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The news from Jacksonville, Florida, on Aug. 26 was as familiar as it was horrifying friend, The news from Jacksonville, Florida, on Aug. 26 was as familiar as it was horrifying: A white gunman who had posted racist writings online takes a military-style weapon emblazoned with a symbol of hate into a predominantly Black neighborhood. Three Black people are killed. The nation has seen this kind of attack against communities of color and LGBTQ+ people many times in recent years. The Jacksonville murders, in fact, came just weeks after the fourth anniversary of the white supremacist attack in El Paso, Texas, where 23 people were killed in a bias-motivated hate crime. As in numerous other cases, the El Paso gunman was inspired to kill by racist rhetoric based on the false “great replacement” conspiracy theory and what he claimed was a “Hispanic invasion” of the U.S. – harmful extremist ideas that are frequently echoed by mainstream politicians and right-wing media figures. The massacre was among the worst mass shootings in U.S. history. But there are thousands of other hate crimes committed each year that never make national news. Most never get reported at all. The FBI’s most recent hate crime report – one that counts only a small fraction of the real number – identified 10,840 hate crime incidents in 2021, the most since the agency began collecting the data in 1991. More than 60% of those were carried out because of hatred toward the victim’s race. To highlight this deeply disturbing, ongoing series of hate-fueled crimes, the Southern Poverty Law Center is designating October as Hate Crimes Awareness Month and will conduct an annual campaign to alert the public, advocates, policymakers and politicians to the problem of hate crimes and press for action to prevent them. “More than ever, the mainstreaming of white supremacy and hate violence today underscores the need for all of us to reject hate wherever and whenever it occurs,” said SPLC President and CEO Margaret Huang. “But to do that effectively, we must understand the extremist forces we’re up against and the scope of the crisis. “The SPLC launched this campaign to encourage difficult but essential conversations about how we prevent hate from taking root in the first place, as well as the need for innovative solutions to promote inclusion across communities. We must stop this cycle of hate that too often ends with dire consequences for the Black community and other communities of color, Jewish people and the LGBTQ+ community.” Sincerely, Your friends at the Southern Poverty Law Center
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