3

I've been looking for statistics about the subject, out of personal curiosity. I know a lot of these groups have no official records, but some do (like militias, etc). I was wondering if anybody had statistics like the top 10 states with the biggest number of far-right groups.

EDIT:

Following the comments I received I'll try to make my question more precise.

By far-right groups, I mean every group that is publicly known as a hate group with or without ties to the KKK and the neo-nazi movement. I'm not talking about political parties, more about activists groups, self-proclaimed militias and the likes. Any group promoting white supremacy, hate against other nationalities with a tendency for public demonstrations and violent outbursts.

About the numbers, I realize that I was vague about it and also that population density could bias the numbers so obviously getting a number that would take that into account would be the best (percentage of population involved etc.)

I'm well aware that there is probably no publicly available data that is really reliable because of the "covert" nature of such groups.

Improve this question
3
  • 4
    In absolute numbers, or as percentage of population? Also, a precise definition of "right-wing" would help: do Republicans count?
    – jamesqf
    Commented Aug 19, 2017 at 18:19
  • @jamesqf : Both numbers are actually interesting to look at. And as I was talking about right wing "groups" not political parties. There are only two partirs anyway, why would I consider them anyway?
    – BadgerBadger
    Commented Aug 19, 2017 at 19:26
  • 4
    Is a political party not a group? And there are more than two parties in the US: Libertarian, Green, Independent American, and others. But my question was really about how you go about defining "far right".
    – jamesqf
    Commented Aug 20, 2017 at 0:26

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
1

ABC News has a list of all those organizations designated as a hate group by the SPLC, divided by states. As federal organizations such as the FBI do not keep track of these groups, they are likely the best source you will find for this.

California is currently at the top of their list, Florida is second.

Note that some such as Fox News criticize the SPLC list, as it contains hate groups which fight against equal rights for LGBT people (such as the Family Research Council; in their own words, they oppose the idea that gay people should be treated "equivalent to heterosexuality in law").

Note also that the list does not only contain right wing extremists, but all sorts of extremists.

You can look up the location frequency of the particular sort of hate groups you are interested in on their interactive hate map.

CNN made their own map based on the data (it includes all kinds of hate groups):

Map of US with dots indicating "hate" groups

As is often the case when not correcting for population density, the map can somewhat resemble that of population density maps of the US.

Improve this answer
28
  • 4
    Downvoted because the SPLC is far from being an unbiased source.
    – jamesqf
    Commented Aug 20, 2017 at 0:27
  • 5
    @jamesqf I included the criticism of the list. If you have better criticism, please feel free to actually link to it. Just repeating that the SPLC - widely regarded a reliable source - is biased, without providing any reasons, is not helpful.
    – tim
    Commented Aug 20, 2017 at 8:23
  • 4
    In that the SPLC is biased against hate groups sure, but that's what they do. They are experts on hate groups.
    – user1530
    Commented Aug 21, 2017 at 20:43
  • 5
    @tim The FBI, by the guidance of the Attorney General, investigates Hate Groups when:"a threat or advocacy of force is made; when the group has the apparent ability to carry out the proclaimed act; and when the act would constitute a potential violation of federal law." The SPLC jointly condemns organizations that act with violence and those that repudiate violence, establishing a false moral equivalency. fbi.gov/about/faqs/…
    – Drunk Cynic
    Commented Aug 22, 2017 at 15:52
  • 7
    SPLC is not a reliable source. It has politicized its list beyond all usefulness, and no serious scholar should ever rely upon it. This article enumerates several complaints against SPLC (washingtonexaminer.com/…). The Examiner is also not impartial, but the claims and quotes it makes in this editorial are true.
    – The Pompitous of Love
    Commented Aug 22, 2017 at 21:49
1

I'm well aware that there is probably no publicly available data that is really reliable because of the "covert" nature of such groups.

We can try Google Trends for hate group websites. This provides relative search rates, so population density isn't an issue.

To select a website, I'm going with Stormfront, mostly because they're the hate website that I've heard most about lately:

Stormfront was a white nationalist,[4] white supremacist[5] and neo-Nazi[6] Internet forum. It was the Web's first major racial hate site.[7]

-"Stormfront (website)", Wikipedia

The map from Google Trends:

enter image description here

And then by subregion:

enter image description here

Improve this answer
3
  • 1
    The maps seem...somewhat arbitrary. That said, I spent time in that dark blue spot in WI and there were always stories of KKK history there. So maybe it's spot on.
    – user1530
    Commented Sep 1, 2017 at 1:12
  • Nice idea, but I think that this isn't actually useful. Search rates can have a number of reasons and do not necessarily correlate with hate groups or activities (I mean, do you google stackexchange each time you visit? Most dedicated users already know the URL and visit it directly). People in Vermont might just be more interested in finding out about hate groups, not in participating in their activities.You can also see that in the graph directly. Searches spiked around August, because Stormfront closed; those are likely not searches by hate groups but by people wondering what stormfront was
    – tim
    Commented Sep 2, 2017 at 9:33
  • 3
    Searching for "Stormfront" does not in any way imply that you agree with Stormfront. This could just as easily be interpreted as a map of "people who are so far removed from racism that they've never heard of Stormfront before"
    – endolith
    Commented Sep 3, 2017 at 14:28

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .