Nine hundred and seventeen. That’s the number of hate groups operating in the US, according to data from the Southern Poverty Law Center.
“Over the course of a year, we have a team of investigators that scours the internet for racist publications and real world activities to find out which groups exist, which groups are still active and which groups come along,” said Ryan Lenz, a senior investigative reporter for the SPLC’s Hatewatch project.
Some are classified as anti-LGBT groups, and some are black separatists, who don’t believe in interracial marriage and want a nation only for black people, according to the group.
Some critics of the SPLC say the group’s activism biases how it categorizes certain groups.
But since the FBI doesn’t keep track of domestic hate groups, the SPLC’s tally is the widely accepted one.
Barnes Review/Foundation for Economic Liberty, Inc.