Discovery Because of its cosmopolitan sensibilities, many of us forget that New York City also harbors hate groups. Yet according to the Southern Poverty Law Center's "hate map," 44 groups from the KKK to jihadist groups operate in the city. Some of these groups are overtly hate-filled, like the KKK, but others operate more covertly, like Castle Hill Publishers, whose leader has been an avowed holocaust denier. Because some of these groups were previously unknown to me, I decided to focus on one that might have gone unrecognized for what it is: the Alamo Christian Foundation. Typically a Christian organization should not be a hate group but the Southern Poverty Law Center shows how and why the Alamo Christian Foundation preaches "general hate."

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The Alamo Christian Foundation (Tony Alamo Christian Ministries) appears to have a platform that includes conspiracy theories of all types, related to UFOs and government infiltration by "Evil International Roman Catholic Government Agents." The rhetoric would be comedic were it not for the fact that many in this ministry must believe it and have the ability to possess weapons to defend their beliefs. I am not surprised this group exists, but I am disturbed to realize that groups like this operate covertly in New York City, making it so that I do not know who the members are when I walk down the...

Others we have heard of, but I did not realize the extent of their propaganda. For example, the Nation of Islam I had thought was just a black power group but the Southern Poverty Law Center shows that the Nation of Islam leaders have issued some startling statements lauding Hitler. Some hate groups do eventually become implicated in criminal behaviors but many simply use their own media to spread their propaganda. The problem with hate speech propagated by the most covert groups is that some people may be attracted to some of the more benign elements of the group's discourse, whether that discourse be about self-empowerment or about religion. When the individual forms friendships and alliances with people in that group and then realizes that hate is a part of the group's rhetoric and modus operandi, then the group members might ignore or downplay the hate and become complicit in perpetuating the hate-filled discourse. The discourse leads to…