Saturday, March 14, 2015

The Importance Of Anti Hate Groups

By Lena Stephenson


Intolerance and fear often results from not understanding and appreciating different races, genders and religions. Unfortunately, people with the same fears tend to seek one another out and congregate together. Some people feel that the best policy is to simply ignore them. However, what may start with intimidation usually escalates eventually resulting in violent crimes. The desire to stop these kinds of crime has lead to the formation of many anti hate groups.

Some of them are large and others are small. Some support specific minorities such as Asians. Others deal more widely with racist issues. A recent area causing concern is intolerance and bigotry on the internet and this is being monitored. There are those that try to protect human rights in whichever way they can do this.

These organizations have realized the importance of standing up against groups such as the neo-Nazis, Klansmen, black separatists and white nationalists. There are those who feel that giving them attention rewards them for their asocial behavior and helps them attract disaffected youth to their ranks. However, experts in the field believe that exposing them instead of ignoring them is the best strategy to follow.

Organizations like this are usually highly active and exploit every possible situation to spread propaganda, intimidate, vandalize property and even kill people. Young people do join these organizations and in fact an alarming percentage of victims and perpetrators of violence are young people. This is why deterring, preventing and reducing hate-related juvenile violence has become so important to many organizations.

There is a realization that issues such as diversity, prejudice and racism have to be discussed. This has to begin as early as possible. Parents need to start talking about these issues with their children. Educators need to address them in school too. In talking about the differences between races, religions, sexes and more, it is possible to bring about change. Hopefully, these young people who are able to recognize discrimination from an early age will no longer tolerate it.

This material is designed to help parents and educators deal with these issues in the best possible way. Videos, books, documentary films and lesson-plans are all helpful. They provide ways to explore diversity and make children understand why they may have certain biases. They help them to move beyond this and thus the climate in schools begins to change, offering safety and acceptance to all.

As much as prejudice and hatred exist, there are those who are prepared to stand up against it. They do so in many different ways, from educating the youth to taking cases of prison inmate abuse and exploitation of workers to court and winning favorable verdicts. There are even programs for law enforcement officials showing them innovative ways of how to intervene in hate-related crimes.

When a country is going through emotional turmoil, groups propagating racism, bigotry and intolerance usually grow as people are looking for any possible scapegoat to blame for their financial woes. Politicians and the media tend to exploit the situation too. Groups standing up against the perpetrators of violent crimes need to be supported as they are fulfilling an important role and dealing with issues that simply cannot be ignored..




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