Tracking hate and investigating domestic terrorism
Duchess Harris, professor of American studies, department chair at Macalester College and Ryan Lenz, senior writer and online editor at Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Project, publisher of Hatewatch join MPR News' Tom Weber to discuss hate crimes in America.
Highlights:
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Should the shooting that wounded 5 near the encampment be called domestic terrorism?
"You have to look at this as a possible act of domestic terrorism," Lenz told Weber.
Lens notes that in the period of 2009 and 2013 there have been 63 acts of terrorism carried out by the radical right in the United States. He cites the SPLC's Lone Wolf Report as the source of this data.
Context for some of the backlash against Black Lives Matter
"I think a lot of response to black discontent is framed around the fact that we have a black president and that people in the black community should not feel that they've been slighted," Harris said.
When is a person considered a white supremacist?
"A white supremacist is simply someone who believes, has a myriad of ideologies, but at the core of each is this idea that whites are somehow supreme to every other racial group in the world. Those ideas are help passionately it isn't that difficult to find someone who holds those beliefs," Lenz said.