1. Introduction
Culture is “a set of attitudes, values, beliefs, and behaviors shared by a group of people, communicated from one generation to the next via language or some other means of communications” (Tanaka-Matsumi, 2001: p. 267). Hate is a four-letter word that means the same thing across the globe. In every culture, you will find hate against one thing or another. There are In-groups and out-groups; the in-groups are accepted, while the out-groups are targeted for attack (Glaeser & Sunstein, 2008). Hate groups in the United States have risen at epidemic rates throughout the short 21st century. In the year 2000, 602 hate groups were operating in the United States (Potok, 2011); in 2012, the Southern Poverty Law Center reported in the spring of 2012 that there were 1018 hate groups and 1274 anti-government groups that they claimed were formed because of a hatred of President Obama because he is Black (Potok, 2012).
In a nation where culture is supposed to converge and become a melting pot or a salad bar or whatever multi-cultural buzzword is currently being used to describe the American experiment of multiculturalism, hate is growing increasingly every year. Hate is an attitude and belief passed down from generation to generation (Williams, 2007). Understanding the culture of hate can lead to social policy and intervention programs that can combat hate and the epidemic of hate groups. Understanding hate and the reasons why people join hate groups are cross-cultural can lead to generic intervention programs that stretch across cultures and peoples across the planet, making a better place for everyone.
Whether the hatred is between Palestinians and Jews, Black people and Whites, Japanese and Chinese, hatred is cancer that eats the soul of a culture. A culture is a group with a common background, religious beliefs, ideology, and behavior (Adamopoulos & Lonner, 2001). Cross-cultural psychology has attempted to identify the similarities and differences between thought and behavior using culture as the foundation for those behaviors and thoughts (Adamopoulos & Lonner, 2001). The first part of this paper will compare the similarities between White Supremacy and Black Supremacy and the establishment of hate groups in the United States. The second part of this paper will discuss the culture I most identify myself with and how that culture addresses these hate groups. The Jewish people are and have been a target of hate and hate groups for what seems throughout the history of the Jewish people. I need to qualify at this time that not all Whites and not all Black people are hate-filled hate group members that intend to attack the Jewish people, but just a tiny population of the whole, a subculture within the culture at large. However, a similarity between white and black hate groups is their anti-Semitism.
2. Political Influences on Hate Groups
Hate groups have a reputation for politically being extreme right wing, which would suggest that they are an individualistic culture that expects people to pick themselves up (Southern Poverty Law Center, 2011). The exact opposite is the case; the hate groups that have been reviewed believe in taking care of everyone within the in-group (The Knights Party, 2011). The Aryan Circle requires its members to give to other members in need without question and without belittling the individual. The entire White Supremacy movement is a socialist collective culture that puts their race above all others (The Knights Party, 2011).
The United States has had a long history of hatred and discrimination against groups that were not White and Christian. Some of the first laws in Virginia consisted of definitions of who could and could not buy, sell, and trade enslaved people. Non-Whites were restricted from owning any Christian whose complexion was lighter than their own (Brodkin, 1998). From the earliest beginnings of this nation, discrimination has been at the forefront of relations between the races. From the three-fifths clause of the Constitution to the present-day incarceration rate and pay differential, White Americans have had an advantage in this country (Gaff, 2011). This white racism, in turn, creates a socio-environmental climate that increases the level of social problems within minority communities because of discrimination in hiring practices and the payment for working (Danzer, 2012).
3. Stage One of Hate Group Development
When minority successes and quotas for employment threaten this status of entitlement found within the white community, this causes a fear of losing the status they have, and these people are likely to unite against this perceived threat (Bonger, 1916). Bonger (1916) theorized that when a culture perceives that it is threatened, that culture will create hostility towards those threats. When a culture or community feels threatened, people in that community will seek to join with others who believe the same way; this is stage one of the hate group model (Schafer & Navarro, 2003). Once individuals gather, they create groups intending to keep outsiders out of the group (Bonger, 1916). As a group becomes more singular in their attitudes and beliefs, those groups become more extreme and radicalized in their thoughts and attitudes (Glaeser & Sunstein, 2008).
4. Stage Two of Hate Group Development
Once the culture of hate has coalesced, the second stage of hate is to establish and create the symbols, methodologies, rituals, and music of the group, which is designed to enhance the culture while degrading the target of their hate (Schafer & Navarro, 2003). Within the White Supremacy culture, that music is Punk Rock (Childress, 2004; Smith, 2011; Wade, 2007). Each year, 100s of 1000s hate-rock albums are produced and spread throughout the country (Wade, 2007). Because kids like music and are seeking to be different from their parents, this type of music is utilized to catch their attention. The medium of music is used to recruit new members and to pass along the message of hate, a message to be proud of one’s culture, race, and heritage at the cost of other groups or populations within society (Wade, 2007). Smith (2011) states that the easiest way for hate groups to spread their message of hate is through music. The beat of the music seduces America’s youth, and the lyrics form their opinions and beliefs (Smith, 2011). Along with the live music concerts, youth hear from speakers who reinforce the message that has been given by the music (Smith, 2011). As there is increased rhetoric given to the youth about racial pride without any dissent, they become more radicalized and hateful towards those people who are different and not in the in-group (Glaeser & Sunstein, 2008; Smith, 2011).
5. Stage Three of Hate Group Development
The culture of White Supremacy, once radicalized, will move to stage three were, using revisionist history to be able to disparage their target regardless of who that target (Schafer & Navarro, 2003). Once the culture gets to this state, they do not care whom they target; Smith (2011) reported that hate group members, specifically members of the Straight-Edge Society, that there is no difference between outsiders, whether individuals are Hippies, Blacks, or Jews, the only concern was that they were different and not in the group.
6. Stage Four of Hate Group Development
Taunting the target of the hate group is stage four of the development of hate groups (Schafer & Navarro, 2003). Time cools the fire of hate, forcing the hater to look inward. To avoid introspection, hate group members increase their use of rhetoric and violence to maintain high levels of agitation (Schafer & Navarro, 2003). Members will use taunts and offensive gestures to attempt to get victims to resort to violence first (Danzer, 2012; Cowan et al., 2002).
7. Stage Five of Hate Group Development
This stage is critical because it differentiates vocally abusive haters from physically abusive ones (Schafer & Navarro, 2003). Stage five involves violence without weapons. Once violence begins, it coalesces the hate group members and isolates them from mainstream society (Schafer & Navarro, 2003). In this stage, thrill-seeking appears among the members of hate groups (Schafer & Navarro, 2003). The adrenaline “high” intoxicates the attackers, creating an addictive attitude. Each successive hate-derived thought or action triggers a more violent response than the one that originally initiated the sequence. Anger builds on anger, creating an adrenaline high and hate becoming deadly (Anderson et al., 2002).
8. Stage 6 of Hate Group Development
Stage Six of hate group development involves the transition from attacking people without weapons to the use of weapons. Some attackers use firearms to commit hate crimes, while others prefer close-contact weapons such as edged weapons (Schafer & Navarro, 2003). Edged weapons require the attacker to be close to the victim, showing the personal-anger aspects of hate (Schafer & Navarro, 2003). At the same time, other attackers choose to discharge firearms from a distance, avoiding personal contact with the victim of the hate group (Schafer & Navarro, 2003). Personal contact between the hate group member and the victim empowers and fulfills the deep-seated need of the hater to dominate the object of their hate. This adrenaline turns into a blood-lust, which leads to stage seven of hate group development.
9. Stage Seven of Hate Group Development
The ultimate goal of hate groups is to destroy the target of their hate (Schafer & Navarro, 2003). Attacking with weapons gives hate group members power over life and death, giving them a great sense of self-worth (Schafer & Navarro, 2003). Hate group members perceive value and strength by “taking blood for the cause” (Danzer, 2012; Cowan et al., 2002). The ultimate destiny of hate is the physical and psychological destruction of both the hate group member and the target of their hate (Childress, 2004).
10. Race and Hate
Hate and Supremacy groups are not restricted to the white race. You can find hate groups from all races and ethnic backgrounds (Anderson et al., 2002). Examples from all races include the Ku Klux Klan, the Hammerskin Skinheads, Neo-Nazis, Neo-Confederates, the New Black Panther Party, Black Hebrew Israelites, La Raza Unita, and Kahane Chai (Potok, 2011). All these groups expect a coming race war where the three major races in the United States will fight for control of the country (The Knights Party, 2011; Mulloy, 2010; Danzer, 2012).
Researchers have spent time attempting to understand why the Black population in America has produced hate groups as violent and outspoken as their white counterparts, if not even more so (Danzer, 2012; Cowan et al., 2002). The consensus is that after four hundred years of slavery, discrimination, and racist attacks, the Black population, the more significant population, has had enough because of a condition called Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome (PTSS) (DeGruy, 2009). DeGruy (2009) suggests that generations of mistreatment of the Black population by the White population have created a mindset that has low self-esteem and is incapable of achieving the American Dream and thus attempts to strike back against those they perceive to be “keeping them down.” It could be argued that if the White Supremacy movement can be dismantled, then all racial hate groups would follow suit (DeGruy, 2009).
11. Jews as a Religious Target
The Jewish people have had a long history of being persecuted, enslaved, discriminated against, and victims of Genocide. The Jewish people continue to hold certain attitudes, values, and beliefs, like education, giving, and helping individuals in need even when those helped might not appreciate the assistance (Telushkin, 2004). Every Jew must answer to their God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and their obedience to His commandments as written in the Torah (Telushkin, 2004).
That is the vision of the Jewish people in an ideal world, knowing that the Jewish people are not all holy, all giving, and some are far from an example to the world. The thought that all Jews believe in God is also a naïve contention. Once, I met a Jewish man who claimed to be an atheist (this story is now a joke I hear all over the place), yet he left work to celebrate Passover. I had asked him, “If you do not believe in God, why do you bother with the Passover Sadar, observing the great miracle God did for the Jewish people?” He responded, “Because I am Jewish” (Paul Reti, personal communication, 2005). Being Jewish, celebrating feasts and holidays, even the tradition of giving to charity (Telushkin, 2004) does not necessarily require a belief in a creator. However, applying Post Traumatic Slavery Syndrome to the Jewish people, you can see why many Jews do not stand up and fight for themselves, and they let discrimination and prejudice go by the wayside (DeGruy, 2009). In 2003, I lived in a small rural West Texas town, working for the Private Prison System with a federal contract with the BOP and U.S. Marshalls. I used to fly an Israeli flag alongside the U.S. flag. The local representative of the KKK told me that I needed to remove the Israeli flag, or they would burn my house down. Taking this threat seriously, I went to the Chief of Police, who quickly told me that if I did not like the way he ran the town, I could get my “Jew ass out of town.” When I went to talk to mylawyer, he advised me that it was not safe for a Jew to live south of I-20 and west of I-35. This perception encourages the Jewish people to segregate themselves voluntarily from the rest of society in communities like Boro Park. On the reverse of this stance, you see members of the Jewish community fight back against this hate and discrimination by forming their hate groups called the Jewish Defense League and Kahane Chai (Southern Poverty Law Center, 2012).
Since October 7, 2023, the Jewish people have become targets of hate and extremism around the world. On October 7, 2023, Hamas led an invasionof Israel, which is recorded as the third-largest terror attack since 1970 (Byman et al., 2023). The Hamas Covenant calls for the destruction of Israel and world Jewry (Hamas, 2017).
The Day of Judgment will not come about until Moslems fight Jews and kill them. Then, the Jews will hide behind rocks and trees, and the rocks and trees will cry out: “O Moslem, a Jew is hiding behind me, come and kill him.” (Article 7).
This call for the destruction of Israel and world Jewry has grown from London to Rome, to Washington D.C., to various University Campuses across the United States with the slogan “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” (Kellman, 2023). While there is a debate about its meaning depending on whom you talk with, the general consensus is that the phrase means creating a free Palestinian nation where Israel now exists (Kellman, 2023).
12. Social Structure and Hate
Merton (1996) developed a theory throughout his lifetime called Social Structure Theory that explores the roles and stresses within each person. Individuals are given and are expected to act a certain way within a culture or family. Role-sets and role relationships govern an individual’s relationship and status within that culture and outside the culture. This role-set is governed by six social mechanisms (Merton, 1996).
The first is the relative importance of various statuses (Merton, 1996). Every culture establishes a social structure. This structure sets the place in society a specific role holds. For example, a parent, child, sibling, teacher, and community leader. Each can find themselves in several separate roles within the community. A single person can occupy any role listed above and much more as they are part of the greater society (Merton, 1996). For example, this author holds the roles of son, sibling, parent, husband, uncle, nephew, grandparent, professor, mentor, Chairman of the Faculty Senate, and member of professional and social organizations. The second mechanism of social structure is the difference of power between the several roles in the set (Merton, 1996). This mechanism stabilizes the role set by establishing the power and authority of the roles within the set (Merton, 1996). Merton (1996) explains this power and authority as the ability of people in these roles to impose their will and desires over the other individuals in the culture. The third mechanism of role sets is the insulation of role activities from observability by members of the role set (Merton, 1996). Because people do not spend continuous time with each other within the roles, higher-status members are insulated from the lower-set members, which allows for conflicts in role expectations (Merton, 1996).
A professor is expected to act a certain way when they are with the members of their class but can relax and not hold themselves to that standard while at home outside of the view of their role-set. The fourth mechanism is observing conflicting demands by role-set members (Merton, 1996). There can be disputes between members within the role-set, and the culture needs to resolve these conflicts. The status occupant leader is often left as a bystander while the group members all work on “getting on the same page” (Merton, 1996). Fifth is the mutual support among status-occupants (Merton, 1996). These status occupants or leaders are joined in their leadership. Others have been there before, and other leaders lead other sets (Merton, 1996). Lastly, it is abridging the role set (Merton, 1996). Occasionally, there are times when group demands cannot be reconciled, and the group must be dissolved, creating two distinct groups (Merton, 1996).
Within Social and cultural role sets, several elements define the culture, but two are most important. The first is the establishment of culturally linked goals, purposes, and interests that define the objectives of the culture. We have seen this in both the hate groups and within Judaism. Although these aims and objectives are not the same in action, they are the same in structure (Telushkin, 2004; The Knights Party, 2011). The goals and objectives of Judaism are cultural survival through education, hard work, and promoting social justice throughout the world (Telushkin, 2004; Wilkinson, 1994). The goals and objectives of the several racial hate groups also include cultural survival; however, their plan is through violence and a racial civil war (The Knights Party, 2011; The Ballot or the Bullet, 1964; DeMarche, 2012; McCaul, 2006). Even though white and black racial hate groups target each other, both groups within the culture of hate target Jews for their hatred and violence (Wilkinson, 1994). Both cultures, Judaism and the culture of hate, believe that their goals, objectives, and desires are worth striving for (Merton, 1996).
The second essential element of cultural structure defines the rules, regulations, and obligations of the members of the culture to obtain those goals (Merton, 1996). In addition to the mores established by the culture, sanctions are created for those who go against the culture’s ideals (Merton, 1996). Glaeser & Sunstein (2008) researched extremism and social learning. They found that groups are more likely to punish those within the group more severely than those outside the group for violating the rules of society. In 2006, on December 31, John Michael Hays ordered and participated in the beating and murder of Roland Dickinson, a fellow member of the Aryan Circle White Supremacist Prison Gang (Stafford, 2007). According to John Michael Hays’ courtroom testimony, he explained that Dickinson had to die because he had violated the rules of the group and disrespected his leadership and his wife (Personal Communication, in court, 04, 29, 2007). Violating the culture mores is treated as treason and betrayal that must be punished by the most severe means (Unknown, 1985). Within Judaism, mores are established through obedience to the Torah, Talmud, and Mishnah (Neusner, 2002). Although punishment was death in ancient times for violations of cultural norms, today, it is met with shame and ridicule (Telushkin, 2004). Jews who fail to follow the basic tenets of Judaism and refuse to promote social justice through the helping professions are somehow deemed less Jewish.
13. Bias
Bias is always a risk when conducting research (Creswell, 2009). If the researchers are not careful in analyzing the data they have compiled, they could allow their biases to influence their outcomes and results (Creswell, 2009). In this project, I had two significant risks to keep in check. The first is providing an unsupported positive analysis of the culture I most identify. Because I do identify with the Jewish people, it is hard not to put on blinders and ignore the negative parts of the culture.
On the contrary, because researchers are aware of their possible favorable bias, they can overcorrect and be unduly harsh on the native culture (Creswell, 2007). Another bias that faces this researcher on this topic is that I am a victim of anti-Semitism. This negative personal experience could cause the same issues as previously discussed, being unduly harsh or overly apologetic based on the inability of the researcher to stay neutral and unbiased in the research. To combat these issues of bias, it is essential to ensure that you keep your opinion out of the paper and stick to the information and data that has been collected (Creswell, 2009). Another strategy to fight against bias is to use a team of peers to verify results and conclusions (Creswell, 2009). Opinion and supposition must be avoided at all costs in a project like this one because it will slant your results and discredit the research project (Creswell, 2007).
The culture of hate, regardless of the racial or ethnic heritage of the several groups, all focus on one thing—the survival of their larger culture. Although the hate groups represent a small portion of the more significant population, they are a culture in themselves. They evolve through the same seven stages of hate regardless of their race (Schafer & Navarro, 2003). If left unchecked, these stages will evolve to the point that they will destroy their target.