Hate group

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A hate group is an organized group or movement that advocates and practices hatred, hostility, or violence towards members of a race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation or any other designated sector of society. According to the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), a hate groups' "primary purpose is to promote animosity, hostility, and malice against persons belonging to a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or ethnicity/national origin which differs from that of the members of the organization."^[1] The Southern Poverty Law Center's (SPLC) definition of a "hate group" includes those having beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics.^[2]

In the US, two main organizations that monitor intolerance and hate groups are the Anti-Defamation League (ADL)^[3] and the SPLC.^[4] Hate groups are also tracked by the FBI.^[5] The ADL and the SPLC maintain a list of what they deem to be hate groups, supremacist groups and anti-Semitic, anti-government or extremist groups that have committed hate crimes. However, at least for the SPLC, inclusion of a group in the list "does not imply a group advocates or engages in violence or other criminal activity."^[6] According to the SPLC, from 2000 to 2008, hate group activity saw a 50 percent increase in the US, with a total of 926 active groups.^[7] The FBI does not publish a list of hate groups, and "[I]nvestigations are conducted only when a threat or advocacy of force is made; when the group has the apparent ability to carry out the proclaimed act; and when the act would constitute a potential violation of federal law."^[8]

Violence and hate crimes

The California Association for Human Relations Organizations (CAHRO) asserts that hate groups such as the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) and White Aryan Resistance (WAR) preach violence against racial, religious, sexual and other minorities in the United States.^[9] Joseph E. Agne argues that hate-motivated violence is a result of the successes of the civil rights movement, and he asserts that the KKK has resurfaced and that new hate groups have formed.^[10] Agne argues that it is a mistake to underestimate the strength of the hate-violence movement, its apologists and its silent partners.^[11]

In the US, crimes that "manifest evidence of prejudice based on race, religion, sexual orientation, or ethnicity, including the crimes of murder and nonnegligent manslaughter; forcible rape; robbery; aggravated assault; burglary; larceny-theft; motor vehicle theft; arson; simple assault; intimidation; and destruction, damage or vandalism of property", directed at the government, an individual, a business, or institution, involving hate groups and hate crimes, may be investigated as acts of domestic terrorism.^{[12][13][14][15]}

Hate speech

Counterterrorism expert Ehud Sprinzak argues that verbal violence is "the use of extreme language against an individual or a group that either implies a direct threat that physical force will be used against them, or is seen as an indirect call for others to use it." Sprinzak argues that verbal violence is often a substitute for real violence, and that the verbalization of hate has the potential to incite people who are incapable of distinguishing between real and verbal violence to engage in actual violence.^[16]

Historian Daniel Goldhagen, discussing antisemitic hate groups, argues that we should view verbal violence as "an assault in its own right, having been intended to produce profound damage—emotional, psychological, and social—to the dignity and honor of the Jews. The wounds that people suffer by ... such vituperation ... can be as bad as ... [a] beating."^[17]

In the mid-1990s, the popularity of the Internet brought new international exposure to many organizations, including groups with beliefs such as white supremacy, neo-Nazism, homophobia, Holocaust denial and Islamophobia. Several white supremacist groups have founded websites dedicated to attacking their perceived enemies. In 1996, the Simon Wiesenthal Center of Los Angeles asked Internet access providers to adopt a code of ethics that would prevent extremists from publishing their ideas online. In 1996, the European Commission formed the Consultative Commission on Racism and Xenophobia (CRAX), a pan-European group which was tasked to "investigate and, using legal means, stamp out the current wave of racism on the Internet."^[18]

Religious hate groups

The Southern Poverty Law Center has designated several Christian groups as hate groups, including the American Family Association, the Family Research Council, Abiding Truth Ministries, American Vision, the Chalcedon Foundation, the Dove World Outreach Center the Traditional Values Coalition, and now the Westboro Baptist Church.^[19][20]

The SPLC classes the Nation of Islam (NOI) as a hate group under the category "black separatist".^[5][21] The NOI preaches that a black scientist named Yakub created the white race, a "race of devils", on the Greek island of Patmos. The NOI, unlike traditional Muslim groups, does not accept white members and it is not regarded as a legitimate branch of Islam by mainstream Muslims.

The white supremacist Creativity Movement (formerly the World Church of the Creator), led by Matthew F. Hale, is associated with violence and bigotry. Aryan Nations is another religion-based white supremacist hate group.

Westboro Baptist Church is considered a hate group because of its provocative stance against homosexuality and the United States, and it has even been denounced by many mainstream gay rights opponents as well as gay rights supporters.^[22]

Internet hate groups

Traditionally, hate groups recruited members and spread extremist messages by word of mouth, or through the distribution of flyers and pamphlets. In contrast, the Internet allows members from all over the world to engage in real-time conversations.^[23] The Internet has been a boon for hate groups in terms of promotion, recruitment and expanding their base to include younger audiences.^[24] An Internet hate group does not have to be a part of a traditional faction such as the Ku Klux Klan.^[25]

The Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC), in its 2009 iReport, identified more than 10,000 problematic hate and terrorist websites and other Internet postings. The report includes hate websites, social networks, blogs, newsgroups, YouTube and other video sites. The findings illustrate that as the Internet continues to grow, extremists find new ways to seek validation for their hateful agendas and to recruit members.

Creators of hate pages and groups on Facebook choose their target, set up their page or group, and then recruit members.^[26] Anyone can create a Facebook group and invite followers to post comments, add pictures and participate in discussion boards. A Facebook page is similar, with the exception that one must "like" the page in order to become a member. Because of the ease of creating and joining such groups, many so-called hate groups exist only in cyberspace.^[23]

Psychopathology of hate groups

According to a 2003 FBI Law Enforcement bulletin, a hate group, if unimpeded, passes through seven successive stages.^[27] In the first four stages, hate groups vocalize their beliefs and in the last three stages, they act on their beliefs. The report points to a transition period that exists between verbal violence and acting out that violence, separating hardcore haters from rhetorical haters. Thus, hate speech is seen as a prerequisite of hate crimes, and as a condition of their possibility.

See also

• Anti-Defamation League
• List of organizations designated by the Southern Poverty Law Center as hate groups

References

Further reading

• Schafer,John R. MA & Navarro. Joe, MA . The seven-stage hate model: The psychopathology of hate groups. FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, March 2003
• Denning, Dorothy E., and Peter J. Denning. Internet Besieged: Countering Cyberspace Scofflaws. New York: ACM Press (1998)
• Perry, Barbara - ‘Button-Down Terror’: The Metamorphosis of the Hate Movement. Sociological Focus Vol. 33 (No. 2, May 2000): 113.
• Jessup, Michael The Sword of Truth in the Sea of Lies: The Theology of Hate, Google Print, p.165-p.166, in Robert J. Priest, Alvaro L. Nieves (ed.), This Side of Heaven, Oxford University Press US, 2006, ISBN 0-19-531056-X
• J. Wayne Dudley, "Hate" Organizations of the 1940s: The Columbians, Inc., Phylon, Vol. 42, No. 3 (3rd Qtr., 1981), pp. 262–274 (JSTOR)

External links

• Hate Groups on the Open Directory Project
• Poisoning the Web: Hatred Online, Internet Bigotry, Extremism and Violence - The Anti-defamation League
• Hatewatch
• Online Hate - The Media Awareness Network
• Deconstructing Hate Sites
• Survivor bashing - bias motivated hate crimes
• Hate Communities in Cyber Space; Manjeet Chaturvedi,Ishan, Ishita
• "When Hate went Online"
• Active U.S. Hate Groups - a map at The Southern Poverty Law Center

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