Oregon Among Top 10 Most Hateful States In US, Analysis Shows

White supremacists and nationalist groups thrived in President Trump’s first year in office, according to a new report that showed a 4 percent increase in the number of hate groups nationwide.

An analysis of the Southern Poverty Law Center's (SPLC) report showed Idaho, an overwhelmingly white state where only 5.8 percent of the population is foreign-born, is the most hateful state in the country with 12 active hate groups.

The SPLC identified 18 individual hate groups in Oregon, putting the Beaver State in the top 10 nationally for its hate group-to-residents ratio.

In its 2018 Intelligence Project report, the SPLC civil rights advocacy group said the number of active hate groups in the United States rose from 784 in 2014 to 954 in 2017 as “alt-right” white supremacy groups broke through a firewall that for decades kept overt racists underground.

“President Trump in 2017 reflected what white supremacist groups want to see: a country where racism is sanctioned by the highest office, immigrants are given the boot and Muslims banned,” Heidi Beirich, director of the SPLC’s Intelligence Project, said in a statement. “When you consider that only days into 2018, Trump called African countries ‘s---holes,’ it’s clear he’s not changing his tune. And that’s music to the ears of white supremacists.”

In its analysis of the hate map, 24/7 Wall Street identified the 10 most hateful states as Idaho, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Indiana, Virginia, Oregon, Arkansas, Georgia and Colorado.

The online financial news and opinion site looked at the number of hate groups per 1 million state residents, immigrant populations, and a range of socio-economic data, including the percentage of adults 25 years and olde who hold at least a bachelor’ degree, the percentage of each state’s population that is white, poverty rates and median household income.

The data came from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2016 American Community Survey and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Click here for more on the methodology.

The majority of Oregon's groups (11) are recognized as statewide, with all but one identified as specifically pro-white, or pro-anglo. The one oddball of the collection, the Wolves of Vinland, aren't considered specifically racist as much as they're thought to be more misogynistic — though Wolves leader Jack Donovan has some thoughts on the SPLC and its categorizations.

Referred to as "neo-Völkisch," the Wolves of Vinland, at its most basic interpretation, promote masculinity, tribalism, and survivalism.

Patch shared the last SPLC hate map in August 2017, which revealed only 11 hate groups and also included the "Cascadia" chapter of the national Wolves of Vinland group. In December, Patch received an email from Donovan in response.

"The members of the Cascadian chapter of the Wolves have no interest in White Nationalist causes and … the group is religious in nature and staunchly non-political," Donovan told Patch. "The discussion of current politics is actually forbidden at our local meetings."

Conducting "pagan rituals" in the woods, the Wolves do not target any minority group, Donovan explained, noting also his thoughts on the SPLC.

"The SPLC is a fundraising scam that invents 'hate groups' to scare liberals into sending them money to 'expose' more 'hate groups.' Many of their 'hate groups' are inactive, mislabeled, or one guy with an office," he said. "The SPLC designates us as two chapters (WA and OR) to pad their sleazy list. I sent them an email accusing them of libel, because I don't identify as a White Nationalist and have written about my disagreements with (White Nationalists) at length."

In its analysis of the SPLC hate map, 24/7 Wall St. noted Portland's efforts, specifically, toward combating hate in the metro region.

"It seems the rise in organized hatred in Oregon has not gone unnoticed," 24/7 Wall St. reported. "The City of Portland recently announced a $350,000 grant to support organizations working with Portland United Against Hate. The group tracks and reports acts of hate and provides support and protection in communities throughout the state’s largest city — which itself is home to three hate groups."

The three groups located only in Portland, as oppose to the rest of the state, are without a xenophobic or pro-white slant.

The Portland-based Black Riders Liberation Party, Israelite Church of God in Jesus Christ, and Israelite School of Universal Practical Knowledge are identified as Black Nationalist, which, according to the SPLC, "typically oppose integration and racial intermarriage, and … want separate institutions — or even a separate nation — for blacks. Most forms of black nationalism are strongly anti-white and antisemitic, and a number of religious versions assert that blacks are the Biblical 'chosen people' of God."

Click here to read the 24/7 Wall St. overview of Oregon's hate groups, and here for more specifics from the SPLC’s hate map.

In Idaho, the SPLC's "most hateful state," a fourth of hate groups are overtly anti-Muslim, including ACT for America, the Committee to End the CSI Refugee Center and Pig Blood Bullets. They have backed a spate of anti-Sharia law legislation whose intent is to inflame passions rather than serve any useful purpose, as the U.S. Constitution already denies authority to any foreign law.

Idaho also has Ku Klux Klan chapters and Neo-Nazi groups.

In its 2018 Spring Intelligence Report, the SPLC said that within the white supremacist movement the greatest growth was in neo-Nazi groups — from 99 in 2016 to 121 in 2017. The number of anti-Muslim groups increased for a third straight year as well, from 101 in 2016 to 114 chapters one year later. Those groups had tripled in growth in 2015, according to the report.

The number of Ku Klux Klan groups decreased to 72 nationwide in 2017, down from 130 a year earlier.

The SPLC said the decline “is a clear indication that the new generation of white suprem­acists is rejecting the Klan’s hoods and robes for the hipper image of the more loosely organized alt-right movement.”

Click here to read the report from the Southern Poverty Law Center.

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Photo via Travis Loose

Written by Beth Dalbey, Patch National Staff, with additional reporting from Oregon Editor Travis Loose