Emily K. sent in a link to the Southern Poverty Law Center’s 2009 report on hate groups in the U.S. Here’s a map (larger, not-stretched-out version available as a pdf here):
The site also has an interactive map where you can select individual states and get more info on the hate groups that are active there, and another where “hate incidents” are marked.
Sorry for the sporadic posting lately–it’s the last week of the semester and I’m grading constantly.
UPDATE: One of my best friends just informed me that when investigating the SPLC hate incidents map, he realized he knew one of the people listed as a perpetrator in an incident in a certain Southern state; I promised to give no more details than that. This led to a discussion of the weirdness of some of the folks we grew up with, including a guy I went to school with who washed his head in gasoline to try to kill lice and ended up setting his entire head on fire. And no, I don’t know why a person would decide to use gasoline to kill lice. I also don’t know how one of my uncles managed to shoot himself in the foot while elk hunting, why that didn’t deter another uncle from going, falling down a mountain slope, and cracking his ribs, or why my mom married an evangelical Christian who didn’t like women to wear pants eight weeks after she met him on the internet. These are some of the many mysteries of life.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Commenter OP Minded says,
Kind of outrageous that the SPLC has “Concerned Citizens and Friends of Illegal Immigration Law Enforcement” in Framingham, MA listed as a hate group. There is no doubt that they are in favor of enforcing immigration law (after all, it is the law) but they don’t fall anywhere near a “hate group”. Calls into question this entire list.
Another commenter says,
To follow up on opminded@2: It’s too bad the Southern Poverty Law Center also uses these trumped-up threats to pad its already-deep coffers. Less than 70 percent of its expenses go toward its programs; the rest is for administration and fundraising. Any human rights organization with almost $220 million in net assets isn’t doing its job.
The anonymous commenter suggests going to Charity Navigator to get more information.
I did not know about these criticisms (a problem in general about charities is not knowing for sure how the money is spent). My experience with the SPLC relates to their work with African American farmers in the South, a group that has experienced major land loss due to various factors largely involving racism and unscrupulous land developers. Their work on that particular issue was considered pretty solid. But of course there aren’t all that many organizations working on that problem, so any efforts were greatly appreciated.
Thanks for the additional info!
ANOTHER UPDATE: Commenter CLL says,
Over the years, SPLC has done terrific work helping people with little access to power receive the justice they deserve. Groups the SPLC has identified as “hate” groups have gone beyond simply disagreeing with policy (or lack of enforcement), and have instead encouraged their adherents to express discontent in more direct attacks on the object(s) of their scorn — thus qualifying as “hate” groups.
Spending 69.6% of income on programs remains a pretty normal ratio for not-for-profits that rely heavily on professional staff. Some organizations play fast and loose with their Fundraising allocations to cook the percentages down to numbers that look better on sites like Charity Navigator — but the proof of effectiveness is in accomplishment of mission.
Comments 23
Ellen — May 5, 2009
I would love to see this map controlling for the adult population.
opminded — May 5, 2009
Kind of outrageous that the SPLC has "Concerned Citizens and Friends of Illegal Immigration Law Enforcement" in Framingham, MA listed as a hate group. There is no doubt that they are in favor of enforcing immigration law (after all, it is the law) but they don't fall anywhere near a "hate group".
Calls into question this entire list. Maybe the SPLC is padding its stats with "hate groups" with "groups disagree with".
Anonymous — May 5, 2009
To follow up on opminded@2: It's too bad the Southern Poverty Law Center also uses these trumped-up threats to pad its already-deep coffers. Less than 70 percent of its expenses go toward its programs; the rest is for administration and fundraising. Any human rights organization with almost $220 million in net assets isn't doing its job.
See Charity Navigator's site, which gives their programs below-average efficiency ratings. But hey, at least their wealth garners them an excellent rating for its ability to sustain their mediocre programs in the future.
Ken Silverstein (Harper's) and Alexander Cockburn (The Nation) have written about this problem before; unfortunately, their articles are for subscribers only.
Gwen Sharp, PhD — May 5, 2009
Oh, thanks a ton for the extra info--I added a large part of OP Minded and the anonymous commenter's points to the original post to give more context.
CLL — May 6, 2009
Over the years, SPLC has done terrific work helping people with little access to power receive the justice they deserve. Groups the SPLC has identified as "hate" groups have gone beyond simply disagreeing with policy (or lack of enforcement), and have instead encouraged their adherents to express discontent in more direct attacks on the object(s) of their scorn -- thus qualifying as "hate" groups.
Spending 69.6% of income on programs remains a pretty normal ratio for not-for-profits that rely heavily on professional staff. Some organizations play fast and loose with their Admin & Fundraising allocations to cook the percentages down to numbers that look better on sites like Charity Navigator -- but the proof of effectiveness is in accomplishment of mission. The SPLC's endowment (the bulk of those net assets) helps to fund the critical work they do fighting injustice, intolerance and hate -- work that's important not just to the oppressed, but to our society as a whole.
Ellen — May 6, 2009
Yeah, I'm with CLL. It drives me mad when people compare the costs of charities that require experts with advanced degrees to the costs of charities that can use unpaid volunteers. Lawyers working for the SPLC make a fraction of what other lawyers make. It's barely enough to live AND pay the student loans. SPLC does great work.
Lindsey — May 6, 2009
I have no opinion on costs, but I found an article about the Framingham group being added to the SPLC's list here:
http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/archive/x1959827804/Southern-Poverty-Law-Center-adds-CCFIILE-from-Framingham-to-hate-group-list
The relevant section of the article is this, I think:
The Rizoli brothers are no strangers to Southern Poverty Law Center, having been profiled by the Intelligence Report last year for their efforts to fight illegal immigration. The group's report accused the brothers of being racist toward Brazilians.
CCFIILE has held rallies in town to protest document fraud and has blamed illegal immigrants for some of the town's problems. The law center criticized the brothers for what it viewed as their support of a Holocaust denier.
The Rizoli brothers also produce a weekly cable TV show called "Illegal Immigration Chat."
"From the first time we started to look at them, they looked like a clearly racist group," said Mark Potok, editor of the Intelligence Report, a quarterly publication from the law center. "The things these brothers say about Brazilians and Brazilian women is hateful."
Potok said a hate group is one that "in its platforms or statements says that a whole other group of people is less by virtue....These are people who attack other groups of people based on their group characteristics."
opminded — May 6, 2009
Lindsey: CCFIILE does speak out against "illegal aliens" as a whole, there is no doubt about it, but it is no different then when people speak out against "speeders" as a whole or "computer hackers" as a whole. To speak out against people entering the country illegally does not make it a hate group in the way Nazi's and the Klan are. Dare I say that some posters on these comments views on MEN might make them part of a hate group? CCFIILE' views about people who broke the law to come to the US are completely within the mainstream of acceptable points of view. It is the SPLC that is acting like Nazi's in this issue.
Elena — May 6, 2009
Dare I say that some posters on these comments views on MEN might make them part of a hate group?
Go on, dare. I'm bringing popcorn.
Anonymous — May 6, 2009
The SPLC's concept of "hate" seems strangely limited to groups on the fringes of society. Alexander Cockburn's column this week in THE NATION argued that we should be far more concerned about institutionalized forms of discrimination--for example, the criminal justice system, on which the Southern Center for Human Rights does a far better job with far fewer resources. We could also think about education, residential segregation, voting rights, etc. I don't mean to diminish the awfulness of any crimes against individual persons, but these forms of systemic racism are more entrenched (precisely because they don't immediately strike us as hateful) and affect us all.
I'm no expert on what the SPLC accomplishes relative to other such organizations, but it just doesn't seem like an organization that adds millions of dollars to their endowment every year is a worthy recipient of donations. Why worry about their ability to fight in the future when they could be doing so much more today?
yikes — May 6, 2009
about the use of gasoline to kill lice--the poor fella probably got it confused with kerosene, which has been used (in the good old days?) to kill lice. Oh the problems caused in life by confusing kerosene and gasoline.
rebecca — May 7, 2009
When you criticize non-profits for spending money on administration really that means you're criticizing a fair wage. Non-profits should be spending money on staff for things like salary and benefits. In this system of ranking non-profits that pay their staff badly and offer no benefits get a higher score than places that pay fairly and offer health insurance.
Anonymous — May 7, 2009
Rebecca raises a good point. But are ALL staff members included in administrative expenditures, or do lots of them (in this case, the SPLC legal staff) count towards program expenses?
At any rate, I think it's still entirely appropriate in this case to critique the SPLC for its absolute levels of spending (not administrative spending relative to other forms). According to the most current data, they earned over $29 million last year from things like grants and donations, and over $15 million from investments. They spent less than $21 million on programs, just under $4 million on administration, and over $5 million on fundraising. They ended the year with a $15 million surplus, which I assume went back into their endowment. Given that they already have $220 million in net assets, why not bulk up their program-related expenditures? Are we supposed to believe that they can't find additional anti-racist work to do with that extra $15 million?
And thankfully, Harper's has put up a free version of Ken Silverstein's article on the SPLC. Highlights:
--Morris Dees, a co-founder of the SPLC, promised in 1978 that the SPLC "would quit fund-raising and live off interest as soon as its endowment hit $55 million."
--The SPLC "largely stopped taking death-penalty cases for fear that too visible an opposition to capital punishment would scare off potential contributors. In 1986, the center's entire legal staff quit in protest of Dees's refusal to address issues--such as homelessness, voter registration, and affirmative action--that they considered far more pertinent to poor minorities, if far less marketable to affluent benefactors, than fighting the KKK."
Friday reads « The Gender Blender Blog — May 8, 2009
[...] An interactive map of hate groups active in the United States, as compiled by the Southern Poverty Law Center. [...]
Ellen — May 10, 2009
@Anonymous, Are you suggesting that non-profits should not save money? I think putting money in an endowment so that it can go toward future programs is pretty wise. It ensures that their programs can continue indefinitely. There are a lot of very small ngo's and cbo's around the world that have great intentions and great ideas but very little money. And unfortunately they often start projects they can't finish which can do more harm than good.
Anonymous — May 12, 2009
I'm not suggesting that non-profits shouldn't save money. But there's a huge difference between setting funds aside for the future and adding millions to an already-massive endowment. This surplus could have increased their program spending by over 70 percent. I'll leave it to individuals to decide whom to donate to, but I personally would prefer to fund organizations that actually need money right now--and that seem to attack the institutional structures of inequality far more aggressively.
Really, though, I'd suggest that everyone read the Harper's article linked above. We're not talking about some middling nonprofit with an uncertain future here.
CowPasture — May 13, 2009
There is only ONE recognized 'hate group' in the USA and that's the SPLC.
They spread enough hate to make up for all the little ones that they claim are hate groups that no one ever heard of.
They are run by a pedophile and wife beater as well.
Very shady group that SPLC!
The Nerd — May 16, 2009
I used this website for a sociology assignment about 6 months ago, and since that time I now see that the Neo-Nazis have formed a group in my home town. At first I was disturbed by that, but it occurs to me that might be a sign of progress. Warsaw IN is starting to be more accepting of the immigrant Hispanic population, and that sort of hateful backlash is sadly to be expected.
Ssg Rhino — November 18, 2009
I wonder if the Southern Poverty Law Center has a dot on the map.
It seemds to hate the Constitution and those that support it.
Human Rights Maps (77): Hate Groups in the U.S. « P.A.P. Blog – Human Rights Etc. — January 10, 2010
[...] (source/source, click on the image to enlarge) [...]
James B Norman — March 15, 2012
I hate communists and people that are destroying our Constitution so how do I get a place on this map? I want a big red dot so they can see me from space.
Mscappy — December 17, 2012
I just went to Charity Navigator, and they listed Administrative expenses for SPLC at 13.2 percent and fundraising at 18.8%, for a total of 32 percent, not 70 percent. CN gave them 3 out of a maximum of 4 stars.
Mark N Starla Traina — March 30, 2014
The SPLC lists themselves as PUBLIC ENEMY #1 on their own
HATE GROUP MAP!
1) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUBJFygrPtI&feature=player_embedded
2) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUBJFygrPtI&feature=player_embedded#t=11
3) http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/aftah-and-allies-ask-god-destroy-nazi-southern-poverty-law-center
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