By Madeline Stewart
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writer
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Hate groups have embraced technology so quickly that “we’ve seen a globalization of efforts” as the United States witnesses the increase in crimes against Asian Americans and police brutality against African Americans, the head of the Southern Poverty Law Center told a National Press Club audience Friday.
Margaret Huang was appointed in February president and CEO of the nonprofit civil rights organization that is dedicated to fighting hate and seeking justice. She spoke to the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. to help journalists understand what the Southern Poverty Law Center defines as organizations or collections of individuals who have beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people. The SPLC is based in Montgomery, Alabama.
Huang’s speech detailed the group’s 50-year history of protecting Democracy and suppressing white supremacy, beginning with anti-segregation lawsuits in the 1970s in Alabama and continuing today with a lawsuit filed against voting laws recently enacted in Georgia.
Huang said that hate organizations in the United States have rapidly embraced technology. While organizations historically relied on dues-paying members to generate funds to print propaganda, social media and monetized livestreams and subscription services, group leaders can now spread hate messages to a wider range of people.
“We’ve seen a globalization of efforts,” Huang said in an online speech that The Baltimore Watchdog viewed. “We’ve seen connections between extremist groups in the United States and extremist activities in Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Canada— these groups are finding each other online.”
“These platforms target young people that may still be exploring what their beliefs and ideologies are, who are frustrated over the past year by the shutdown, by quarantine, by being unable to see friends and family,” Huang said. “They become susceptible to hate platforms.”
The SPLC’s website tracked 838 hate groups across the U.S. last year. The organization Stop AAPI Hate have found 4,000 incidents of hate and bias specifically against Asian American and Pacific Islander communities in the past year. Huang said that while the SPLC has not found any hate groups specifically against Asian populations, it is likely that those committing the hate crimes have been exposed to racist hate rhetoric online.
Born in Tennessee to a Chinese father and a white mother, Huang said her experiences with racism in her own life and her chances to travel abroad as a child inspired her to work in human rights and civil rights. Huang has a master’s degree in Human Rights with a focus in East Asia from Columbia University in New York City, and earned a Bachelor of Science in International Law and Organization from Georgetown University. She has 25 years of human rights and racial justice leadership experience.
In the wake of the Capitol insurrection in January, repeated incidents of hate crimes against Asian Americans, and police brutality against African Americans, Huang stressed that the situation today is dire.
“We’re facing a crisis of white supremacy and threats to our democracy,” Huang said. “Racism and extremism are being mainstreamed as President Trump himself is a prolific supporter of far-right conspiracy theories and racial stereotypes.”
The amount of hate groups and militias skyrocketed during the Obama presidency, but dissolved as the Trump presidency mainstreamed many of their messages. Huang speculated that the popularity of these groups will rise again during the Biden presidency.
“I’ve encountered rude stares, comments, and aggression all my life and everything skyrocketed after the coronavirus pandemic,” said Amy Tran, a student at the University of Maryland, College Park. “The targeted discrimination against Asians really began to show and I feared for the safety of my parents and all of my family members.”
As stories like these become more common, the SPLC’s main efforts today are continuing litigation against unjust laws, partnering with law enforcement to build a greater understanding of what hate crimes are so better data is reported, tracking hate groups, and most importantly to Huang, prevention.
“The most important work of stopping hate is prevention,” Huang said. “It is not prosecution, it’s not policy-making. Because we can’t litigate our way out of hate and extremism or arrest our way out. We have to stop people from seeking out information— and often that starts with young people.”
1 Comment
The SPLC President Huang thinks “prevention” is better than “prosecution.” That sounds like the answer. The only problem is- whose job is it to “prevent” people from becoming racists? The burden usually falls to the victims- the Asians, African- Americans, and Hispanics who have been marginalized. The minorities then resort to “behaving in a way that is acceptable” to help “prevent” racism in others. This is just another way of describing assimilation. If you listen to the right music, wear the right clothes and are obedient to all laws…this will help “prevent” racism. The idea doesn’t work. History has proven this. Hatred toward other groups may stem from jealousy and covetousness. Meeting a well-behaved, successful Asian may trigger hatred- leading to the formation of another hate group. PLEASE wake-up.
We must simply hold wrongdoers accountable. Once hatred is no longer tolerated- on any level (school, community, church, sports)- the hate groups are forced to go dormant or disperse completely.