Posted on June 19, 2009

Does Hate Live in Your Backyard?

Gregg MacDonald, Fairfax County Times, June 18, 2009

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The Southern Poverty Law Center, which makes an annual national list of active hate groups, defines them as having “beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics.”

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According to the SPLC, there are at least four separate organizations in Fairfax County that hold similar opinions and are officially considered hate groups.

One is the American Renaissance/New Century Foundation in Oakton. According to the SPLC, it is classified as a white nationalist organization.

Its leader, Jared Taylor, is a dapper, erudite intellectual who is fluent in Japanese. He was educated at Yale, but has since adopted a philosophy that he calls “race realism.”

Taylor, who accordingly identifies himself as a “race realist,” said there are three primary components to that definition.

“First, we believe that race is a legitimate, biological phenomenon. Second, there are racial differences that go beyond mere appearance, and thirdly, we have a sense of racial solidarity,” he said. “Racial diversity is a source of conflict and tension rather than being a strength.”

Taylor called the Holocaust Museum shooting “a horrible act of wanton violence,” but added that “if the country really cared about what crime really means, we would try to understand why, year-in-year-out, blacks are 30 to 40 times more likely to commit violence against whites than the other way around.”

Taylor said his organization “deplores violence and any form of racial or ethnic hatred.”

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But a U.S. Department of Homeland Security report that was declassified in April says that “the economic downturn and the election of the first African-American president present unique drivers for right-wing radicalization and recruitment” that could potentially become a catalyst for violence.

It says that right-wing extremist chatter on the Internet continues to focus on the economy, the perceived loss of U.S. jobs in the manufacturing and construction sectors and home foreclosures.

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The April DHS report says that if the economy continues to decline, right-wing extremism could fuel a resurgence toward that type of domestic terrorist activity. “White Supremacist lone wolves pose the most significant domestic terrorist threat because of their low profile and autonomy–separate from any formalized group–which hampers warning efforts,” the report theorizes.

But Taylor finds fault with that analysis. “If we are interested in examining the motives of violence, we should examine frequent, chronic crimes rather than aberrant cases,” he said.

He pointed out that earlier this month, “a black convert to Islam” opened fire on an Army recruiting center in Oklahoma City, killing one soldier and wounding another.

“Although Muslims have killed thousands more Americans than anti-Semitic nuts have, no one is wondering what the recruiting center incident means for America or for Islam or for blacks. Why the double standard?”

Sidebar

According to the Southern Law Poverty Center, the following Fairfax County-based organizations are considered hate groups:

Americans for Self Determination–Falls Church

Heritage and Destiny–Falls Church

American Renaissance/New Century Foundation–Oakton

The Fitzgerald Griffin Foundation–Vienna