Southern Poverty Law Center Pushes Twisted Definition of 'Hate'

Human Events, Dec 11, 2006 by Vadum, Matthew

Corrosive Effect

A disinterested observer might conclude that Morris Dees and the Southern Poverty Law Center are irrelevant activists left over from the 1960s, hangers-on to memories of past civil rights campaigns. They trudge on, enamored of their own propaganda.

Richard Samp, chief counsel for the Washington Legal Foundation, told Organization Trends that he finds it difficult to take anything the SPLC does nowadays seriously. "There are so many of these [liberal groups] that they have to speak in particularly shrill tones in order to distinguish themselves from the many other groups out there," Samp said. "I certainly disagree with their saying America is racist. I don't think they really believe that," he said.

SPLC's hyping of racism in America is "simply fundraising puffery," Samp said.

Yet it may be too easy to dismiss SPLC. It has mastered the art of inflaming racial passions, and in doing so, it undermines Americans' confidence in the nation's racial progress. SPLC's activism may be too profitable an enterprise for it to give up. but it can have a corrosive effect on our politics. Jim Sleeper, author of Liberal Racism, wrote that "there is a race industry that has a moral and financial stake in ginning up these racial bogeymen." Sleeper told columnist Deroy Murdock that the race industry makes "a real effort to play up the bad news and play down the good.... The ground is shifting under our feet, and a lot of these people don't want to let go."

Mr. Vudum is editor of Organization Trends, a Capital Research Center publication. This article is reproduced from the November 2006 edition.