What Is A Hate Group?

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To hate is defined as "to loathe; detest" and group as "a number of persons or things gathered, located, or classified together." So a hate group is two or more people who are part of a club, organization, religion, etc. whose purpose is to promote the agenda of what is the subject of their hate.

There is much misunderstanding of what makes a hate group. Most people think of the KKK or the Nazis, but the phenomena is much broader. People from any race, culture, religion, political affiliation, sex or sexual orientation and so forth can hate someone who is different.

The danger posed is they tend to dehumanize the life of those who are different. When a person thinks of someone who is different as less than a human, it is easier to think inhumane thoughts. This warped thinking makes it easier to actively or passively work on the demise of people who do not fit into their idea of human.

These groups of people have lied to themselves. Many claim they do not hate those in other races, they just love their own race. It is when you unravel that statement that you come to the heart of the lie.

Let's say they do love their race. Fine! There is absolutely nothing wrong with having pride of your family history and background. If that was all there was to it, then they would not be a racist within that fact. The fact is their love of their own race includes exclusion of love and compassion of every other race. That is where it becomes racist.

Regarding the lives of other people as not human, they have dehumanized a person. They would not mourn the death of a person of another race. They would not want these people to live among them or work with them. They believe their race alone are the only superior humans that merit life and the rights to life, liberty and happiness. If any race is seen as a threat to their own liberties, they would have no conscience if they did all they can to make that person pay in one way or another. Clearly, this is beyond love of their race!

People who gather for the purpose to push the hate propaganda can be dangerous, but it is the smaller groups who hold the largest threat. Large groups make a public profile. You know who they are and how they think. They seldom team together to create havoc. It is those who are not in the public eye or loners who are very secretive that pose the biggest threat.

If a large rally of racists were to come to your town would you give them their Constitutional right for free speech or would you do everything to discourage them from speaking? Most want to silence these people. They make the rest of the us uncomfortable and outraged. Allow them to speak freely and we know where they stand. Do not allow them to speak, they will continue in their erroneous thinking in secret which could be detrimental to the public.

Ignorance is the key to fueling these groups and sole practitioners of racism or any form of prejudice. They go by the stereotypes which are often things that are so absurd they are practically laughable, if it were not so sad that someone could actually believe it. They prefer to live in the fantasies of a worldwide conspiracy against them and twist fact and historical records to base their hate. This is a common trait in many religious cults.

It should be understood that the behavior of a racist cannot be changed unless they are ready to change. We should not resort to similar ignorant behavior in order to reach them. It does not help them when you attend a racist rally to shout them down. If you insist on attending, assemble peacefully and quietly. It would be more unnerving for these groups to have a large rally of protesters who said nothing and were absolutely stone, cold silent and still. Show no emotion and they know they cannot have any power or effect over you.

When you attend in a confrontational mode, they are more inspired to promote hate. The pitch of the rally feeds off heated battles. If you don't believe in what they say, letting them speak will not change your mind. Let them have their say and leave in peace. The public tends to give them more power than they have. They are ignorant, mislead, and sick people who do not have power over their lives let alone that of others, except by sick and cowardice acts.

An even better idea would be to just boycott such rallies. If no one shows up consistently or if everyone who shows up gives them the cold, silent treatment, then the effort of a rally would seem useless.

It is sad that you cannot reach some of these people. Some people have a chip on their shoulder and need to blame someone else for their failures in life. This is common among hate groups. Instead of rallying together to make positive changes for their lives and the world at large, they would rather play the blame game.

Prevention must start at an early age. Parents must instill values that all people are created equal. They must help the child to relate to other people and be able to sympathize and empathize with others. Children must eventually wean from the idea that they are the center of the world and life does not revolve around them. If the ability to relate to people and accept the fact that other people have rights as important as their own, they become fodder for such groups.

Unfortunately, children of such racist parents are mostly doomed from the start. If their own parents do not have a social conscience and are unable to relate to or have compassion for others, how will they ever teach that child from an early age when it needs to be instilled?

Some parents think they are doing their best to teach their child to not become a racist. They may wonder how their child ever got involved in such groups. Sometimes there is subtle racism coming from the parents. Or parents do not realize that the child is growing up without the ability to feel compassion for others or are too self centered.

It is never too late when to change when someone wants to change, but you cannot force a change on someone. At best, most racists can be classified as narcissists, egocentric, and suffering from many personality disorders. It does not help them to feed into their hate. By showing compassion, understanding and patience is the only way that one day they may listen.

Let the racist have their free speech! Let them stew in their own hate. As long as they are in the open and public, they cannot hurt us. Remember the saying, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me."

Not long ago, crimes committed on the basis of one's sexual orientation were not taken seriously. Even now there is a stigma attached to one who may be a homosexual, lesbian or bisexual, or any other sexual lifestyle that does not fit into the realm of "normal" heterosexual standards.

Some want to blame their reasons for committing acts of hate on holy works such as the Bible or Koran. These books also admonish followers to love their neighbors. It also says God is the one to judge such people, not the hate mongers. If there is a God that hates such behavior, that is between them and God.

Homosexuals and lesbians have been shown to be born that way. They cannot help who they are much more than a heterosexual can help being attracted to the opposite sex. If God has a problem with it, then let God judge. God also said to love them.

Matthew Shepard is an example of how such hatred in the name of God can cause tragedy. He was just minding his own business when a bunch of thugs killed him because he was homosexual. Based on the beliefs of the thugs that homosexuality was a perversion, they felt it was in their rights to dehumanize him. Note, the thugs were not religious nor members of any particular church that told them to kill of gay people. Plain and simple, they were evil thugs.

However, during the protest at the funeral of Shepard were the religious fanatics who would not let his parents grieve in peace. Without compassion for the family they felt it was within their rights to picket and call Shepard many slanderous things, thus dehumanizing him. They did this all because they felt God would vindicate such an action.

Although it is not as common in this country, there is also a bias against women in general in some areas of the world. Women are treated like property and sometimes even worse than inanimate objects. Women can be bought and sold without their consent. Women can be beaten or abused in other ways without interference from the law. Women can be told whom they can marry, be made to go through a female circumcision, or become a penniless widow even if married to a wealthy man just because laws and the beliefs in those societies do not acknowledge a woman as an equal person as a man.

In more civilized societies, this prejudice is more subtle from not hiring a woman to a job to firing a woman who is pregnant. Some men like to talk down to women assuming they are stupid. Others marry women with the notion that the sole purpose of that woman is to wait on him hand and foot. Then of course are the abusive spouses.

An interesting aspect of US History is the length in time in took for women to achieve acknowledgment. When the slaves were freed and allowed to vote, women still were not allowed the same liberties, black or white. While some men who proclaim to be liberal and open to the rights of women, they may also resent it when a wife, girlfriend or daughter spends time away from them to pursue something meaningful with their lives. Still other men are adamant about keeping the freedom of choice act for women open, not because they believe in the right of the women, but because they want an option to remain open for them to escape parenthood. Those are the same men who will pressure a spouse or girlfriend into an abortion they do not want.

Women have come a long way, but there is still an outcry of women all over the world that need to be heard. Women are mothers, daughters, sisters, and friends. Women are the caregivers, nurturers, keepers of the home and the family. That is not the exclusive potential of all women. Some might be content in just being a wife and a mother and that should be their prerogative. Others who want to find a meaningful life in a career, volunteering, reaching out to others or making a contribution somehow to the world at large should have the same opportunities as a man.

On the opposite end of the spectrum is prejudice against men. And even if it has not resulted in too much of an outcry yet, there is rampant male bashing. Just because some men in the past have been barbaric does not give anyone the right to assume every man is evil.

Men are in a position of great confusion, especially in the politically correct movement. They are made to feel like they are the fault of everything that goes wrong. Some women, just like some men, do not want to acknowledge that men and women think, behave, communicate and act differently by nature. Different does not mean evil.

One of the most outrageous acts of male bashing came during the media circus of Bobbit versus Bobbit. The wife complains she is tired of having her husband commit acts of infidelity and forcing himself on her sexually when he is drunk and cannot take it anymore so she cuts off his penis. This had many women cheering her on for doing something they thought was just.

This was the ultimate act of male bashing. No matter how much of a bad husband or boyfriend might be gives no one the right to assault him in such a way that not only could alter his life, but could have killed him. That whole scene was a drawback to the women’s movement portraying women as weak helpless victims who have no other course of action besides something that cowardly.

Not all men are animals or unkind to women. Some men bend over backwards to do the right things. There are good people and bad people in all sexes.

On a smaller note, there is a prejudice against religious people. Because of fundamental extremists, people like to label all followers in the same manner.

Common in the US is prejudice against followers of Islam based on the behavior of extreme fundamentalist who go out of their way to kill Americans. The majority of Muslims are peaceful, law abiding people who want to be allowed to worship in the way they see fit and to be accepted.

Growing is the hostility towards Christians that belong to some of the more fundamental groups. Due to the activities of a few fundamental Christians who seem to want to turn the US into a Christian police state, many are labeling all Christians the same way. The most Christians are moderate to liberal. It is the loud, vocal minority that give Christianity a bad name ( ironically they are the ones giving all Christians a bad name, but very vocal to complain when someone commits a hate crime against them when they are the ones giving people a reason to dislike their methods.)

It is one thing if someone generates hate to themselves by committing antisocial acts, suppressing the rights of others, or by any other hateful act. Sometimes these acts in itself are enough to merit the hatred. It is another thing when the hatred is thrust without merit.

Some people are so PC or overly sensitive that the mere mention of terms usually associated with hate closes their minds from actually listening to the whole message.

Sometimes shock messages are used in order to get the attention of an otherwise non-alert audience. These shock messages are designed to get the person to come to terms with their own feelings of hatred, insecurity, prejudices, hypocrisy and intolerance. "All In The Family" was a prime example of a shock message which got everyone's attention, but there were some who were closed-minded about it and would not pay careful attention to the full message to see that it was not actually pushing racism and hatred, but to make people aware of it.

There are certain people who make their point with a starting statement almost guaranteed to get a negative reaction, unless the people are familiar with their style. It offends some people in the beginning that they close their minds further from the rest of the statement and label the person as a hatemonger, evil, prejudice, or something equal derogatory when in fact it is the person who is listening who is not ready to confront their own dark side.

Those who tend to be overly sensitive about subjects that have nothing to do with themselves usually have prejudicial tendancies they do not want to confront. Such people are the reason these shock messages are a necessary part of speech. Unless people come to terms with their own dark sides, there will never truly be an acceptance for others.

Hatred is something learned. As children we are open to accept anyone who will love us and take care of us. Put children from all different backgrounds together, they will find a way to have fun. When they argue and dispute, the hard feelings are temporary.

As we grow older and are exposed to more things in the world, prejudice can creep up on us. Everything from the attitudes of the adults around us, our peers and even negative experiences we have had can cloud that pure innocent nature of the children we used to be. Some of the most annoying racists are the ones that act like the extreme "bleeding heart liberals." They pretend they have no bias when in fact everyone has it to a certain degree.

I am a light skinned person of mixed races. I grew up in an African American community and most of my relatives I saw often were dark skinned. In fact, when I was bussed into an all white school was when I first became aware of racist behavior. I stepped off the bus and some kid threw a rock at me. I couldn't really identify him as they all looked alike (the white kids.)

Then as I grew up and married a white man and lived in a mostly white area, I felt the sting again from a so-called liberal. She asked me why I didn't say anything to the KKK recruiters who were trying to recruit her. I said there was no way I could change their minds as they had it closed already. She said, "Well, it's not like you're REALLY black anyway." She was the last person I ever expected to say such a racist thing.

Being in the mix of the many races, I have come to see the point of view of many sides. I still have my reservations, but I will admit to them and reach out to try and understand. I am hardest on men, but I try to curb the male bashing as much as I can. Then again, I was molested at a young age and raped later, so I have my reasons.

Some people develop such hatred until it becomes their gospel. They believe in their hate so strongly that reason is thrown out the window. They set up a paranoid world of us versus them. There are no grey areas, just black and white [no pun intended]. Their low self esteem with such conviction and paranoia leads them to think in terms of greatness they don't believe they will ever reach. They find themselves superior to others and dehumanize the target of hate until it becomes their duty to kill the enemy. And if they die in the process, then they shall rest in immortal peace feeling they have done a super deed to die a martyr's death.

People need to come to terms with their own feelings before pointing their fingers at others. We all need to realize our faults and try to deal with them instead of hiding them so we can learn from them and overcome. We need to treat others with respect, even if we don't agree with them. If we actually listen to one another, we may find what they are really saying behind their words before we label them.

Here is a challenge for you. Next time a hate group has a rally in your town, go to it. Listen to them and say nothing. Do not react. Do not show emotions. Do not let them get to you. Refuse to interact. Just listen to what they say. You will never convince them otherwise by shouting back or getting them to shut up. If you quietly listen to them, they will not change your mind unless you already bend that way. By listening to them you will see them for what they are - scared and paranoid. Instead of feeling hatred for them, you may even pity them.

Look at the tapes of Osama bin Laden as he speaks. See the sincerity in his eyes as he actually believes what he says. You know it is garbage and he will never change your mind. With a little compassion, you may see he is just a lost soul. His followers are in just as bad shape. He is just like David Koresh and other cult leaders. They believe they are doing the right thing. You may still want him dead or brought to justice, but you may also gain some humanity to see that the enemy is a frail human being.

Don't be afraid of these hatemongers. They want you to fear them with their loud words. Listen and see the truth and be free. People will do what they do and you have no control over them. Don't live in fear of what may or may not happen to you. Leave the paranoia to those with the sick minds.

For more information or help, please consult these resources:

• Take The Test To See How Prejudice You Are
• Erase The Hate
• Stop The Hate
• Hate Watch
• Matthew Shepard Online Memorial
• FBI Hate Crime Report
• Ministry In The Midst of Hate And Violence
• Southern Poverty Law Center
• US Civil Liberties Union
• Amnesty International
• NAACP
• Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Alliance (G.L.A.B.A.)
• Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project
• National Organization for Women (NOW)