Monday, November 24, 2008

Anti-immigrant hate crimes are on the rise

Coincidentally, I came across 2 articles today that referred to the alarming growth of white supremacist and skinhead groups. These groups are increasing their verbal and physical attacks on minorities, including immigrants. In 2007, 68% of the hate crimes in Los Angeles County were related to race, ethnicity or national origin.
The first article was on NPR radio this evening. The segment discussed the increase in hate crimes, and then had a very disturbing discussion about skinheads recruiting in high schools. The groups actively recruit teenagers, especially through the use of music. They distribute "hate rock" with racist lyrics, that kids sometimes even use on their MySpace pages. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=97399519.
The other article that I read was on the Immigration Policy Institute blog: http://immigrationimpact.com/2008/11/24/neo-nazis-join-anti-immigrant-movement/. This posting includes a clip from a TV interview with a self-professed skinhead. He was trying to improve the image of skinheads (maybe start by not calling yourselves skinheads??) and promote the group as a benign, pro-White, advocacy group for "European-Americans." I'm a white European-American immigrant, but he sure doesn't speak for me.

No comments:

Post a Comment