Reference no: EM133874416
Assignment:
In the Associations chapter, you learned about hate groups.
One organization that tracks hate groups is the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). The SPLC was created by Morris Dees, an Alabama lawyer and businessman, in response to the plight of the poor and powerless after the resistance of fundamental changes in the South in the late 1960s. Dees joined with lawyer Joe Levin, and they incorporated SPLC in 1971. From there, they began monitoring white supremacist activity in the 1980s. They are known for tracking hate groups and activities in the United States.
The SPLC defines 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 organizations on our hate group list vilify others because of their race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation or gender identity - prejudices that strike at the heart of our democratic values and fracture society along its most fragile fault lines.
The FBI uses similar criteria in its definition of a hate crime: [A] criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender's bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, or gender identity.
SPLC define a "group" as an entity that has a process through which followers identify themselves as being part of the group. This may involve donating, paying membership dues, or participating in activities such as meetings and rallies. Individual chapters of a larger organization are each counted separately, because the number indicates reach and organizing activity.
In the following activity, you will be conducting a content analysis of the SPLC website, looking at a hate map and understanding different hate groups through a sociological lens. You will be able to see how hate groups impact society and engage with real world situations.
Do the following tasks and/or answer the following questions in your discussion post
Select a state and then select a hate group from the SPLC Hate Map.
- You might need to type in the state to the search box, then select the hate group from there
- Summarize the information on the hate group
- Some groups will have quantitative data (i.e., charts); if data is included, summarize it
- Look at the location of where the hate group resides. What trends do you see?
- Trends, meaning -- are there a lot of other groups in the area? Are they all a same type of group? If your group has multiple locations, what types of states do they tend to be located in (red/blue)?
- What is the purpose of this hate group?
- Why is this group considered a hate group? By whom?
- What ideology does this group promote?
- Based on the group's name alone, would you initially think this group was a hate group? Why or why not? Is this group engaged in impression management? If yes, how so?
Now look at least two associated extremist profiles associated with the hate group that the Southern Poverty Law Center has identified.
- Summarize who they are and how they are involved with the group.
- How do you see privilege being demonstrated in each of these profiles? (Give an example from each one)
Last, consider --
- How would being a member of a given hate group impact interpersonal relationships?
- For example, think about school and work relationships where you can't choose those you interact with on a daily basis (i.e., you can't pick your classmates, coworkers, or customers).
- Thinking sociologically, if a company supports institutional diversity, under what conditions should the company have the right to fire someone for being a member of a perceived and/or recognized hate group?