Finding Truth In Racist Times...
The article that follows is a lengthy one. It is an interview with the president of the SPLC and it is spot on in its understanding of which path we need to travel to find truth.
The article is truncated but a link is provided to the full story.
Southern Poverty Law Center President: ‘We have to get back to a place where we all can agree on how to find truth’
So we actually have seen cycles of hate. Typically, the number of hate groups grow during Democratic administrations. And then they typically are quieter during Republican administrations, which is just one of the observations my colleagues have made over time. We did see an increase in the number of active hate groups during Obama’s tenure as president — and new groups forming and white nationalism growing.
Then something unusual happened with Trump’s election. These groups didn’t actually calm down and get quieter. They actually got even bigger and more active. And so we have seen record numbers of hate groups and hate activity over the last four years — I think, no surprise to anyone, clearly encouraged and supported by the president himself in the ways that he called out both-siderism. You know, “good people on all sides” of conflicts between white nationalists and Black Lives Matter protesters. We also saw him, during the presidential debates, calling out to the Proud Boys. So he has spurred all of them to feel that they are much more part of the mainstream now. And not only mainstream in the political process but mainstream in the development of policies that these groups have long advocated [for], like building a wall, like turning people away from the border.
So we’re at a really strange moment because those groups have really encouraged and collaborated with and engaged in the false claim that [Trump] actually won the election. And that has actually spurred even more collaboration between folks who support President Trump and the Republican Party but may not be members of white nationalist groups, and then the white nationalist groups and other extremist groups. So there’s a high level of engagement in that that we just really hadn’t seen before. And it’s not clear where we go from here.
It is clear that President Biden and his administration are taking a really strong position against this, and we’re fully anticipating a number of efforts to really step up ways to counter these groups and to try to prosecute those who are turning to violence. But in the meantime, it’s also clear that we have a number of groups who have already used violence very publicly to achieve goals and who may very well continue to pursue those goals at the state level, at a local level, as well as at the federal level.
But fortunately, it’s not hidden. There’s so many times the Southern Poverty Law Center was trying to raise attention to something, and people weren’t really paying attention; that’s not the case now. A lot of people are paying attention, which is great. But it doesn’t mean that everyone has figured out how best to [counter hate] or even which groups to go after. So we’re having a lot of conversations with different parts of the federal government and some state governments about the need to take more precautions, to share more information and to coordinate efforts so that it’s not just responding to one-off events, but really learning from how these groups operate and how they’re coordinating efforts across the country.
What are the best ways that you’ve seen to counter hate?
Well, there’s a few things. One issue is de-platforming. I know there’s been a lot of public debate about whether that was a good thing to de-platform President Trump [on social media]. And I would argue that it absolutely is. You have to de-platform people who are using platforms to incite violence and spread misinformation in ways that are actually really harming our democracy. So we’re going to need to see more efforts by the technology companies to monitor their platforms to ensure that there is not disinformation being spread, that there is not planning for violent activities happening. They have not demonstrated a willingness to do that until very recently, and it’s going to have to step up. So that’s one way.
Another way is absolutely to investigate and prosecute those who are responsible for violence. While January 6th was shocking and terrifying for so many people, it’s not the first time that armed white nationalists have shown up in capital buildings and threatened lawmakers. And yet, we didn’t see the kinds of investigation and prosecution of those groups in the way I hope we’re starting to see now. So that points to a real shift in the way that security agencies and intelligence agencies have been considering the domestic threat. And then there’s a last part, and that’s just for all of us. We’ve all been surrounded for the last several years by a swirl of misinformation that’s widely shared. And we have to get back to a place where we all can agree on how to find truth, which is not easy after years of disinformation. That means that we have to correct things when they’re incorrect. We have to share resources that are reliable. We have to encourage our families and friends and others to challenge some of the things they’re being told and to really look at other resources to see if they’re supporting those truths. Those are things that every one of us can do — and not just wait for government or leaders to take steps.
Looking back at the rise in hate-related violence in recent years — during the Trump administration and the insurrection at the Capitol, attacks across the country on Asian Americans in recent weeks and months — how do you make sense of where we are in the year 2021?
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