NCJ Number
115444
Journal
e/sa forum-131 Dated: (June 1987) Pages: 10-19
Date Published
1987
Length
10 pages
Annotation
The growth in recent years of the white supremacist movement and its hate activities directed against minorities and Jewish people indicates the need for active community responses and the leadership of the clergy.
Abstract
The white supremacist movement now uses a sophisticated strategy, which consists of public political activities designed to attract recruits and clandestine racist violence. Contrary to common views, however, the Ku Klux Klan is not the only avowedly white supremacist group. In fact, dozens of Klan factions exist today, and members are as likely to wear camouflage fatigues as white robes and caps. Major Klan factions include the Invisible Empire Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, the Southern National Front, and the White Aryan Resistance. The Aryan Nations, based in Ohio, is another component of the white supremacist movement. It is an ingathering of white supremacist groups rather than a single organization. Another group called The Order consists of neo-Nazis. Finally, the so-called patriot organizations are a semi-anarchic collection of groups that would like to establish the United States as a Christian republic and to segregate minorities and non-Christians. Unlike the Klan and the neo-Nazis movement, the patriot movement publishes many newsletters, tabloids, and booklets. The organized hate group activities have grown out of the tensions, frustrations, and fears present among us and require countermeasures by people of good will, particularly because hate groups interpret silence as permission for their own actions. The North California-Nevada Conference of the United Methodist Church has developed a unique monitoring and response procedure to address hate activities.