Friend,
The 2020 edition of our annual Year in Hate and Extremism report was released today. Here are 8 key takeaways you need to know:
- We identified 838 hate groups operating across the United States in 2020, a decrease from the 940 documented in 2019 and the record-high 1,020 in 2018.
- The drop in the number of hate groups does not mean that extremist activity declined overall or that the threat of domestic terrorism has lessened. On the contrary, the proliferation of extremist content online means that nowadays individuals can engage with potentially violent movements like QAnon and Boogaloo without being card-carrying members of a particular group. Hate and extremism remain powerful threats to our democratic institutions and pluralistic society – as we saw less than a month ago with the attack on our nation’s Capitol.
- Our report – a census of U.S.-based hate groups conducted by the SPLC each year since 1990 – also tracks specific behaviors related to the spread of hate, and some of those numbers are alarming. For example, in 2020, the SPLC recorded nearly 4,900 white supremacist flyering incidents, up from 1,500 incidents during 2019.
- The COVID-19 pandemic likely contributed to the decrease in 2020 hate group numbers, as some groups ceased their in-person activity due to health restrictions (our report specifically counts active hate groups – if a group was dormant this year, then it would not be relisted).
- Although hate groups are increasingly being kicked off mainstream social media platforms, many are still communicating using encrypted services, making it harder to track their activities.
- The Ku Klux Klan continues to collapse, as younger extremists move into newer groups that do not carry the same stigma as a group long associated with white supremacist terror. In 2020, the number of Klan chapters dwindled to 25, down from 47 in 2019. In earlier years, there were about typically 150 chapters in any given year.
- The number of white nationalist groups declined in 2020, following two years of rapid growth thanks to the energizing effect of the Trump campaign and presidency. However, as more white nationalist groups turn to encrypted online platforms, it has become more difficult to track and quantify them. The decline this year may just indicate that these groups are getting better at hiding.
- Anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim and anti-LGBTQ hate groups saw their numbers remain largely stable, possibly because their in-person organizing was curtailed due to the pandemic. These groups are typically more successful at laundering their ideas into mainstream political discourse than more-overt white supremacist groups – which may make them an especially dangerous force as the country recovers from the pandemic and begins to get back to “normal.”
The SPLC has published the Year in Hate and Extremism, an annual census and analysis of hate groups and extremist organizations, each year since 1990. We define a hate group as an organization that – based on its official statements or principles, the statements of its leaders, or its activities – has beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics. The FBI uses similar criteria in its definition of a hate crime.
Please check out our full Year in Hate and Extremism report online, where you can read our detailed analysis of 2020 hate group trends, view our full dataset, and explore our interactive Hate Map showing the locations of hate groups nationwide. In the coming weeks, additional essays and analysis about hate and extremism in 2020 will be published.
We could not do this sobering, essential work without supporters like you. Thank you.
In solidarity,
The Southern Poverty Law Center
P.S. Have you subscribed to our new podcast, Sounds Like Hate? It’s an audio documentary series about the dangers and peril of everyday people who engage in extremism, and ways to disengage them from a life of hatred. Listen to Season 1 today.
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