Post-Racial America? Hate Groups’ Enrollment On The Rise
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Since Barack Obama’s election in November 2008, the membership of hate
groups around the country has skyrocketed. According to the annual hate
group report issued by the Southern Poverty Law Center, the number of
hate groups has grown by 54 percent since 2000. Hate groups are defined
in the report as groups with beliefs or practices that attack or malign
an entire class of people, and it identified 926 active groups in 2008
— 38 more than in 2007.
The election of the first African American president, the economic
downturn, and immigration reform are helping to fuel the rise in hate
group numbers across the country. It is generally during economic
strife that animosity tends to fester, and these groups exploit the
anxiety, fear and resentment that many disenfranchised people
experience.
Job losses are quickly blamed on the growing number of illegal
immigrants, providing a ‘face’ for the problem and a visual aid to
recruiters. Obama’s very existence infuriates racists and white
supremacists, and those extreme right-wingers who believe that he will
be ‘the most liberal president’ in our history and blast him for his
proposed tax increase on business owners. He’s the poster child for the
‘wrong direction’ that they believe our country is headed in.
One white supremacist Web site reported more than 2,000 new members on
the day after Obama’s election — up from nearly 80 new members per day.
It received so many hits after the results were announced that it
crashed. The reality of these organizations and the people who join
(and/or sympathize) is that their existence is forever a reminder that
any claims of this being a ‘post-racial’ America are sorely misguided,
and that there is still a large contingent of people in this country
who aren’t ready for — and will surely fight against — change. –todd williams
