Obama inauguration a recruiting tool for hate group

[mucifer]

By Rex W. Huppke | Tribune reporter
January 22, 2009

Hate groups and militias across the country, known to thrive on feelings of economic desperation and political impotence, are eyeing 2009 as a year of awakening.

"Every time the television shows an image of Obama it will be a reminder that our people have lost power in this country," said a recent posting on an Arkansas-based Ku Klux Klan Web site. "The betrayal will stare them in the face each time they watch the news and see little black children playing in the rose garden."

For all the racial optimism that comes with Barack Obama's presidency, there is concern in some circles that the confluence of a shattered economy and the election of the nation's first black president may promote a surge in hate group activity not seen since the late 1980s and early 1990s.

"I think it's very clear that we're at a worrying moment now, despite the remarkable accomplishment of electing a black man president," said Mark Potok, who heads a department at the Southern Poverty Law Center that monitors the activity of extremist groups. "We are seeing several things coming together that favor the continued growth of these groups and this movement."

more at:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-obama-hate-groups,0,5420040.story

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. The KKK in Arkansas

is a state embarrassment. I even know some 22%ers (still Bush supporters),themselves not all that keen on racial and sexual equality, who say that the KKK goes too far. That's not to say that, with economic hard times, they won't recruit. But it won't be with broad public support. What I see happening around here is the (sadly) usual casual racism still happening but without the hate and violence of the KKK. I even know a former member who was kicked out not because his racial views changed but because he stopped advocating violence.