The Southern Poverty Law Center, a prestigious civil rights watchdog group founded in 1971, released its annual “The Year in Hate: Rage Against Change” report. The total number of hate groups rose to 1,020 in 2018, up about 7 percent from 2017. While the number of hate groups experienced a decline every year between 2011 and 2014, every year since they have risen.
It is impossible to talk about the rise of hate groups without mentioning President Donald Trump. This President of the United States has brazenly used open and suggestive racist language, which can only contribute to the rise of hate in our county. There have always been hate groups, but when the President doesn’t clearly denounce them, it creates a safer environment for this hate.
There have been many opportunities for him to denounce extremist groups, but he hasn’t.
The SPLC found the majority of U.S. hate groups are white nationalist, neo-Nazi, racist skinheads and neo-Confederates. The Ku Klux Klan, which the SPLC has legally battled, is on the decline. White nationalist groups rose by almost 50 percent last year, increasing from 100 chapters in 2017 to 148 in 2018.
Yet the center also claimed that black nationalist groups are also gaining popularity. Trump has sparked a rise in black nationalist hate groups. There was a surge from 233 in 2017 to 264 in 2018. These groups are typically anti-Semitic, anti-LGBT and anti-white but, unlike white nationalist groups, have little influence in politics.
This comes in the context of a rising share of minorities of the United States’ population. The U.S. Census Bureau projects that white people won’t be a majority by 2044, but will be a plurality instead.
The issue of hate groups and racism is prevalent throughout the United States — Massachusetts included. According to the SPLC, 10 hate groups existed in the state in 2017, but in 2018 there were 14 — an increase of almost 50 percent. All of the newly formed hate groups were classified as general hate, anti-muslim, neo-nazi or white nationalist.
On Feb. 14, white nationalist posters were plastered in East Boston. One of the posters showed a muscular man carrying an American flag. In bold, above the image, read “Patriots! Reclaim your birthright.”
Beneath the image the text continued, “Your ancestors did not die fighting, generations after generation, to conquer and sustain this nation only for it to be subverted and destroyed now by a rootless, global elite. Reconquer your birthright, and forge a new America.”
Three men were accused of posting these fliers, according to The Boston Globe. An officer patrolling the Winthrop Street apprehended the three men after not cooperating, according to the Globe.
On Twitter, Trump has used “extraordinarily low IQ person,” “crazy” and “unhinged” to describe Democratic California Congresswoman Maxine Waters, who is the Ranking Member of the Financial Services Committee.
Trump hasn’t just attacked those from the opposing party. He’s attacked former White House aide Omarosa Newman, NBA’s LeBron James and CNN anchor Don Lemon in a similar, intellectually demeaning fashion.
The racist, delegitimizing language Trump uses about black political figures and celebrities cannot be viewed in isolation from our nation’s sins of racism and discrimination that still haunt us to this day.
Hate groups are destructive against justice and civility. The phrase “hate group” should not be used lightly. These groups abuse freedom of speech to such a degree that they threaten the livelihood of targeted groups.
When 11 Jewish congregants were killed in a synagogue last year, the country came together to address the brutally anti-semitic act of terrorism. The attack struck the center of Pittsburgh’s vibrant Jewish community which is home to many synagogues, kosher restaurants and bakeries. We must reflect on the political rhetoric that led to this malicious hate crime.
In 2017, according to FBI statistics, there were 7,106 single-bias incidents that involved 8,493 victims. While 58 percent of hate crimes were motivated by race, ethnicity or ancestry, 22 percent were motivated by religion and about 16 percent by sexual orientation.
Unfortunately, with elections coming up, it is highly unlikely that hate groups — and hate more generally — will lose popularity. Partisanship leads to a lack of communication that breeds a furthering divide in the country. With this divide, extremist groups — whatever their ideology — flourish. As a nation, we must find and discuss what unites us rather than what divides us.
