by Lisa Neff for 365gay.com:
The U.S. map from the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Project is marked with bright symbols.
The little white pointed hat symbolizes the location of active Ku Klux Klan organizations.
The little blue swastika symbolizes the location of neo-Nazi groups.
An orange fist symbolizes white nationalist organizations.
A black and red boot symbolizes the sites where racist skinheads are organized.
A gold crown identifies locations where Christian-identity groups operate.
A red and blue flag symbolizes neo-Confederate activities.
A purple star shows the location of black separatist actions.
And a little green push-pin marks sites where the SPLC documented “general hate” in 2008.
Study the map.
Notice all the black and red boots in California?
See the crowd of KKK cones in Texas and Tennessee?
Observe the swastikas that mingle in Florida with the Confederate flags?
Try to count the symbols and you may lose track. The SPLC identified 926 hate groups active in 2008, up more than 4 percent from the 888 groups in 2007 and far above the 602 groups documented in 2000.
The 54 percent growth in the number of active hate groups in the country last year was fueled by fears — over immigration, a failing economy and the successful presidential campaign of Barack Obama.
With Obama’s sweeping popularity across the country, the SPLC tracked scores of racially charged incidents — beatings, effigy burnings, racist graffiti, threats and intimidation.
With the failing economy, the SPLC documented hate-group propaganda that blamed minorities and immigrants for the subprime mortgage meltdown.
The SPLC identified the three most active and dangerous hate groups as Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazi and racist skinhead organizations and the incidents associated with the hate groups range from intimidation to sexual assault to murder.
In my state, Florida, there are 56 hate groups, including a neo-confederate group called the League of the South in my county that advocates for a free and independent South and to see Southern life returned to a conservative Christian-oriented culture.
The SPLC report identifies 12 of the 926 groups as specifically anti-gay, including the West Coast affiliate of Watchmen on the Walls, an international extremist group implicated in the California killing of a gay college student.
The anti-gay list also includes some familiar names. Yep, the Traditional Values Coalition, the Family Research Council and Fred Phelps’ Westboro Baptist Church are in the same league as the KKK and the White Revolution.
There are all kinds of hate groups — those that finance campaigns to rollback equality for gays and lesbians, those that encourage members to paint swastikas on synagogues and burn black churches, those that jump Latino kids on their way home from school and those that plot to kill a black presidential candidate.
The SPLC map released last week shows sickness in America, weak places where hate is on the march.
But the SPLC is working to create another map, one that shows where people have pledged to stand against hate, especially racial hate.
The green dots on the map-in-progress, when I looked on Feb. 26, could not obscure all the little white pointed KKK hats, the little blue swastikas or the orange fists.
But if enough people pledge to stand strong, they could obliterate the hate groups from the map.
No more black and red boots for racial skinheads. No more red and blue flags for neo-confederates.
In hard times, hate groups say, “We are the answer,” preying on fear and despair.
In hard times, we have to say, “Hate is not the answer” and stand strong.
To stand strong, go to StandStrongAgainstHate.org.
To Stand Strong in Pennsylvania, click HERE
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