Impressionable youth are recruited at rallies and other events, such as this one sponsored by the World Church of the Creator. 'Rahowa' stands for 'Racial Holy War.' (special)

Racist graffiti, Confederate flag T-shirts, swastika tattoos and homophobic slurs in high-school hallways are only the tip of the iceberg. While hate crimes by youngsters plummeted during the Clinton years, the number has risen sharply since 9/11 — and the crimes appear to be more brutal than ever.

"What we're seeing," says Eric Ward, a longtime observer of extremist youth who works at Chicago's Center for New Community, "is a more militant, street-fighter culture."

The targets of this militancy have multiplied — and so have the perpetrators. After 9/11, a disproportionate number of assaults on Muslim-Americans were committed by teenagers. The same appears to be true for attacks against sexual and gender minorities, Hispanics and the homeless.

And hate activity is no longer the province of white boys, though they are still the main offenders. Not only are more Hispanic and African-American kids getting involved in hate, but more girls as well. Social ecologist Ronald Huff, a longtime student of both street and racist youth gangs estimates that "anywhere from a third to 50 percent of gang members are girls."

In another demographic shift, the bulk of hate activity now bubbles up in the suburbs — among reasonably well-off youth. "Twenty years ago, big cities were hotbeds of hate," says Jack Levin, director of Northeastern University's Brudnick Center and co-author of the new book Why We Hate.

"But as more and more minority families have moved into suburban areas, the prevalence of hate attacks has also increased there. These kids aren't prepared for people who are different. They see them as a threat. They come home in the afternoon to their empty houses, log onto the Internet, visit hate sites, chat rooms, bulletin boards and get ideas."

A special summer issue of the Center's Intelligence Report profiled neo-Nazi outfits like the National Socialist Movement and Aryan Nations, which still work hard to recruit youngsters into the fold.

But since much of the new racist activity is springing up from the grassroots, the issue also reported on start-up groups like the Connecticut White Wolves and Agnostic Neo-Nazis, both of which drew their inspiration from Internet hate sites — and ran with it.

"I don't know what's more frightening," says Ward, "kids joining organized hate groups, or the way hate is rising up spontaneously among kids who feel it's OK to terrorize and assault people because of their race or religion or sexual orientation. What does that say about where our society's headed?"

SPLC Report
September 2004