What Is Hate Violence

What Causes Hate Violence? The roots of hate violence are broad, but most causes come back to one element in the end: fear. This fear is most often rooted in ignorance: fear of the unknown, fear of the "other," fear of perceived competitors; all of these hold the potential to generate a violent reaction under the right conditions. "US" and "THEM": The Nature of Prejudice Prejudice is, at a basic level, instinctual. Many studies have been conducted to show that people habitually, instinctually are drawn to notice differences and similarities between themselves and others. This is a natural function of our desire to create order out of the chaotic world around us. External Influences: Hate Groups, Traditional and Pseudo-Mainstream In terms of external causes, the effort of groups such as the Ku Klux Klan, the White Aryan Resistance (WAR) and other neo-Nazi organizations to preach violence against racial, religious, sexual and other minorities continue unabated today. These groups recognize very clearly the psychology of the issues they raise. As former WAR youth leader Greg Withrow told the Commission, referring to his upbringing by his neo-Nazi father, "before I ever learned to hate, I learned to fear." They are indoctrinated to believe that minorities are a threat to their way of life, to their very existence, and that the only choice is to fight back in as violent a fashion as possible. What is more disturbing and potentially dangerous is the increasing proliferation pseudo-mainstream hate groups like David Duke's National Association for the Advancement of White People. Duke and others of his ilk do everything possible to look, act and sound like standard interest groups simply promoting their views about society. But their messages are riddled with innuendo and code words designed to play on people's worst fears and prejudices in order to generate hatred against the people these groups perceive to be their enemies. Peers Most young people value the opinions of their peers highly. Many young people who have become involved and then left white supremacist groups say they joined because their friends were doing it or because they wanted to belong to a group -- any group. Family Family may also exert a strong influence on attitudes regarding other people. Former WAR youth leader Greg Withrow told the Commission: "My father's expressed ideal for me was to lead a youth movement; to be as a Hitler ... I was raised in Nazi camps, I was raised with this philosophy from childhood. I knew nothing else. " ... While Mr. Withrow's experience represents an extreme, many young people in California and throughout the country are exposed to parental or other familial prejudices in the course of day-to-day living. These attitudes coming from important role models will inevitably affect how they view others. Media The mass media play a key role in shaping popular attitudes, especially among young people. The vast majority of young people today watch several hours of television per day, much of it unsupervised by parents. The portrayals, or lack of portrayals, of various types of people on the programs they watch inevitably shape their attitudes about those groups. This is especially true in homogeneous neighborhoods where students may have virtually no firsthand exposure to people of a different background. Political Leaders Some political figures today are willing to fan the flames of bigotry in order to advance their own interests and careers. We have seen rampant examples in recent years of political campaign ploys that are permeated with racist and homophobic connotations. The appearance that political figures and even some government leaders approve of these views gives them a veneer of respectability that they do not deserve. Conclusion Given the multiplicity of sources and the instinctual nature of prejudice, when addressing hate violence we cannot afford to focus more than a small portion of our efforts on responding directly to specific sources of negative messages. We have to focus most of our efforts on the broader goal of inoculating the next generation so that they can reject those who try to infect them with hatred for others.