Florida: where hate is great

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), Florida ranks third, behind only the more populous California and Texas, among all states in the number of hate groups based here. More significant, though, is the increase in hate groups since 2000 -- 56 such organizations now call Florida home (as of 2008), compared with 39 eight years earlier. That's a rise of more than 43%.

The tanking economy, heated immigration debate and the election of the country's first black president likely pushed up the number of groups, the [SPLC] report said.

[...]

"We are in a worrying situation right now," said Mark Potok, director of the Intelligence Project of the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Groups have succeeded in recruiting new members who feel threatened by a black president and the rising tide of immigration, Potok said.

"All of these things together are clearly making a significant number of white people … feel that somehow their country is being stolen from them," Potok said. A "cultural conflict" in Florida has spawned the large number of hate groups, Potok said. Extremists in Central and North Florida look with horror at the number of Jews and Latinos in South Florida.

Having moved recently (if temporarily, perhaps) from south to north Florida, I've seen such differences firsthand. Few here look askance at displaying the Confederate flag, and the racial and ethnic divide seems to me to be far more pronounced in the Panhandle than in south Florida.

Nevertheless, as I've noted here before, perhaps the leading white supremacist website, Stormfront, is based down south, in Palm Beach County. And its operator, Don Black, makes no apologies for his racist views:

Don Black, founder of the white separatist group Stormfront in West Palm Beach, said he's tired of seeing his group labeled as a hate group. He advocates for non-violent separation of races within the United States, he said.

"We are proud of our own heritage and culture just like every other race has the right to be," said Black, who claims more than 100,000 members worldwide. "Do you want America to become like Mexico or Haiti?"

No, not all hate groups are white supremacist organizations. But the fact that Stormfront is headquartered in Florida, and the fact that it continually tries to justify its racist stance with a thoroughly disingenuous "white heritage" argument, ought to embarrass every Floridian -- at least those of us with a conscience.