Brock at Stupid Evil Bastard finds a fascinating map of US hate groups at the Southern Poverty Law Center. If you're wondering what nastiness can be found in your neighborhood, it's a handy reference. Minnesota has more Neo-Nazis and Christian Identity groups than I like to see, but you'll have to look at the maps of California and Texas to see more scary stuff than this.
This is a slightly weird map—the Christian Identity group that looks like it is close to Morris is actually in Burnsville, south of Minneapolis, and should be way over to the east, near the cluster of swastikas. More accurate information can be found in the text accompanying the maps at the SPLC.
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New Jersey has a lot of racist skinheads.
Holy crap, we have racist skinheads in my home suburb. The White Power Liberation Front. Well they can screw off.
I live in Southern California, and apparently I have some charming neighbors.
Within a 20 minute drive, I could go to a KKK meeting, listen to holocaust deniers, hear about how Jesus hates him some brown-skinned people, or demonstrate against immigrants.
I think I'm afraid to leave my apartment now.
Wow, my state is messed up. The racist skinheads are on top of the black separatists. Actually, when you think about it, it explains why they want to return to Africa.......
Wow, PZ! You weren't kidding about Texas!
Um, what is it that black separatists are up to? Emmigration or ethnic cleansing? I don't remember ever hearing of them before.
Usually it is hard to avoid learning about such things going on down in the States.
Do you think this guy a member of one of those groups?
I noticed the same screw up on the Missouri Map. The symbols appear to be geographically off just a tad bit...
It is well and good to identify fascist, neo-fascist, groups. One needs to be aware. But using emotional terms like "hate groups" is counter-productive. What does "hate" mean?
People have to be judged by their actions, not by their thoughts.
Who can know what the thoughts of another are? If someone beats you up to rob you, how is that different from someone who beats you up because he doesn't like your looks?
You get beaten up in the two cases.
This inevitably leads to the idea of "thought" crimes. Evolutionists should know better.
The SPLC's justification for grouping Black Separatists with the other groups sounds unconvincing:
White groups espousing beliefs similar to Black Separatists would be considered clearly racist. The same criterion should be applied to all groups regardless of their color.
The SPLC lists the Nation of Islam group in my neighborhood as a Black Separatist hate group. By their definition it may be true, but only in an abstract sense, I think. I don't recall ever hearing of any black on white violence promoted by them, or any sign that such acts would result from the NoI's minor annoyance here.
If someone beats you up to rob you, how is that different from someone who beats you up because he doesn't like your looks?
That's a bit of a false analogy, I think. Someone beating you up to rob you is committing a single crime, against you. The KKK (for example) advocates violence against and, yes, hate of, everybody who doesn't look like them. It's not a single crime against a single person like a robbery is.
The difference is between one victim, chosen at random, versus advocating making everybody who is black, or Jewish, or whatever, into a victim.
So Florida is the swamp?
This reminds me of the charming question we visiting swedes got when we threw a midsummer party for our friends in Dallas. Noting the flowergirded cross outside (the traditional christianized perversion of the earlier maypole) a couple of kids asked: "Are you KKK?" I don't think they joked.
Oh, and the evil that lurks near me is a Windows system. I assume PZ agrees...
They missed a few in Colorado, such as Focus on the Family, What's his face gay meth head minister's Church, etc.
D'OH: Don't take my comment as being anti-gay, but rather anti-hypocritical Christians who hate not only others but themselves as well...
I was shocked when I opened the link to Stupid Evil Bastard to see that South Carolina was blanketed by neo-Confederate groups. I knew SC was crazy southerner territory, but you can't take a step on that map without running into a Confederate group.
I live in Florida.
I don't think I need to say anything more.
All this means is that a lot of people I know or am related to aren't organized...which is of course, a good thing.
You all need to come and live in North Dakota. We have none - unless Myers and Moran come here and start a hate agnostics and theists group.
Wow, I am from Michigan and we have a nut group called:
The Charles Darwin Research Institute
I won't provide a link as they don't deserve one.
They seem dedicated to proving the variation among the races leads to some races being superior to others.
What a shame.
I'm curious about those of you living outside the US. What, if any hate groups, do you have in your neighborhood?
Fucking wonderful.
What I'm wondering about is how they missed my high school.
Tennessee is well-represented, if that is the right way to put it. Although here in Memphis, we seem to be balanced between black separatists and neo-nazis/other.
Somehow I got on a hate group's mailing list. Something called American News sends me the occasional cheaply produced newsletter about how evil liberals are because we don't care about the danger that "niggers, fags and mexicans" are doing to Minnesota. It's laughable, but sad to think of the lives these poor people live.
There's no return address and no names attached. Fucking cowards.
If I could ever have gotten my Misanthrope Group up and running, I'd be lodging a complaint with the SPLC about being lumped in under that terrifying green "Other" thumbtack. Unfortunately, misanthropes don't even like other misanthropes- and will often stick you with the bar tab.
I noticed there is an atheist hate crime listed on their "Hatewatch" list:
Blue Springs, MO (Vandalism)
Published on 07-19-2006
Anti-religious epithets were spray-painted at a Lutheran church.
I find hate crimes are disgusting no matter what message was intended.
I'm in Northern California. Proud to say we're hate group free except for a KKK group a little ways north of here.
Most of the skinheads I knew moved to Minn in the late 1980's with the intention of 'breeding' at some unnamed camp. Wasn't sad to see them go- but have always wondered who their benefactor was.
Exactly. Looking at the names of some of those "other" groups in particular is not very informative. Can anyone label a group they dislike a "hate group" or do they have to be linked to an actual incident of violence?
Yay for New Mexico! We have zero!
Although I'd think that would depend on who you ask. There's a kind of ongoing feud between Hispanic groups and Native American groups as to whether or not the conquistadors were culture heroes or bloodthirsty maniacs. And since the Hispanic groups tend to be more powerful, there's a lot of pro conquistador statues and monuments that are subject to vandalism.
Maybe I'm a pessimist, but I'd say they left out a few groups in the upper Midwest. I'm sorry, but unless something miraculous happened, it's impossible that North Dakota has no hate groups! Where are the local chapters of the John Birch Society? Where is the KKK, which held a rally in St. Paul just recently? Where are the branches of the Posse Commitatus? Where is East St. Paul's "White Power!"? What happened to the "Patriot Movement"? What about the oh-so-new-age racist pagan groups like the "Neo-Teutonic Order" and the "White Order of Thule"? There are far more organized racists than we would ever like to admit to.
On the positive side, Panzerfaust Records is out of business in MN. The head of it was caught on drug charges... and it turned out he was of Mexican decent.
Exactly. Looking at the names of some of those "other" groups in particular is not very informative. Can anyone label a group they dislike a "hate group" or do they have to be linked to an actual incident of violence?
It's basically just any group the SPLC dislikes. The Westboro Baptist Church, for example, hasn't been involved in any incidents of violence. If any violence were to occur, it'd probably be some pissed-off bereaved person angry at the WBC picketing a funeral.
The SPLC has a long and sordid history of spying on dissidents, bad-jacketing leftist groups, and other distasteful adventures. For example, after the WTO protests, the SPLC came out with a newsletter article claiming that these protestors had been infiltrated by far-right racists and that there were signs in the marches blaming globalization on the Jews and other such nonsense. No such signs were there--I can attest to that myself--and the anonymous author didn't provide any evidence there were. It was pure COINTELPRO work, and thanks to the SPLC, the FBI didn't have to be seen in it (although it wouldn't surprise me if their hand was in it all the same).
For even more fun, divide the number of hate groups in each state by the number of that state's congressional districts. Idaho = 3. Yay!
Ha!
Alaska: 1 - The Jewish Defense League. Who are they fighting? Bears?!
Well, it looks like I am packing up the Cephalopods and moving to New Mexico.
We are longtime members of the Southern Poverty Law Center and they've had a spot on my blog under "other stuff I care about." Their Teaching Tolerance program for grade school kids and their teachers is outstanding and attempts to counter racist hate from developing (although even grade school is sometimes too late).
SPLC spends over $400,000/yr simply for the security of their leadership, some of whom are targeted by death threats and similar intimidation; for those commenters so moved, I encourage you to join SPLC as their activities are not merely restricted to combatting racism and hate in the South.
"We have none - unless Myers and Moran come here and start a hate agnostics and theists group."
:-) But it will more likely be a comedy club: "- And what does the agnostic answer when you ask him what happens when he dies? - Oh, I don't know... - Neither does he!"
Um, probably botched that. "Neither does he!" - Nor does he. Oh, well.
Paguroidea:
Well, it's my impression that here in Denmark we mostly have neo-Nazis, though thankfully not that many. Other than that, I think it's mostly the radical Muslims and anti-Muslims that seem to be pretty much par for the course in the Western world these days.
Martin
If someone beats you up to rob you, how is that different from someone who beats you up because he doesn't like your looks?
If someone is killing everyone named Sarah Connor, that's an implicit threat against everyone with that name. The same principle applies when someone is attacking a specific ethnic group -- all members of that ethnic group are implicitly being threatened.
In Denmark it's basicly a few radical Islamists (not many, perhaps 30 persons in total) like iman Ahmad Abu Laban, some fundamental Christians, but mostly neo-Nazis and other racist groups, for example Danish Front,Blood and Honour, Danish National Socialist Party, Danish Forum, and Danish Society.
Guess which group gets the most coverage in Danish news?
SPLC spends over $400,000/yr simply for the security of their leadership, some of whom are targeted by death threats and similar intimidation; for those commenters so moved, I encourage you to join SPLC as their activities are not merely restricted to combatting racism and hate in the South.
No, indeed, their activities also include direct mail marketing campaigns which outspend the civil rights work they do by a 2:1 margin. The SPLC doesn't do any cases which they think will scare off their rich white benefactors, so they don't take death penalty cases because that makes their RWBs think of black men rampaging in the streets, though they'd deny it if you asked them, address welfare reform packages like Clinton's, the disenfranchisement of black voters (who was utterly silent about Florida's deliberate scrubbing of blacks from the voting rolls?), etc.
He also spent time back in 1995 calling up his powerful benefactors and encouraging them to pressure the Pulitzer committee not to recognize a 1994 Montgomery Advertiser series which exposed poor management, ineffective civil rights work, and deceptive marketing practices at the SPLC. Despite this effort, or maybe even because of it, the series was one of the finalists.
Lastly, the SPLC doesn't need anyone's money. They could go on for years and years just off their reserves alone, not counting their investments for which the dividends are tax-free, even with the outlandish compensation paid to Dees himself which at last count was a full one-fourth that of the total budget for a group like the Southern Center for Human Rights. I would suggest any and all people who are so moved donate there, since they do the cases that the SPLC is afraid to even attempt.
Looks like they've certainly done their homework. "United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors/All Eyes on Egipt"?
Southeastern PA, including Philadelphia - the city most identified with freedom and equality - is home to 11 of my state's 27 listed hate groups. Philly proper has 6 of 'em. Now that's one of the saddest ironies I've ever heard of.
Wow ... somehow I'm not surprised that my new home, SC, has 46 - more than anyone by FL, even for a small state. This state is really backwards. I miss Maine (0).
Just back from a visit with the folks for Thanksgiving. So I find myself in the country suburbs, in a high-end 'country cub' style restaurant... I found another nest of hate groups not listed above!
46/6 = 7.67
Wow. And I'm actually angling for a temporary job in SC. Thank heaven I'm so lily-white.
It's hard to say how many hate groups there are in Canada, and of the ones that exist how many have much of a membership. The Heritage Front was probably the best known Canadian extreme right group in the '80s and '90s but seems to have pretty much fizzled out. One of the things about these kind of groups is that you often see the same names over and over associated with multiple groups, so they may appear to have more adherents than they actually do.
New Mexico gets Zero...hmm
They must not include the *ssholes from the Minute Men, then...(the fanatical anti-Immigrant vigilante group), I know they're out in NM, and we have them in Texas too.
-JJR
I'd like to point out that the claims made by a person on this board about the SPLC, at least in terms of the death penalty, are patently wrong.
Here's a link:
http://www.splcenter.org/legal/landmark/death.jsp
phat
No, my claims were not wrong. I didn't claim they never did capital cases, just that don't take them now, just as they stopped doing significant civil rights work. There's not a case on that webpage that dates from the last twenty years, and the cases were all initially taken up during the first decade of the Center's existence, when good will was high and they actually strove to get things done, like desegregating the Alabama Highway Patrol.
As the money started pouring in from rich white liberals, rather than challenging their rich white liberal supporters to change their own preconceptions of what "civil rights" means, they just dropped potentially controversial issues from their agenda and rested on their laurels.
As for the claim that they're working on dozens of currently ongoing death penalty appeals, I'll file that under "I'll believe it when I see it." They haven't done anything about what may be the most high profile case of politically-motivated imprisonment so far in the 21st century: the imprisonment of the Angola 3. One of them is already out, and Herman Wallace may well be released, but not with a single scrap of support from the SPLC, who don't want to be seen publically supporting old members of the Black Panthers.
If there's one thing that this blog is devoted to is evidence.
Find some evidence that the SPLC is not involved in the Angola 3 case because of the black panther connection and post it here.
I have to wonder, too, how is it you expect an organization that specializes in civil litigation to get involved in criminal litigation on a regular basis? To be honest, I'd rather they didn't, as they're two very different types of legal work. Death penalty law is even more specialized.
Read this:
http://www.splcenter.org/legal/assist/ind.jsp
The Center's legal department does not address:
* Criminal cases or wrongful convictions
* Family law
* Commercial or consumer litigation
* Land disputes
* Individual claims for damages
phat
Find some evidence that the SPLC is not involved in the Angola 3 case because of the black panther connection and post it here.
Well, aside from the fact that the group has been named at Hatewatch.... Granted, that was the New Black Panther Party, not the original (and which has been disavowed by the original leadership--those that are still alive), but I don't expect the people who donate to the SPLC will draw those sorts of distinctions and I don't think they do either, considering that the Black Panther Party was the subject of years of "bad-jacketing" by the FBI which became so prevalent that some of the COINTELPRO garbage makes it way into textbooks (at least mine from AP U.S. History back in the day).
I have to wonder, too, how is it you expect an organization that specializes in civil litigation to get involved in criminal litigation on a regular basis? To be honest, I'd rather they didn't, as they're two very different types of legal work. Death penalty law is even more specialized.
Good heavens! How could anyone possibly expect an organization ostensibly devoted to "civil rights" and with money to burn to hire a few lawyers who are experts in criminal law, given that this is where the most iniquitous disparities turn up? But if they did that, then we (and they) might have to question the inherent goodness and impartiality of legislators who make extreme and excessive mandatory minimums for "crack" cocaine rather than powdered cocaine, despite that the former is not a jot more addictive than the latter. One might almost think that it was the demographic difference in users of "crack" vs. powdered cocaine that made the difference.
And as I noted before, they don't address current civil rights issues of more pressing moment, like the Clintonian welfare reform package, the disenfranchisement of black voters in 2000 and 2004, etc. One can't even get them interested in a probable lynching.
tim gueguen:: And in the 60s and 70s, don't forget the FLQ. You still hear rumblings about them from time to time ...
For the commenter about the nation of islam not being racist, come to philly, when they are preaching in the center city about how evil white people are, and the scream devil at you when you walk past, id call that racism. I am rather shocked that the black seperatist movement is actually not considered racist by many people.
and to the Swede, Ive had the same problem i have many runic tatttos and a hammer on my neck and i am always assumed to be a racist.
I think, and find a really smart team to work with.