The Southern Poverty Law Center, the organization based in Montgomery, Alabama, which has tracked hate group activity primarily in the United States since 1981, wrote in Time magazine on Tuesday that the Black Lives Matter movement is not a hate group. The organization, founded in 1971 by Morris Dees, Joe Levin, and Julian Bond, says it was responding to several requests to designate BLM as such:
In recent weeks, we’ve received a number of requests to name Black Lives Matter a hate group, particularly in the wake of the murders of eight police officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge. Numerous conservative commentators have joined the chorus. There is even a Change.org petition calling for the hate group label.
In our view, these critics fundamentally misunderstand the nature of hate groups and the BLM movement.
Generally speaking, hate groups are, by our definition, those that vilify entire groups of people based on immutable characteristics such as race or ethnicity. Federal law takes a similar approach.
…
Thousands of white people across America—indeed, people of all races—have marched in solidarity with African Americans during BLM marches, as is clear from the group’s website. The movement’s leaders also have condemned violence.
There are at least two petitions calling for the labeling of BLM as a hate group: one on Change.org, and another addressed to the White House which has garnered more than 140,000 signatures. It should be noted that petitions to the White House that have more than 100,000 signatures automatically trigger a response, and the response of the White House was to dismiss the petition:
The White House responded to the petition by saying it could not formally address its request because “the U.S. government does not generate a list of domestic terror organizations.”
So there you have it. The United States’ foremost organization that tracks hate groups and their activities has spoken. Daily Kos readers are encouraged to share this information with friends, family, co-workers, and acquaintances, but only if they can be reached. If they are as far gone as this dude (being interviewed by CNN’s Don Lemon), don’t waste your precious energy on them—they do not want to be reached.
You should leave them where you find them: on the road to the dustbin of history.