Black Protests in the US, 1994-2010

We use a novel dataset to provide the first panoramic view of US Black movement protest events as reported in US newswires between 1994 and 2010 and put our quantitative data into dialog with qualitative accounts of the period. Struggles during these years presaged the Black Lives protest waves of 2014-2016 and 2020. We find that protests were building in frequency in the 1990s after the 1992 Los Angeles uprising and the widely discussed 1995 Million Man March into 2001, but dropped abruptly after the 9/11 attacks, with mobilization building again at the end of the 2000s. Protests in response to police violence and other criminal legal issues were major arenas of struggle and news coverage. Also common were issues of national identity including celebrations of Black history and Black solidarity, protests against Confederate symbols, and protests about White hate groups and hate crimes. While Black people protested about a wide variety of issues, mainstream national media attention focused disproportionately on incidents of police violence and perceived threats of Black violence. We find substantial continuity in issues, organizations, and activism between this period and the Black Lives Movement of 2014-2020. Content warning: parts of this article describe incidents of police violence.

SUICIDE, SOCIAL CAPITAL, AND HATE GROUPS IN THE UNITED STATES

In recent years, hate groups have increasingly attracted public attention while at the same time escaping the purview of scholars. Although overt prejudiced attitudes have lost public support in recent decades, hate group and hate-group activity has remained relatively consistent. What, then, explains the enduring power of hate? I argue that hate groups have arisen in reaction to the loss of social capital, particularly in regard to rural and exurban communities. Using county-level suicide rates as a proxy for the loss of social capital, I test this theory using data from the lower 48 states from 2010 to 2019. I find that each 5.38 percent increase in suicide rates is associated with 1 additional hate group forming. These findings highlight the importance of examining quality-of-life in understanding far-right activity, and challenge previous findings with regard to rurality and hate.

The genealogy of social hatred

The paper aims at providing an overview of hate crimes through an interdisciplinary lens based not only on theories but also empirical research results. The paper first deals with the central components of hate crimes: prejudice and aggression. Not only the classical social-psychological theories of these phenomena are discussed but also some newer ones. As hate crimes do not occur in a vacuum, the next chapter of the paper deals with the social, political, cultural context and factors that facilitate or impede the occurrence of hate crimes. Community disorganization, urban ecology, racial balance, residential stability, economic conditions, and the role of the media and the internet are discussed in detail. The last chapter of the paper deals with the perpetrators of hate crimes, let them be lonely ones or members of organized hate groups. The paper demonstrates that the investigation of hate crimes can only occur in an interdisciplinary setting that can simultaneously take into account legal, social, cultural, and political factors.

Investigating the role of group-based morality in extreme behavioral expressions of prejudice

Understanding motivations underlying acts of hatred are essential for developing strategies to prevent such extreme behavioral expressions of prejudice (EBEPs) against marginalized groups. In this work, we investigate the motivations underlying EBEPs as a function of moral values. Specifically, we propose EBEPs may often be best understood as morally motivated behaviors grounded in people’s moral values and perceptions of moral violations. As evidence, we report five studies that integrate spatial modeling and experimental methods to investigate the relationship between moral values and EBEPs. Our results, from these U.S. based studies, suggest that moral values oriented around group preservation are predictive of the county-level prevalence of hate groups and associated with the belief that extreme behavioral expressions of prejudice against marginalized groups are justified. Additional analyses suggest that the association between group-based moral values and EBEPs against outgroups can be partly explained by the belief that these groups have done something morally wrong.

Using Civil Law Approaches to Hate Crimes in the United States for Illicit Antiquities and Fine Art Cases

The current legal system is not designed to pursue satisfying action in criminal court for hate crimes or fine art crimes. However, the civil court system in the United States might provide a more fruitful avenue in combatting these crimes. The burden of proof is lessened to preponderance of evidence. Compensatory and punitive damages awarded in civil cases against hate groups appear to create a more significant financial impact than reparations in criminal cases. Known forprofit entities engage in both of these types of crimes. Due to the limitations of criminal legal solutions in the United States, pursuing a civil legal approach might prove more effective in combatting cases involving hate crime as well as illicit antiquities and fine art.

A Geographical Analysis of Socioeconomic and Ideological Drivers of Hate Crime in the United States

Criminal activities motivated by hate are the most extreme form of bias against people. While hating a class of people and organizing in hate groups to express feelings against those people are not illegal, hate crimes, violent and non-violent, are illegal. However, there remains much to be learned about geographic patterns of hate crimes and facilitating environments. This exploratory research examines hate crime occurrences aggregated to counties in the conterminous United States and attempts to explain resulting patterns using socioeconomic and ideological correlates with traditional and spatial statistics. Geographical patterns of hate crimes in the Unites States are found to be a complicated phenomenon.

Qualitative Examination on the Influences of the Internet on Racism and its Online Manifestation

Growing number of scholars have noted that racism may thrive and persevere in explicit, blatant forms in the online context. Little research exists on the nature of racism on the Internet. In contributing to this emerging yet understudied issue, the current study conducted an inductive thematic analysis to examine people's attitude toward (a) how the Internet has influenced racism, and (b) how people may experience racism on the Internet. The themes represented in this paper show that the increased anonymity and greater accessibility of the Internet gave platform and identity protection for expressions and aggregation of racist attitudes. Some of the themes explicated positive influences in which people were also able to express and form anti-racist online movements, and confront racist users by taking advantage of the increased anonymity. In terms of how racism was experienced on the Internet, the author identified the following themes: vicarious observation, racist humor, negative racial stereotyping, racist online media, and racist online hate groups. Implications for future research on racism on Internet is discussed.

Youth Exposure to Hate in the Online Space: An Exploratory Analysis

Today’s youth have extensive access to the internet and frequently engage in social networking activities using various social media platforms and devices. This is a phenomenon that hate groups are exploiting when disseminating their propaganda. This study seeks to better understand youth exposure to hateful material in the online space by exploring predictors of such exposure including demographic characteristics (age, gender, and race), academic performance, online behaviors, online disinhibition, risk perception, and parents/guardians’ supervision of online activities. We implemented a cross-sectional study design, using a paper questionnaire, in two high schools in Massachusetts (USA), focusing on students 14 to 19 years old. Logistic regression models were used to study the association between independent variables (demographics, online behaviors, risk perception, parental supervision) and exposure to hate online. Results revealed an association between exposure to hate messages in the online space and time spent online, academic performance, communicating with a stranger on social media, and benign online disinhibition. In our sample, benign online disinhibition was also associated with students’ risk of encountering someone online that tried to convince them of racist views. This study represents an important contribution to understanding youth’s risk factors of exposure to hateful material online.