Hate groups are exploding in number in the USA, but the KKK is dwindling. Why?

The KKK has a really bad public image. People switch to lesser known hate groups so their views are less likely to be looked down upon by the rest of society.

“Hate groups are exploding…”
If only they would be…

I agree with @ragingloli. It’s easier to join the Tea Party instead of the KKK because it brings less attention.

Probably just a renaming. Same hateful people under a different title? I agree with @ragingloli that the KKK has a horrible public image, probably has trouble recruiting, and is so unwelcome, that someone probably got the bright idea to start a new white supremist group that on the front sounds like a nice group of white people wanting to protect their constitutional rights, and feels it is perfectly fine for them to talk about white power, since blacks have their clubs, and Muslims are blowing things up. Some bullshit like that where the young people joining up are easily swayed, ignorant, and clueless.

@Blackberry Lord, do you really compare the Tea Party to the KKK? That would depress me beyond belief.

@JLeslie Not at all, just kidding lol.

They’re not a modern, hip organization. On Friday nights they’re more likely getting drunk at the local cowboy bar than discussing racial politics on Stormfront.org

“Ku Klux Klan” does not sound as innocuous as Family Research Council

The Southern Poverty Law Center is a wonderful organization that monitors, exposes and fights hate groups in the USA. It is well worth supporting if you are against such groups. I have been a member for years.

Skin color is not a problem like it use to be.

Its all masses, now, ........us against them.

@john65pennington I don’t understand your answer. Can you further explain?

According to the hate map many of California’s hate groups are Nation of Islam centers. I wonder how much of the national growth is attributable to that group.

@6rant6 There are many, many white power and Neo-Nazi groups as well.

It probably comes down to politics (and maybe reputation) more than anything. I’ve known quite a few people who were involved in some type of hate group in one way or the other. Some of them were skinheads and others are still KKK members. The skinheads where I lived at the time were thrown out of a much bigger white supremist group (not the KKK) from a close but larger area. Perhaps in some of these cases there is alot of infighting, especially when it comes to political issues. Also the KKK where I live has a reputation for being a bit more clean cut and conservative than many of the skinheads were. Personally I’d never asked them why they were members of one group but not the other.

@janbb I wasn’t trying to make a point. I see that the SPLC says this year’s growth comes from “Patriot” groups.

I wish I could figure out how to break down the numbers so I could see where the growth was really. I note for example one of the hate groups in California “publishes racist music”. I’d like to be able to look at the adds and deletes and see if they are including more marginal haters.

@6rant6 thanks for the clarification.

I believe I read somewhere that the KKK is actually broken up into smaller factions that have names other than KKK. Don’t be fooled, just because the actual number of members or groups calling themselves KKK is down does not mean there are not other splinter groups of it that go by other names (like Imperial Knights of the something something or whatever).

So…hate groups are essentially white. Is that about right? Obama took no votes from any of them?

@ragingloli Excellent answer. Makes sense to me.

@rebbel How true. If only they would be literal about it.

Blackberry I think it is fair to say that the Tea Party was partly a reaction to a black President being elected, but not to characterize everyone that joined the movement as being the same as the KKK. I’m glad JLeslie got you to clarify that comparison.

@FutureMemory Not as hip and cool as StormFront.org, indeed. :-)

@ragingloli Indeed. Orwellian names seem all the rage these days.

@janbb I am sure the GOP will do all in their power to shut down the Southern Poverty Law Center just as they did ACORN.

@6rant6 The growth I was reporting was the growth in the total number of groups, and not in membership in any one group. Since the Nation of Islam was founded in the 1930s, they could not have contributed at all to the growth in the number of hate groups since 2,000. Still, I take your point. I looked them up, and found that their membership appears to be between 10,000 and 50,000. See the last paragraph under History.

Also, 11 of the 91 hate groups in California are Nation of Islam centers. In my book, 1 out of 9 wouldn’t qualify as “many”. As @janbb notes, the vast majority of US hate groups are white nationalist, white supremacist, anti-government radicals, etc. Here’s a link where groups are classified by ideology.

@Paradox25 Wow. Where do you live?

@jca I certainly don’t want the question to be interpreted as suggesting that hate groups in general are a dying breed. Just the opposite is true.

@woodcutter Where did you get that impression? This link I listed for @6rant6 shows that is not the case. White groups are the largest block, because we are 70% of the current population. But we certainly aren[‘t the only race on earth who know how to hate.

Dontcha know? The Klan’s too liberal.

@fundevogel Ha! Now why didn’t I think of that?

Is it just me or is organized hate a fundamentally conservative thing?

And yeah, bring on the Haterade against the homos. It’s interesting to be a part of a group that people see as so threatening; it makes it seem like we have a lot of power (which we do, since we are after all, trying to convert kids to our side and take down all that is good and Christian. Don’t worry, we’ll win ;)

@DominicX I think it is more that what it means to be “conservative” today has undergone a huge Newspeak conversion from what the dictionary still claims the word means. Authoritarianism has swept conventional, dictionary conservatism under the rug and replaced it with a far-right ideology which falsely labels itself as conservative. The fact is the far right today is the direct opposite of conservative. Rather than seeking to preserve existing social institutions, they seek to destroy them. They are radical regressives bent on dragging us back into the late 19th century or before. Many seem determined to take us all the way back to a feudalistic church state—the Dark Ages.

@ETpro Yeah, that seems plausible. I have a friend who is definitely conservative and I respect him very much even though I disagree with him on a lot, but he is definitely not a far-right “wacko” or anything of the sort; he seems to be the more traditional idea of a conservative/Republican, that itself seems to be dying out in favor of the more radical far-right ideology.

@DominicX The classical conservatives like George Will and William F. Buckley are an endangered species in today’s Republican party. Jon Huntsman couldn’t even get noticed on the debate stage, and Buddy Roemer wasn’t even allowed to try.

The KKK is too cartoonish now—look at their outfits, the word ku klux klan, and the names of their rankings. It sounds like an “Animal House” style frat now. They can’t be taken seriously, especially when most of their members or leaders are not exactly the most articulate and rehearsed people. The KKK’s agenda also might be too watered-down—they’re against all non-whites, Jews, Catholics, women in power, etc.

The hate groups that are increasing in number now tend to be more specialized, which unifies a group much easier. They tend to name themselves innocent-sounding names like ‘stormfront’ and ‘family whatever.’ Their leaders tend to be well-groomed, smooth talking, PR trained people- trained to make the most senseless things sound inspirational (Joel Osteen’s speaking style, for example). They make the KKK look clownish in comparison.

@linguaphile True, but not good for the health of our Democracy.

@ETpro I agree. It’s scary. I also am concerned because, IMO, our educational system’s also contributing to this with the watered down, prescribed curriculums.

If people don’t filter, compare, contrast and question the information/misinformation they’re being fed, then they’re easy targets for hate propaganda.

@DominicX I know what you mean about it seeming like your minority group has a lot of power. I look at the numbers of my group, Jewish people, such a mini small nothing number of Jews in the world, less than one quarter of one percent. In the US around 2.5% of the population, and yet you would thik we are taking over the world with our suppossed power and control. It’s been said that if there are 4 Jews in a room of 100, people think there are 50. I think with gay people it might be similar. A few gay couples in a room, and all of a sudden it feels like there are a lot of gay people around. Having a token in a group people are ok with, but once it starts to crowd the majority, some in the majority get nervous their place in society is going to be crowded out, and that society is changing.

But back to the statement on power, it is so odd to me. I don’t think as a group we seek power, we just seek to be left alone to live our lives. It comes out as needing power, or a power struggle, because we have to fight for the right to leave in peace.

@ETpro: I don’t think my answer indicates that the number of hate groups is down.

@ETpro Central PA still has a few chapters that have a bit of a reach. One place that I’d worked at less than 5 years ago had a couple of employees even show me their KKK cards (I didn’t know they had cards). There was a large skinhead movement which started about 20 years ago where I live. I knew a good majority of them from school, but they never seemed obsessed with race before that point (which makes me wonder why they really joined). They used to march the streets of the town where I lived, holding doors open and walking the elderly across the streets, etc, etc. They used to march around with their Doc’s (with red laces), neo-nazi jackets and fully shaved heads. They eventually got busted by a police sting using an undercover black officer as bait during an attempted assault on him. Once their older leader got busted as the end result of that raid the entire group fell apart, and most of them turned on one another. The area is much different today, but the KKK still thrives in a very low key way yet.

@ETpro My comments shouldn’t be taken as an endorsement of that site, of course.

Because you can’t be taken seriously if you’re a retarded, prejudiced, fucktard whilst wearing a pointy hat & a dressing gown.

@ETpro Just going by the previous posts as well as other threads on similar topics here it seems that no one wants to be the first one to bring that up. Here it is a heavy leftist clique content and I think it makes people here mostly uncomfortable to include that fact for fear they may be labeled unfairly. If it’s one thing liberals understand it’s really easy to set shit like that off if they aren’t careful. Friendly fire sucks.

KKK? Seriously, who wants to do all that ironing?

@woodcutter I’m really not seeing the elephant you claim is in the room. I presume you mean there is a significant element of liberal hate groups? I’m not avoiding bringing that sort of thing up, I just don’t know of any (aside from the KKK as I noted earlier of course). The closest thing I know of is Earth Liberation Front, except they’re classed as ecoterrorists, not a hate group, and they target property, not people.

@fundevogel I’m thinking you misunderstand me. I’m speaking of the posts that preceded mine up there^^. They’re typical of what we get here. The Tea party Is often accociated with hate groups but a couple of Black Panthers with bludgeons intimidating voters at a polling place seem almost fine, or overblown. I have no love for the TP but I don’t honestly think they are a hate group. But innuendo of that ilk tend to pop up here. Forget all the info anyone can google…that just absolves that type from supporting it but if they post it in their own words they tend to own it. There’s a lot of PC BS here and part of it is…you don’t do that. If you are part of that clique it will be impossible to be aware of. Comes with the territory.

I didn’t know that’s what you were referring to. I agree, I don’t have much in common with them but I don’t think the Tea Party constitutes a hate group.

@linguaphile I completely agree with your assessment of crumbling public education in the USA as well. It too threatens our liberty.

@JLeslie Interesting and accurate observation.

@jca No, I know you didn’t. But reading your response which dealt with the diminishing KKK, and having said similar things in the OP, I thought it best to note that fact.

@Paradox25 If it weren’t so sad, I would get a good laugh from that tragicomic sting operation.

@FutureMemory Needless to say.

@ucme That’s direct.

@woodcutter Let’s remember that the Tea Party got fired up with busloads of people being carted to Health Care Reform town halls to jeer and shout down all discussion and derail the meetings. The taunts and shouts were full of venom and false accusations of death panels, socialism, communist takeovers and such. You wear out your welcome quickly behaving like that. Nonetheless, I certainly would not call them a hate group.

The oft vaunted Black Panthers would have intimidated me, but they were standing outside a poling place in a black district in Philadelphia. I doubt they intimidated many voters there. The Bush Administration’s Justice Department investigated it and decided not to file any charges.

I’ll be the first to agree, though, that the Black Panthers are a hate group.

@6rant6 Ha! Great point.

@ETpro….& correct.

My hypothesis for the growing number of hate groups:

Increasing economic inequality and the need to search for scapegoats. See

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gini_Coefficient_World_CIA_Report_2009.svg

As for the KKK, my guess would be that white racists are replacing their scapegoats. The new “enemies” are Hispanics and Muslims. The KKK is too much linked with Jews and black people as scapegoats.

@ETpro “gressives bent on dragging us back into the late 19th century or before. Many seem determined to take us all the way back to a feudalistic church state—the Dark Ages.” sound like you were listening to a Rick Santorum speech.

Why submit to the unsociable reputation with the KKK while you can have the same or more radical views by joining the good old Tea Party?

@ucme I can’t dispute that.

@mattbrowne I’m sure that’s a major part of it. Little do they know that the interests driving the income inequality use race hatred and social issues to keep them riled up enough to vote them back into office for another round of increasing economic inequality.

@Ron_C I’ve heard quite enough from Rick Santorum to know where he is coming from.

Re the Tea Party I’ve just been reading about how it was Astroturfed into being by the right. The initial impetus came from CNBC’s Rick Santelli, outraged that a government that had just bailed out his sweethearts on Wall Street and its big banks might now dare to spend even a little money on rescuing homeowners and main-street businesses that the big banks wrecked. But CNBC recognized such ranting as a threat to their unbiased investor advice image and rapidly shut Santelli down. Fox News than took up the drive in earnest. In fact, they called some of the early events FNC Tax Day Tea parties.

Is the Tea party really a group? Seems to me they are a fragmented section of right wingers running about with no centralized body. They may claim to support it but how can it be verified? Because of the 1st amdt people can say almost anything anything and claim whatever they want. I don’t think anyone can say that any true representatives of the TP are racist or support that. It would be the same thing if any racist black voters who voted for Obama also makes the Democrats a hate group. It doesn’t work that way.No candidate will refuse votes or support from any radical element of the voting public. They might express disdain for these people but they are gonna take their votes all day long.

@woodcutter I haven’t seen Fox News expressing much disdain for the Tea Party even when they do act out of line. They have been the motive force behind organizing it.

Fox news? really? Thats the standard you expect to be judging the TP?

@woodcutter Fox and American Crossroads and the other AstroTurfers have moved on to other games now, and the Tea Party is largely leaderless. Perhaps the AstroTurfers will have another go as elections near.