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March 17, 2008

The politics and profit of "hate"

I'm a registered Republican, but not a party activist. I have never joined or been part of any political or partisan issue group. I have tended to join groups or organizations based on interests - Girl Scouts, PTA, high school booster clubs - but getting involved with formal "issue" groups is something I've tended to avoid. Part of the problem I have with many of these kind of groups is that once the issue is resolved, or contained, the group often goes "searching" for related issues. Indeed, such groups tend to invent new problems, or inflate frivolous ones, in order to survive. We've witnessed this with all sorts of issues - feminists, affirmative action, gay rights - what starts out as a honorable gathering of people looking to address serious instances of ignored discrimination, assault and constitutional rights, eventually devolves into groups of radicalized, organized, "true believers" - people who tend to view the lack of evidence as proof of a conspiracy to Hide Teh Truth!!!1! or radicalized, highly partisan groups who deny their political agendas. This is no more evident than in the recent release of an alleged study, "The Year in Hate" by the Southern Poverty Law Center, that not only claims a "48% increase since 2000" in the number of "hate groups" in the United States but also claims that there was --

a 35% rise in hate crimes against Latinos between 2003 and 2006. Experts believe that such crimes are typically carried out by people who think they are attacking immigrants.

Ah, those nebulous and always convenient "experts". Now why would I be bothering with SPLC, usually referred to as a "civil rights organization", or a mere "watchdog group" by such as the equally neutral Associated Press? Well, it seems the SPLC has raised the ante in the calumny sweepstakes by listing the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) on its "Hate Group List" which includes obvious, and odious, hate groups as the KKK, Aryan Nations, and skinhead groups.

What did FAIR do to make the SPLC list it?

The growth of these [anti-Latino racist] groups is being helped by conspiracy theories and other racist propaganda about immigrants that is being spread by mainstream politicians and pundits. While theories about a secret plan to merge Mexico, Canada and United States into a single country began in radical groups, for instance, many key figures have endorsed them. Indeed, 18 states' houses of representatives have now passed resolutions opposing the "North American Union" — an entity that does not exist and has never been planned, but nonetheless inhabits nativists' nightmares.

Promoting such theories, coupled with a history of ties to white supremacist groups and ideology, is what caused the Southern Poverty Law Center to add a major anti-immigration group, the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), to its list of hate groups last year. FAIR has also promulgated the theory that Mexico is involved in a secret plot to "reconquer" the American Southwest.


Perusing FAIR's site, I found nothing to support SPLC's accusations against FAIR. Even the AP had to admit
FAIR, which is frequently quoted by the media and whose officials often have testified before Congress, advocates an end to illegal immigration and tighter controls on legal immigration. In pursuing these goals, it says, "there should be no favoritism toward or discrimination against any person on the basis of race, color, or creed."

The law center said its decision to designate FAIR a hate group was based in part on the ideology of various people who established it, worked for it or donated to it over its nearly 30-year history. The center has issued a detailed report outlining its allegations, although little of that report deals with FAIR's recent activities.


So why the "hate" listing and why now?

Going back to the SPLC and looking at their "Hate Map" I noticed something by its absence. No radical Left "hate" group.

Now the SPLC site claims

All hate groups have beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics.
[...]
Hate group activities can include criminal acts, marches, rallies, speeches, meetings, leafleting or publishing.

Again, why FAIR? What "immutable" characteristic of an entire class of people do they attack or malign? What makes FAIR "nativist", as SPLC appears to label anyone that criticizes illegal immigration?

It is to be noted that the SPLC makes pains to never use the word "illegal" coupled with "immigrant". Indeed, in the SPLC's own words

it is not that easy to pick out an "illegal alien." Even the phrase lacks definition.

I don't know but I believe I can come up with a much more precise definition of "illegal alien" than the SPLC does of what a "hate group" is.

The list of California's "hate groups" is long, majority "white supremacist" with a token "black separatist" and one Hispanic "general hate" group. Again, it is interesting to note SPLC's apologia regarding "black separatists"

Although the Southern Poverty Law Center recognizes that much black racism in America is, at least in part, a response to centuries of white racism,

and dismissal as "no big deal" where it concerns the vicious La Voz de Aztlan
a tiny extremist Chicano group based out of Los Angeles,

No listing for Mexicana Movement, La Raza (the Race), MeCHA, Brown Berets, CodePink, or ANSWER. For SPLC radical Left "hate groups" don't make the map. Nor is there even any mention of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) whose founders come from Hamas and who have ties with the Muslim Brotherhood. Certainly CAIR's problematic associations are far more serious than those alleged in FAIR's case.

But that wouldn't fit SPLC's "hate" agenda. "Hate" -- not as a widely accepted, specifically defined, term to help inform people about problematic organizations, but "hate" as a cynical tool of brown-shirt politics. "Hate" as a means of slandering one's political opponents thereby never having to engage them in substansive or good faith debate.

What SPLC fails to see in its rush to demonize any whisper of the negative impact of illegal immigration is that diluting "hate" to such a degree is a gift to groups like the KKK. Because, like the inflation of the word "rape" to mean any sexual contact one regrets the next day has desensitized people to the true horror of actual rape, so the inflation of the word "hate" to include people who want federal law enforced as currently written will make people desensitized to any real hate group without obvious historical ties to the KKK or neo-Nazis.

SPLC has gone the way of the ACLU, once an honorable organization now merely a radical, partisan bully more interested in headlines and donations than the justice it professes to promote.

Posted by Darleen at March 17, 2008 06:32 AM

Comments

There was no "rush to demonize" here, Darleen. The SPLC spent a lot of time on their study, and if you read even a little but about founder John Tanton and some of the groups that FAIR has associated with then you would think again.

The sad thing is, your own hatred for the Left has blinded you to any criticism of Right Wing groups. Your mind is closed.

Posted by: brad at March 17, 2008 07:11 PM

I don't think her mind is closed at all. She acknowledged the rightful place for most of these extremists groups was on that list (regardless of right or left affiliation).

Your analysis is very thorough, Darleen.

Posted by: Conservative Belle at March 18, 2008 02:23 AM

Brad

If FAIR qualifies as a "hate" group based on their founder, someone the SPLC grudging admits as a liberal and green, then why isn't CAIR? Why isn't Planned Parenthood (anti-black eugenist Margaret Sanger)? Why aren't the anti-white very public quotes from hispanic celebs and politicians worthy of note in a "Year of Hate?" Why aren't anti-black gangs like the 18th Street Gang on the "Hate" map?

The SPLC is interested only in grinding their own far-left agenda and they refuse to allow anyone to disagree with their dogma. Fine, they have a right to do so, but they should be honest about it.

Posted by: Darleen at March 18, 2008 06:56 AM

The SPLC is interested only in grinding their own far-left agenda and they refuse to allow anyone to disagree with their dogma.

bullshit, Darleen. have you even read the SPLC report?

Why aren't the anti-white very public quotes from hispanic celebs

examples, please. Or do you mean comedians?

You know, back in the mid-70s the people who were against busing claimed they weren't racists, and yet if you look at a very famous photograph of an anti-busing protest in Philadelphia ("The Soiling of Old Glory"--there's a new book about it just published by Bloomsbury) you can see that racism did in fact drive many protesters.

You and Lou Dobbs and the others who think the immigration debate is just about enforcing the law are in close-minded denial.

Posted by: Brad at March 18, 2008 10:41 AM

You are full of hot stinking gas.

Posted by: Dan at March 19, 2008 01:46 PM

Good Job Fair.

Posted by: Dan at March 19, 2008 01:47 PM