Tipsheet

A New Whites-Only Settlement Is Making National Headlines — Here’s Why

Jeff Charles
Jeff Charles  |  July 26, 2025 5:30 PM

Here’s a controversial one for you. A far-right group called Return to the Land (RTTL) has built a whites-only community in northeastern Arkansas and is planning to expand this concept to Missouri.

RTTL characterizes itself as a “private membership association, (PMA)” according to The Independent. The objective is to build a refuge for folks with “traditional views and European ancestry.”

The group, founded in 2023, has established two compounds in the Ozarks. Members live off the grid in a community with cabins, wells, and even a schoolhouse. It rejects multiculturalism, immigration, and “forced integration” and seeks to “separate ourselves from a failing modern society.”

The group bans nonwhites, LGBTQ people, and non-Christians from living in its community.

Co-founder Eric Orwoll describes the community as a “fortress for the white race.” In a promotional video, Orwoll says, “You want a white nation? Build a white town? It can be done. We’re doing it.”

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The co-founder has expressed vast ambitions for RTTL, including an international expansion and monetary incentives for white births. “I would like to have more communities so that people in all parts of the U.S. have this as an option if they want.”

He argues that the PMA structure will protect the group’s exclusionary practices from civil rights legislation. “The attorneys we’ve consulted believe what we’re doing is legal,” he said in an interview.”

The group uses social media to recruit followers and raise funds while displaying explicitly racist views. “Even if an individual has all the same values that I have, if they have an ethnic identity that other people share and care about, their children will also have that identity,” he said, explaining his reasons for excluding nonwhites.

Members of the group have shared racist views in its Telegram channel — even going so far as to discuss a “second coming” of Adolph Hitler. Orwoll defended this, saying the mainstream opinion on Hitler is “one-sided” and skewed by World War II propaganda. “I think all historical figures are complex, multi-dimensional,” he said.

He continued, saying “I’m not saying you’re going to have to wait for a new person to start a new Holocaust,” but that “you are going to wait for a charismatic leader who is going to advocate for your interests because that’s how a lot of people see Hitler.”

However, not everyone agrees with the group’s argument about the legalities of the initiative. Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin said, “Racial discrimination has no place in Arkansas or anywhere in a free society.”

Barry Jefferson with the Arkansas NAACP speculated that such a movement could pull the nation backwards. “I just truly believe that we don’t need to get back to the Jim Crow era.”

When pressed about his references to Adolf Hitler and RTTL’s white supremacist content, Orwoll doubled down, saying history’s view of Hitler is “one-sided” and asserting: “I am saying you are going to wait for a charismatic leader who is going to advocate for your interests because that’s how a lot of people see Hitler.”

Legal experts have also disagreed with RTTL’s arguments about the legal issues surrounding its community. But so far, nobody has filed a lawsuit against the group. Orwoll insists that RTTL is merely exercising “freedom of association.”

So, my views on this story might be a bit controversial — but I’m actually fine with what this group is doing. After all, why in the name of all that is holy would I want to live next to braindead racists?

I am a strong supporter of racists going away from the rest of us to build their own communities. I have no desire to live among people who treat me as inferior because my skin is darker than theirs. In fact, I don’t believe most white people want to associate with people like this either. 

So if they want to move away from everyone else, it works for everyone, doesn’t it?

The thing about racism is that, while I despise it, it likely won’t affect me or others like me unless they are using the government to exert their will on us. As long as these people aren’t trying to inflict their racism on others through violence or other types of force, they can do whatever they want — far away from me, preferably.

Of course, there is the question of whether people having racist attitudes can harm society. Sure, it can. However, this is a societal issue that can — and has — been largely resolved through dialogue and persuasion. People like musician Daryl Davis, a black man who got people to leave the KKK by befriendeing them, are prime examples of how these issues can be solved — especially in 2025 when we are no longer living under Jim Crow.

But the reality is that there will always be ignorant racists in every demographic group. If these people want to leave our non-racist society, then perhaps we should simply say "good riddance" and go about our lives.