Heads up: The materials in this unit address difficult topics about violence. Please talk with me if you feel unable to work with them.
HATE GROUPS CASE STUDY: Below is a collection of readings associated with hate groups, focused in the U.S. We are reviewing them through the lens of resistance to social movements, and in comparison to how social movements develop and function. Including these groups is in no way support of them, and in fact is meant to help us understand how to better work against their hate crimes.
Read the following articles, making notes about:
- What catches your attention/potentially interesting points of conversation.
- How does the identity and development of hate groups compare to what you know about the identity and development of social movements (also consider constituencies, leadership, and other founding elements)?
- How do hate groups use rhetorical strategies, and how do they compare to social movements?
- What are possible ways to counter hate group rhetoric?
READINGS/VIEWINGS
- Heim, Joe. 2018. "Hate groups in the U.S. remain on the rise, according to new study" Washington Post, February 21, 2018. https://www.npr.org/2019/02/20/696217158/u-s-hate-groups-rose-sharply-in-recent-years-watchdog-group-reports
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Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). n.d. Map of Hate Groups in the U.S. Accessed July 30, 2019. https://www.splcenter.org/hate-map
- Anti-Defamation League. 2019. "How Hate Groups Form." https://www.adl.org/resources/backgrounders/how-hate-groups-form
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Gardner, Kianna. 2018. "Social Media: Where Voices of Hate Find a Place to Preach." The Center for Public Integrity, August 30, 2018. https://publicintegrity.org/federal-politics/social-media-where-voices-of-hate-find-a-place-to-preach/
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Chermak, Steven M., Joshua D. Freilich, and Michael Suttmoeller. "The Organizational Dynamics of Far-Right Hate Groups in the United States Comparing Violent to Non-Violent Organization." College Park Maryland: National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism, 2011. Accessing July 30, 2019. https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/944_OPSR_TEVUS_Comparing-Violent-Nonviolent-Far-Right-Hate-Groups_Dec2011-508.pdf
- Read the report, specifically thinking about compare development of hate groups to what we read about the development of progressive social movements).
- Only skim the Research Design and Findings Sections to get a sense of how they conducted the research, unless you're really into quantitative data.
- This is also a good example of a consultant report.