The Know-Nothing Party was formed in 1849 to promote anti-Catholic and
anti-immigrant legislation. The Ku Klux Klan (KKK), formed shortly after the end of
slavery in 1863, tried to prevent newly freed blacks from acquiring social equality
with both political legislation and the more immediate tactics of violence and intim-
idation. When open discrimination is commonplace in the main society, these groups
can acquire a great deal of political power. The Know-Nothings managed to domi-
nate several state legislatures, including Massachusetts, and promoted the sitting pres-
ident, Millard Fillmore, in the 1852 presidential election (he lost, but not due to an
anti-immigrant agenda). At its height in the 1920s, the second Ku Klux Klan had over
4,000,000 members and was praised by many public figures, including President
Warren Harding.
When open discrimination is frowned upon in the main society, it becomes more
difficult for hate groups to get laws passed or sponsor successful political candidates.
Former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke rose highest, when he captured 55 percent
of the White vote in the 1989 Louisiana gubernatorial election, although he had to
explain that his KKK membership was a “youthful mistake.” Hate groups today
usually do not hope to legislate discriminatory policies. Instead, they want to make
their presence known, win supporters, and promote individual acts of discrimination,
especially violence.
In the twenty-first century, many hate groups have moved beyond marching in
strange costumes or starting fistfights on talk shows to using up-to-date tools of mass
media and marketing: attractive, professionally produced books, music, and Web
pages that hide their racist beliefs under a veneer of respectability. In public presen-
tations, they never use racist slurs. They say that they are interested in science, Chris-
tianity, or patriotism rather than racism. A student once wrote on a paper that Blacks
are 730 percent more likely to murder Whites than the other way around. When
I questioned him about this curious statistic (and weird way of expressing it), he
said that he got from keying “statistics,” “Black,” and “crime” into an Internet
search engine. The first website that appeared was bankrolled by a hate group, and
sadly, an intelligent college student believed it because it looked so scientific and
official. It is hard to imagine how many other young, inexperienced, non–media-savvy
people key into hate group websites and acquire new prejudices or find their
old ones validated.
There are only perhaps 50,000 hard-core members of hate groups and
no more than 500,000 “fellow travelers,” people who read the literature,
browse the websites, and agree with racist ideologies (Potok, 2006). A more
subtle threat of hate groups is to draw attention away from everyday forms
of prejudice and discrimination. After listening to the outrageous statements
of a hate group, or seeing their ultraviolent behavior, people may believe
that their own prejudice is harmless and inconsequential. After all, they do
not believe that non-White people are children of Satan, and they would
never dream of bombing a Black church, so what does it matter if they feel
uncomfortable in a Black neighborhood?
Although membership in organized hate groups is relatively low, there
is an alarming increase in violent crimes in which the victim was chosen
because of his or her membership in some minority group (Figure 8.2). In
2005, the FBI documented 7,163 hate crimes. The most (2,630) were
against Blacks, and 828 were against Whites. The second highest group,
however, was anti-Jewish (848). There are more anti-Semitic crimes than
against all other religious groups combined. The 128 anti-Islamic crimes,
however, are by far the fastest growing type of bias crime (FBI Hate Crimes
Statistics, 2005).258 CHAPTER 8RACE AND ETHNICITY56.0%
racial bias15.7%
religious bias14.0%
sexual-
orientation
bias13.7%
ethnicity
or national
origin bias0.6%
disability biasFIGURE 8.2Offenses by Bias
Motivation, 2005
Source:Based on data from Crime in the United States,
U.S. Department of Justice, 2005.