The Real Haterz

Unless you're a Republican, you probably understand that racial bigotry didn't die out with the Civil Rights movement of the 1960's (in fact, many culturally conservative minded people hearken back to the pre-Civil Rights era for their idyllic "Happy Days" and blame the Civil Rights movement for creating racial bigotry...). I found this interesting map about hate groups in the United States on the Southern Poverty Law Center website. These are active hate groups.

Check the numbers. The capital state for hate is apparently South Carolina, with 47 active groups. But Florida, already stinging from being second in executions behind Texas, is vying for first place with 43. I think, though, that it's important to put these numbers in perspective. South Carolina has a population of 4,147,152, whereas Florida has 17,019,068. As far as percentage goes, Florida has a lot of catching up to do. And California may look like a hotbed of hate with its 42 groups, but the population is 35,484,453. So here are the ratios, per capita, for hate:

• SC: 1 hate group for every 88,237 people.
• FL: 1 hate group for every 395,792 people.
• CA: 1 hate group for every 844,867 people.

DC, by the way, has five hate groups listed, three of which are Black Separatist groups. In some strange oversight, they don't list the Heritage Foundation.