Introduction In 2017 (the last year for which complete statistics are available), the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), the premier organization for monitoring and tracking hate groups and their activities in the United States, identified 954 hate groups in the country, a 4 percent increase from the 917 groups in 2016 but a 20 percent increase from the number of groups present in 2014. According to the SPLC, “2017 was the third straight year to witness a rise in the number of hate groups. It was also the first year since 2009 that hate groups were documented in all 50 states.” Yet even 954 hate groups “likely understates the real level of hate in America because a growing number of extremists, particularly those who identify with the alt-right, operate mainly online and may not be formally affiliated with a hate group” (Southern Poverty Law Center, February 21, 2018). Like hate groups, hate crimes in the United States rose correspondingly in 2017. The number of hate crimes “topped a previous high, with law enforcement report- ing 7,175 incidents—an uptick of 17 percent over the five-year high reached in 2016” (Barrouquere). Yet the number of hate crime incidents reported in 2017 did not include two of the highest profile hate crimes perpetrated that year: the murder of two men in Portland, Oregon, in May 2017 while they were defending Muslim women against a racist, Islamophobic rant and the killing of Heather Heyer in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017 when she was run down by a white supremacist while she was peacefully protesting the “Unite the Right” rally in the city. Why were these crimes not reported as hate crimes? The fact is, the vast majority of hate crimes don’t get counted. The Bureau of Justice Statistics estimates there are about 250,000 each year. There are several reasons for the vast discrepancy. First, studies show that only about half of all hate crimes get reported to the police. Second, the FBI relies on some 18,000 local enforcement agencies to forward their data to the federal government. Since the system is voluntary, many don’t do it. And many that do provide the data simply don’t properly identify hate crimes in the first place. In addition, the definition of a hate crime varies from state to state. (Southern Poverty Law Center, November 16, 2018). The rise in the number of hate groups and amount of hate crime activity in the United States has been buoyed by the administration of President Donald Trump. According to Heidi Beirich, director of SPLC’s Intelligence Project, Trump has “stoked the flames of white supremacy and anti-immigrant xenophobia.” Beirich notes, “President Trump in 2017 reflected what white supremacist groups want to
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