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ANALYSIS – University centers that study hate won’t comment on explosive allegations
Experts on “hate” and “extremism” have ignored numerous requests to comment on allegations that the Southern Poverty Law Center funded informants who used money to buy Ku Klux Klan hoods and cross-burning materials.
A federal indictment alleges that more than $4 million in donor funds went to pay confidential informants within extremist groups. The latest indictment alleges some money was used for “recruiting new members and purchasing materials for cross burnings and Ku Klux Klan robes and hoods,” according to CBS News.
The College Fix contacted seven university centers that study hate and extremism and asked for a reaction to the indictment, the ethics of funding Klan materials, and best practices for monitoring extremism.
None of the groups responded to emails and phone calls in the past several weeks including the University of California Los Angeles’ Initiative to Study Hate, California State University – San Bernardino’s Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, Gonzaga’s Journal of Hate Studies and Center for the Study of Hate, Carnegie Mellon University and University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Applied Research on Targeted Violence, and George Washington University’s Program of Extremism.
Both Bard’s Center for the Study of Hate and American University’s Polarization & Extremism Research & Innovation Lab declined to comment.
The original indictment included allegations of “wire fraud, bank fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.”
The Southern Poverty Law Center denies wrongdoing. Attorney Abbe Lowell told CBS News that his client “did not lie to its donors” or mislead financial institutions and argued the SPLC’s program helped prevent violence and save lives.
The organization also asked a federal judge to sanction the Justice Department, alleging prosecutors improperly distributed an unsigned draft of the new indictment before it was officially filed.
However two experts on the Southern Poverty Law Center said its conduct would be difficult to justify.
Former Vanderbilt University professor Carol Swain said she sees no legitimate justification for the conduct alleged in the indictment if prosecutors ultimately prove their claims. She testified in May to a Congressional committee about her own experience being targeted by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
“If it’s documented that they actually paid for Klan robes and materials, then I don’t see how they could justify that,” Swain told The Fix. “I don’t see any justification for that.”
Swain, the author of “The New White Nationalism in America: Its Challenge to Integration,” said the Ku Klux Klan had become largely irrelevant by the time she researched white nationalism in the 2000s. One researcher had estimated only about 2,000 members in the US, most of which were FBI informants.
Swain said even if the SPLC claims to be using FBI strategies, that is wrong. “[T]here’s a difference between monitoring groups and going out and providing materials for your so-called informants to actually engage in illegal activities.”
“[T]here’s no legitimate reason that an organization dedicated to combating hate would use a strategy that involves bolstering groups that were almost dead,” she said.
The founder of the Legal Insurrection Foundation likewise said the allegations raise questions about the organization’s use of charitable donations.
“The Superseding Indictment alleges a series of questionable purchases by SPLC,” William Jacobson told The Fix. “If true, the purchase of items used to advance racial protests and events might be inconsistent with SPLC’s purported charitable purpose.”
Jacobson’s website, Legal Insurrection, has been writing about Southern Poverty Law Center tactics since 2009.
The Cornell Law School professor cautioned, however, that “context is important.” He thinks the SPLC will be using that as part of their defense.
Jacobson said he has been concerned for more than 15 years that the organization “has centered around potentially deceptive advertising and solicitations, based on a very aggressive listing of supposed hate groups by SPLC in its hate maps.”
Among those listed on the hate maps are conservative organizations including the Family Research Council and Alliance Defending Freedom.
The Southern Poverty Law Center pleaded not guilty to the indictment and the criminal case is still ongoing.
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