White supremacy gets mounting support in the US

The US Department of Homeland Security reports that the economic downturn may be causing an upsurge in membership of right-wing extremist groups who could pose an even greater threat to the US than extremists abroad.

There has been growing concern in the US regarding a significant spike of extremism, particularly since the election of American president Barack Obama.

According to watchdog groups, such as the Southern Poverty Law Center, nearly 930 hate groups comparable with the notorious KKK have been documented in the US in 2008. This is up 54% from the number of hate groups known in 2000. That means that the amount of white supremacy supporters have more than doubled in eight short years.

According to reports, two white supremacy websites actually crashed on November 5 last year, the day after the US presidential elections. The founder on one of the sites said nearly 3,000 new users signed up within 24 hours of Barack Obama’s victory.

US intelligence officials believe that the economic downturn coupled with the election of the first African-American president have been unique drivers in the increasing amount of fanatics and supporters of extremism.

The homeland security briefing that was released in April on company closures and unemployment states that Americans cannot have enough credit as they used to have. Put another way, recruiting elements that fanatics have used basically prey upon the vulnerabilities of some Americans that may be unemployed at this moment as a result of the crisis.

According to reports, these white supremacists have been quoted as saying “now it’s the time when a guy down the street that used to have a car in the garage and a plasma TV and a home that he owned is joining these white supremacy groups because he or she is angry that an illegal immigrant has the job that this American might have had.

There is also something that these white supremacy groups or advocating their interests are calling for “voluntary resettlement”, which means that illegal immigrants or African-Americans that are jailed would literally be deported from America.

Their defenders moved by saying that they just want to preserve the culture of America, i.e. the culture of white Americans.