Burbank 'Hate Music' Record Label Appears On 'Hate Map'

BURBANK, IL — A record label called Hostile Class Productions said to be operating out of Burbank appears on a new interactive map showing hate groups operating throughout Illinois and the rest of the United States. The Southern Poverty Law Center released its new map this week. The updated version allows users to see more details, including which states have the most hate groups per capita and how the number of hate groups has changed over time at the state and national level.

Hostile Class Productions, along with 14 other record labels and/or bands, fall under the “hate music” category. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, various forms of “white power” music have evolved from a cottage industry serving a few skinheads to a “multimillion-dollar, worldwide industry used as a conduit for money and young recruits to the radical right.”

White power or hate music first surfaced in the 1990s in Great Britain. Resistance Records, a label owned by the neo-Nazi group National Alliance was the primary distributor of hate music, but Alliance has diminished in membership in recent years, causing Resistance to lose money. Today the hate music scene is fed by small and often competing racist firms, the SPLC claims.

A quick perusal of some LPs, EPs and singles released under the Hostile label include "Skinhead Warrior," "United Skins – Thugs of America" and "Hail Norden," to name a few. Attempts to find a Burbank address for Hostile Class Productions were unsuccessful. The Southern Poverty Law Center does not put people in touch with hate groups.

In an email to Patch, Burbank police said that while the department believed some offenses it investigated were done in hate, nothing in the past year constituted a hate crime. Police were also unaware of Hostile Class Productions or any other hate group operating within Burbank city limits.

The Southern Poverty Law Center identified 1,020 active hate groups operating in the United States last year, a record high and a 30-percent increase over the last four years. Moreover, an estimated 40 people were killed in North America in radical right terrorist attacks last year and there were more than 1,200 incidents of hate groups passing out flyers.

Heidi Beirich, director of the Intelligence Project, which publishes the award-winning Intelligence Report and the Hatewatch blog, said in a release it’s become “critically important” that people understand what she called “the landscape of hate.” The number of these groups is surging in the era of President Donald Trump, who has faced fierce criticism for his anti-immigrant rhetoric.

“We hope the new, interactive map helps people recognize and better understand the extremist activity occurring in their communities and how it’s part of a larger movement,” said Beirich.

Here are the 31 hate groups currently operating in Illinois, identified on the SPLC hate map:

• Act for America, Des Plaines (anti-Muslim)
• America First Committee, Lyons (neo-Nazi)
• American Guard, statewide (general hate)
• American Vikings Clothing, Danville (racist, skinhead)
• Americans for Truth About Homosexuality, Naperville (anti-LGBT)
• Aryan Nations Sadistic Souls MC, Canton, Wood River (neo-Nazi)
• Atomwaffen Division, statewide (neo-Nazi)
• Be Active Front USA, Chicago (racist skinhead)
• The Creativity Alliance, statewide (neo-Nazi)
• The Creativity Movement, statewide (neo-Nazi)
• Divine International Church of the Web, Morton (Christian Identity)
• Euro Folk Radio, Chicago (Christian identity)
• Great Millstone, Chicago (Black Nationalist)
• Heterosexuals Organized for a Moral Environment (H.O.M.E.), Downers Grove (anti-LGBT)
• Hostile Class Productions, Burbank (hate music)
• Identity Evropa, Chicago (white nationalist)
• Illinois Family Institute, Carol Stream (anti-LGBT)
• Israel United In Christ, Chicago (black nationalist)
• Nation of Islam, Rockford, Chicago (black nationalist)
• Lion of Judan, Jeshurian Lions, Chicago (black nationalist)
• Patriot Front, statewide (white nationalist)
• Nationalist Socialist Movement, statewide (neo-Nazi)
• Soldiers of Odin, statewide (anti-Muslim)
• The Right Stuff, Chicago (white nationalist)
• The United Muwaupians Worldwide/All Eyes On Egypt, Chicago (black nationalist)
• United Kingdom of Israel Congregation, Chicago (black nationalist)
• White Boy Society, statewide (white nationalist)
• World Congress of Families/International Organization for the Family, Rockford (anti-LGBT)

Patch national staffer Dan Hampton contributed to this report.