Hate in the Hudson Valley: SPLC Tracks Local Groups

The Southern Poverty Law Center released its updated Hate Map for 2016 on Wednesday, showing another year of increasing hate across the country, including in the Hudson Valley and on Long Island.

New York ranked fourth in the nation for number of hate groups, following behind California, Florida and Texas. The SPLC tracked 917 hate groups in the nation last year.

One of the national groups they're tracking is a black separatist group headquartered in Mount Vernon, New York, called Israel United In Christ. In addition, the SPLC named four groups on Long Island: two chapters of the Ku Klux Klan, a racist music production company and an anti-Muslim group.

The SPLC compiled the list using information from the hate groups themselves, as well as police and media reports from around the country.

It has also been tracking the number of hate groups across the country. That number peaked in 2011, when the SPLC tracked 1,018 groups. It was in decline until 2015, when the number of groups began to grow again. The number of hate groups the SPLC tracks has more than doubled since 1999.

Images/ Southern Poverty Law Center

The SPLC named 47 groups in New York, most of them statewide, and most in the NYC metro area.

The Southern Poverty Law Center believes racism must be exposed in all its forms. According to the SPLC, black separatists like Israel United in Christ typically oppose integration and racial intermarriage, and want separate institutions -- or even a separate nation -- for blacks. Most forms of black separatism are strongly anti-white and anti-Semitic, and a number of religious versions assert that blacks are the Biblical "chosen people" of God.

Though the Long Island groups named by the SPLC are not particularly active or large, they have made headlines in recent years. KKK literature was found distributed on cars and houses in areas across Long Island and on LIRR trains. And the Suffolk KKK chapter performed a counter-protest to a Black Lives Matter protest last year.

The two chapters are not unique to Long Island — they are local chapters of larger KKK groups.

Wolftyr Productions, based in Holbrook, also makes it onto the SPLC list. It is a small record label that specializes in “pagan black metal” and promotes shows for the bands, many of whom are avowed Nazis.

The label is also the distributor for the magazine for the Heathen Circle collective, which as part of its mission statement is “dedicated to promoting pan-European heritage among the people of its descent worldwide.” The magazine features stories like “Defending Europe - Rise of the Soldiers of Odin” and “Of Shame and Failure (Pathway to übermensch).”

The final hate group the SPLC identified on Long Island is a local chapter of ACT For America, which it characterizes as an anti-Muslim group. The group promotes itself as “the NRA of national security.” It boasts 500,000 members and 1,000 chapters across the country, of which Long Island has two — one in Lynbrook and one in Hauppauge.

The organization is against Syrian refugees being resettled in the United States and believes that Muslims are trying to take over the country with Sharia law. The organization is also a huge proponent of American Exceptionalism.

Photo: Martin

By Alex Costello and Lanning Taliaferro (Patch Staff)