Hate and extremism in the U.S. - SPLC report looks at the mainstreaming of hate

January 6 2021 Capitol insurrection — FILE - In this Jan. 6, 2021 file photo, supporters of President Donald Trump climb the West wall of the the U.S. Capitol in Washington. An officer who shot and killed a woman during the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol as she began to climb through the broken part of a door leading into an area known as the Speaker’s Lobby acted lawfully and in line with police department policy, the U.S. Capitol Police said Monday. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Last week the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) released its report on The Year in Hate & Extremism 2021.

The SPLC tracked 733 hate groups in the US including 53 hate groups in Florida.

In an online press conference last week, Susan Corke, Intelligence Project Director at SPLC said, “hate and extremist ideas are operating more openly in the mainstream.”

SPLC’s Hate Map

SPLC’s “Hate Map” shows what the SPLC defines as extremist and hate groups in a map. That includes these groups with ties to the Tampa Bay area:

America First Foundation, white nationalists in St. Petersburg
American Christian Dixie Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, statewide
Bill Keller Ministries, general hate, St. Petersburg
Florida Family Association, anti-Muslim, Tampa
Great Millstone, general hate, Tampa and elsewhere
Nation of Islam, antiSemitism, St. Pete, Tampa and elsewhere
New Black Panther Party for Self Defense, Tampa and Jax
Proud Boys in Sarasota, Tampa and elsewhere
Sicarii 1715 in Tampa and elsewhere
Will2Rise, white nationalists, Lakeland

Hate and extremist groups

Other topics covered in the report on hate groups and extremists are the anti-government extremist movement, the Proud Boys, antisemitic hate (including fliers like were seen in Sarasota recently) and the mainstreaming of hate.

Besides experts from the SPLC, we also heard U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) speaking about resources that exist to confront hate.