in late 2023, the compound screens potential residents with background checks, ancestry quizzes, and family photo reviews. It’s not good enough that you pass the eye test. They want to make sure that you’ve been inbred for generations.
Behind all this bland racial purity is Eric Orwoll, a Platonic YouTuber and the aforementioned ex-adult cam star, and Peter Csere. The one who’s wanted in Ecuador for stabbing a miner (not minor) and allegedly swindling a vegan eco-village.
I had to look up what a “Platonic YouTuber” is because The New York Times mentions it a couple of times, as if we should all be familiar with the term. From what I gather, it means that he is a philosophy YouTuber with a special focus on the writings of Plato.
So there. Not worth the effort, but it does let us know that Pete is a well-rounded weirdo.
Inside the Disturbing Reality of an All-White Town in the South
Both men claim Return to the Land is legally bulletproof under exemptions in the Fair Housing Act for private clubs and religious groups. Legal experts are not so convinced. Civil rights attorneys argue it’s a textbook violation of federal anti-discrimination laws.
The ACLU has called it out. The Arkansas Attorney General is investigating. Still, the compound continues to grow—it’s now home to about 40 residents and a small herd of goats. No word on whether the goats are racist as well.
The vision is simple: A racially exclusive, heterosexual-only community grounded in “European heritage,” homeschooling, and mistrust of modernity. They’ve rejected applicants they felt didn’t “look white.” That has got to be hurtful if you definitely are white and some other white guy says you don’t look white. Racists love arbitrarily drawing lines in places that make no sense.
One particularly hysterical moment in the article occurs when Orwoll is giving the New York Times crew a tour of the grounds. Just before he’s going to pose in front of a bookshelf, he was sure to pull “a copy of ‘Mein Kampf’ from a bookshelf and turn it around to hide its spine.”
This man is trying to build an all-white racist compound and yet does not want people to know that he has Mein Kampf on his bookshelf.
Buddy, we knew that already.
It wasn’t even a guess. We knew that, with absolute certainty, from the moment we read the headline. We also know that somewhere on your compound is actual Nazi memorabilia. The article does not mention it, but we know there’s a basement somewhere in town filled with mannequins dressed as SS soldiers.
What’s Next for Return to the Land?
The project has raised nearly $90,000, and there are as many as five spinoff locations in the works, and all the places you would expect to see an all-white neighborhood—“two more in the Ozarks, one in the Deep South, and two in the Appalachian Mountains.”
If you’re wondering if all of this is happening now because certain political conditions make full on Mein Kampf0reading racists feel like they can finally build the all-white communities they’ve always dreamed of, well, Orwoll said it himself: “I would rather the precedent is set and the discussion is had while there’s a relatively favorable cultural and legal climate for it,” he said.
“So if we’re going to fight this battle—and it’s a battle that’s going to be fought at some point—it better be now.”
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