Hate Crimes Awareness Month: SPLC urges action to stem bias-motivated violence

Two years ago, a self-described white supremacist, wearing body armor and a military helmet, opened fire with an assault-style rifle at a supermarket in Buffalo; New York. In a matter of minutes, 10 people, all Black, were dead and three more were injured.

The carnage on May 14, 2022, was not an act of random violence but rather a targeted attack intended to terrorize the Black community. The 18-year-old gunman yelled racial slurs as he shot his victims.

And, as in numerous other cases of racist violence in recent years, he reportedly left behind writings that indicated he was motivated to commit political violence by the false, far-right “great replacement” conspiracy theory – an extremist notion that is frequently echoed by mainstream politicians and right-wing media figures.

Mass shootings like those in Buffalo, Pittsburgh; Jacksonville, Florida; Charleston, South Carolina; and El Paso, Texas, capture the media and the nation’s attention. But they are only the most heinous examples. Every year across the U.S., tens of thousands of other people are targeted with violence and intimidation simply because of who they are – their perceived race or ethnicity, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation or disability.

The most recent FBI report shows the number of hate crimes reaching an all-time high, up by 60% over the last five years.

And the count of 11,862 bias-motivated crimes reported to the FBI in 2023 is massively understated, in part because many victims don’t report them to police – but also because local and state law enforcement agencies are not required by law to report them to the FBI or do not adequately track them. The 2023 FBI report documented the largest number of hate crimes ever, including the largest number of crimes on the basis of religion, sexual orientation and gender identity. The report also included a record number of crimes directed against Latinx, Jewish and Arab people since the FBI began collecting this data.

U.S. Department of Justice studies suggest that nearly 250,000 people each year are victimized by hate crime.

As the premier organization combating hate and extremism in the U.S., the Southern Poverty Law Center has designated October as Hate Crimes Awareness Month, the centerpiece of a campaign to alert the public, advocates and policymakers to the problem of hate crimes and press for action to prevent them.

The campaign aims to encourage difficult but essential conversations about how we can prevent hate from taking root in the first place – and how we can rid the country of bias-motivated violence.

“The mainstreaming of white supremacy and the spread of far-right conspiracies that incite bias-motivated violence underscore the need for every person to reject hate wherever and whenever it occurs,” said SPLC President and CEO Margaret Huang. “To do that effectively, we must understand the extremist forces we’re up against and the scope of the crisis.”

Mounting racist violence

The FBI’s most recent report identified the most hate crimes since the agency began collecting the data in 1991 and a slight rise over 2022, even though violent crime overall fell by 3% from 2022 to 2023. More than 50% of hate crimes in 2023 were carried out because of hatred toward the victim’s race or ethnicity.

The report documented:

• As has been the case every year, the highest number of reported crimes were based on race, ethnicity or ancestry (5,900), including 3,027 crimes directed against Black people.
• A 7% rise over the previous year in bias-related crimes related to sexual orientation (2,077) and a 5% rise (492) on the basis of gender identity.
• The highest number of “anti-Hispanic or Latino” crimes (812).
• The most anti-Jewish hate crimes (1,832) ever recorded by the FBI – a 32% increase over 2022 – and a 49% yearly increase in anti-Muslim crimes (236).

These hate crimes occurred in every region of the U.S. – in large cities, in rural areas and suburbs and schools. They took place in homes, on streets and in the workplace.

Most of these innocent victims are never known to the vast majority of Americans.

They’re people like O’Shae Sibley, a young, gay Black man who was murdered in 2023 in front of a Brooklyn gas station after dancing to a Beyoncé song with a group of friends, reportedly because the alleged attacker “had a problem with them dancing.”

They’re people like Laura Ann Carleton, a California woman who was murdered in 2023 because she flew a Pride flag outside her clothing store and refused to be intimidated by the man who tore down the flag and yelled homophobic slurs when she confronted him.

And they’re people like Angela Michelle Carr, Anolt Joseph Laguerre Jr. and Jerrald De’Shaun Gallion, who were gunned down at a Jacksonville Dollar General store, also in 2023, by a white gunman who expressed belief in the “inferiority of Black people.”

Mainstreaming hate

Despite its limitations, the FBI’s hate crime report does provide an essential barometer of hate crime in the U.S. and can serve as an important indicator of trends.

“It’s clear that hate crimes are becoming more prevalent, and it’s happening at the same time that white nationalist doctrine, along with far-right conspiracy theories and racist tropes, are being mainstreamed by media and political figures that, unfortunately, include former President Trump,” said Michael Lieberman, the SPLC’s senior policy counsel for hate and extremism.

“Words matter,” Lieberman said. “Bigoted slurs, conspiracy theories and disinformation can shape attitudes, encouraging and influencing others to engage in violent bias-motivated criminal activity. During and just after the 2016 election, when Trump became president, we documented a surge of incidents involving racial slurs and symbols, bigotry and the harassment of children of color in the nation’s schools. It was no coincidence.”

The SPLC dubbed this phenomenon the “Trump Effect,” because it appeared that children were emulating the racist, xenophobic and coarse language Trump was using on the campaign trail.

The fact is, most bias crimes are committed by individuals who are not card-carrying members of hate groups. But hate groups play an important role in stoking violence by using their online forums, which are often promoted by more mainstream social media sites, to promulgate racist, anti-LGBTQ+ and antisemitic lies and conspiracy theories, like the “great replacement” myth that has inspired numerous acts of deadly violence; to sow anger and resentment among white people; and to radicalize and indoctrinate young people.

To help inoculate young people, the SPLC has teamed with the Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab at American University to produce free guides that help parents, caregivers and educators understand how extremists exploit online communication to target children and young adults, and to help communities confront and build resistance to the mainstreaming of hate.

In addition, the SPLC’s Learning for Justice program offers guides – including Speak Up at School and Responding to Hate and Bias at School – to help students, educators and others prevent, address and navigate bias incidents.

SPLC recommendations

While the statistics are vital to understanding the scope of hate crime in the U.S., it’s important to understand that the impact of hate cannot be reduced to mere numbers. Because hate crimes are motivated by a victim’s immutable characteristics, they are very personal crimes, with special emotional and psychological impacts.

What’s more, they fray the fabric of society, leaving entire communities feeling fearful, isolated, vulnerable, suspicious of other groups and unprotected by law enforcement.

The SPLC has long supported federal action to help curb bias-motivated crime.

Last month, for Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on the threat of hate crimes in the U.S., the SPLC offered a comprehensive statement on the nature and magnitude of the problem, along with detailed policy recommendations for the administration and Congress to improve hate crime reporting and enforcement; expand community-based prevention initiatives; improve the government’s response to domestic terrorism; promote online safety; and hold tech and social media companies accountable for providing platforms where hate and extremism can thrive.

Here is a summary of the SPLC’s recommendations:

• Make hate crime reporting mandatory.

  Congress should enact legislation to condition federal funding for law enforcement agencies serving populations over 100,000 people on credible reporting of hate crimes. (SPLC Action Fund)

• Fund prevention initiatives.

  Federal agencies should establish and fund programs to build community resilience against hate, to inoculate against extremism and to empower adults to help steer young people away from violent extremism.

• Increase interagency coordination against hate.

  Congress should enact legislation to institutionalize President Joe Biden’s United We Stand Summit commitment to establish an interagency initiative on hate crimes.

• Address white supremacy in federal law enforcement.

  Congress should pass legislation to ensure that law enforcement officials who actively promote white supremacist beliefs are not hired or retained.

• Promote online safety and hold tech and social media companies accountable.

  Consistent with the First Amendment and privacy considerations, Congress and the administration should adopt rules and regulations to ensure that tech companies increase accountability and transparency and comply with civil rights laws prohibiting discrimination.

While new laws and policies are vitally important, the SPLC believes the longtime answer lies within the hearts and minds of the American people.

“No matter which party holds power, we will still have tough work ahead that requires collaboration and cooperation,” Huang said. “Bad actors will seek to divide us rather than unite us.

“In those moments, we must remember that our diversity is our greatest strength. Together, people who share a commitment to justice and human rights can stem the tide of hate violence.”

Picture at top: Hate crimes in the U.S. have increased 60% over the past five years, according to the FBI. (Credit: SPLC)