Hate Groups Flourish During Tough Economic Times

If you had to pick a number, how many hate groups would you say there are in the United States?  Several dozen?  Maybe 100?  Several hundred?

The answer, which is pretty damn shocking, is 926.  That's right...nearly 1,000 hate groups currently exist in the United States.  These range from anti-LGBT groups (hello, Westboro Baptist Church), to neo-Nazi sects, KKK chapters, skinhead groups, white separatists, and many more.  The fact that the U.S. has that many hate groups is a tragedy.

But do you know what's even worse?  That number - 926 - is 50 percent higher than the number of hate groups we had in 2000.  Which begs the question: Where have we been failing these last nine years as a country, that hundreds of new hate groups have sprung up since we entered the 21st Century?

As Leonard Pitts Jr. writes in today's Detroit Free Press:

How can hate enjoy such phenomenal growth in a nation where a Jew serves as senator from Connecticut, a Muslim serves as representative from Minnesota, a Hispanic is governor of New Mexico, and a black man is president?

(We could also add the significance of an openly gay man serving as the Chair of the House Financial Services Committee, a woman serving as Secretary of State, and an Asian-American serving as Secretary of Commerce.)

One argument put forward to explain the rise of hate groups is the economy.  Mark Potok, who edits the Intelligence Report for the Southern Poverty Law Center, explained it like this: "Tough economic times provide fertile ground for those who would foment hate against minorities by scapegoating them for our problems."

Or as Pitts more succinctly puts it in his column today: "Hate rises when the Dow falls."

Is it a failure of the Bush administration that, during the entire GWB Presidency, hate groups expanded so rapidly in this country?  I might argue yes...that as the country entered a recession, as well as dealt with social issues like LGBT rights and immigration (anti-Latino hate crimes have risen by at least 35 percent over the last few years, fueled in part by the likes of Tom Tancredo and Lou Dobbs), as well as the racial implications of the War on Terror, the U.S. did little to quell fear.  In fact, if anything, we've been particularly good at stoking fear via our politicians and our media (fear of another terrorist attack, fear that immigrants will take all of our jobs, fear that LGBT people will destroy the institution of marriage, etc., etc.).

As Pitts concludes: "In a nation so deeply riven by culture, race and religion, there is always a temptation to hate somebody, to blame some group of others for the job you lost, the crime committed against you, the fear and uncertainty you feel. There is a simplicity and a seductiveness to it that are all too easily mistaken for righteousness."

Despite our progress, and the historical significance of having racial and sexual minorities at some of the highest posts of government, there is still plenty of reason to pay attention to the rising tide of hate in the U.S.  The number of hate groups - 926 - will continue to rise without a national dialogue on hate.