Thursday, February 23, 2006

Raging Racists

Orcinus is a freelance journalist from Seattle who has written a series on the emerging rise of racism in our country. Recent posts on this issue can be found at Say No to Nazis and Backyard Nazis. He observes that there have been increasing signs of an emboldened white-supremacist far right, with a surge in the ranks by young people.

This is an occurance that I have noticed as well and discussed some time ago, at Bill's a Bigot.

Orcinus cites an article from a local paper, the News of Delaware County, entitled Defining a skinhead. The article notes:

A new bread of skinheads is emerging in Pennsylvania bringing a fresh approach to a familiar brand of prejudice.

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) released a report that skinhead groups in the United States are increasing and Pennsylvania is a major rallying point.

* * * *

There are 110 skinhead groups in the United States, including six in Pennsylvania, according to the ADL.

The largest Pennsylvania organization - the Keystone State Skinheads (KSS) - has about 70 members and several regional chapters, including in Philadelphia and Chester County, according to the ADL.

Many of the new skinheads are young, impressionable, undisciplined and violent, according to Morrison.

"To be a skinhead is to be violent," Morrison said. "They have a great tendency to engage in criminal activity."

The South had the KKK. Pennsylvania has the KSS. The letters may be different, but the hate is still the same. It's not exactly the kind of progress that one would have hoped for at the beginning of a new century.

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