The Southern Poverty Law Center released a report Tuesday saying hate groups are on the rise and targeting public education through book bans and protests, as the center labeled 12 right-wing parents rights groups extremist.
The report, titled “Year in Hate & Extremism,” documents 1,225 active “extremist hate groups which are stripping communities of their rights” through public demonstrations, flyers and media attention.
“Taking on the most hateful factions in our country is critical to dismantling white supremacy and advancing the civil rights of all people,” Margaret Huang, president and chief executive officer of the Southern Poverty Law Center, said in a statement.
“We are exposing a concerted effort by hate groups and extremist actors to terrorize communities and gain control of public institutions by any means necessary,” Huang said.
“These groups are descending on Main Street America and disrupting people’s daily lives, too often with dire consequences for communities of color, Jewish people and the LGBTQ+ community,” Huang added.
Groups mobilizing at public schools, which SPLC called “extremist,” were singled out. Specifically the report documented 12 anti-student inclusion groups, which it said have attacked public education, banned books and removed curriculum focused on race, discrimination and LGBTQ+ identities.
“Hate and anti-government extremist groups are intent on staging public spectacles of hatred that harass, threaten and violently harm Black, Brown, Asian, Jewish, LGBTQ+ and immigrant communities,” Susan Corke, director of the SPLC’s Intelligence Project, said in a statement.
“Schools, synagogues and LGBTQ+ businesses — venues that have traditionally been safe spaces for our children, the Jewish community and LGBTQ+ people — are now on the frontlines of hatred and violence,” Corke added.
Moms for Liberty, which SPLC called a far-right anti-government organization that engages in anti-student inclusion activities and is considered part of the modern parental rights movement, says it created the group to fight the “woke indoctrination” of children.
