Fighting back

If ignored, hate groups thrive

Lisa M. Rosellini
The Intercom
The Faculty/Staff newspaper at Penn State

They no longer meet in the back allies of small towns or the cornfields of rural America. Now they're on the Internet with slick home pages and online applications for membership. Want to be a white supremacist? Just log on and sign up.

Hate has gone high-tech, using voice mail, faxes and the World Wide Web to lure America's youth to a new brand of racism -- one that advocates extreme violence and leans heavily on the Bible as a justification for those actions.

In a daylong workshop held at The Penn State Scanticon conference center at University Park, a former spokesman and chief recruiter for a white supremacist group told about 85 attendees that their silence and apathy was his biggest ally when he was recruiting members into "the doctrines of hate."

"Organized white supremacy groups are counting on you to do nothing," said Floyd Cochran, who at one time was the fifth-ranking member of the Church of Jesus Christ Christian/Aryan Nations -- a white supremacist group that combines Nazi ideas with a racist brand of biblical fundamentalism known as Christian Identity.

Mr. Cochran, who left the Aryan Nations in Idaho in 1992 after being told that his 4-year-old son would have to be killed because his cleft palate made him a "genetic defect," is now speaking out against the group he once called his family, and other groups like it, in an attempt to rectify his past -- nearly 25 years of advocating the elimination of other races, ethnic groups and gays.

"It's easy to ignore these groups, believing that they'll go away or that organized white supremacists only exist in the south," he said. "These are dangerous myths. Where there was no opposition, we returned again and again. That's what's happening in Pennsylvania."

Mr. Cochran said Pennsylvania has the highest ratio of hate groups east of the Mississippi River. Officials in the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission office, the agency responsible for tracking hate group activity, could not confirm that claim but said that from 1994-95, 39 different white supremacist groups were detected in 43 communities. However, these same groups may have more than one "chapter" across the Commonwealth, bringing the actual number of known hate group enclaves closer to 90.

Across the nation, while Ku Klux Klan membership has dropped in the past decade from about 10,000 to 4,500, hard-core white supremacist numbers have soared, according to Noah Chandler, a research associate with the Center for Democratic Renewal in Atlanta. The center is a national organization that monitors hate groups and hate crimes across the United States.

"There are 25,000-plus active hard-core white supremacists in the country, but for every one of those, there are three or four of what we call sympathizers or supporters," Mr. Chandler said. "That brings the national total closer to 150,000 or 200,000."

Floyd Cochran calls them "armchair racists" and said white supremacists in the 1990s are adept at changing the package of bigotry to become a palatable message to many. Calmer talk of freedom, family values and God has replaced their heavy race rhetoric.

The Center for Democratic Renewal also estimates that there are about 4,000 Skinheads nationwide. Skinheads are radical racists that carry with them a message of "white pride" and "white makes right," while advocating extreme violence to fulfill their dream of an all-white continent.

With names like America First Committee, Euro American Alliance, Christian Posse Comitatus and the Church of Jesus Christ Christian/Aryan Nations, hate groups are flourishing, according to both Cochran and Chandler_most without any opposition.

Targeting the 25-and-under crowd, white supremacists actively recruit on campus and in communities. Fliers regularly appear on campuses across the country and the white supremacists' presence on the World Wide Web continues to grow with online versions of their newsletters, libraries of information and FAQs _ frequently asked questions. At a site called Resistance Records, 'Net surfers can download sound files of heavy metal hate songs with titles like "God is Dead," "The Last Battalion" and "Racial Holy War." Resistance Records accepts online orders with Visa and Mastercard and has a mailing list of about 15,000 people.

"The white supremacists have figured it out," said Dale Tampke, director of housing at Ohio University in Athens who also spoke at the workshop. "Put the sheets in the closet and go for the youth."

Dr. Tampke discussed ways campus administrators could fight the onslaught of white supremacy groups that find colleges and universities attractive recruiting grounds.

"People don't learn to get along through osmosis," Dr. Tampke said. "They don't learn it without some intervention from us. We need to be very aware of what is out there."

Mr. Cochran said hate groups are extremely good at finding a "wedge issue," something that will drive people apart particularly if there is no communication between groups to dispel the misleading information.

"They are very good at finding a wedge issue and using it to get people to listen," Mr. Cochran said. "White supremacists play on people's darkest fears, and they know what buttons to push. In the east, it's Jews and blacks; in Seattle, it's the gay/lesbian issue; in California, it's the immigrant issue."

"It's not enough to banish hate groups from your campuses," Dr. Tampke said. "You need to create an environment where people talk to one another. Communication and education are powerful tools."