The Nonprofit FAQ

What about hate groups?

Nonprofit organizations take many forms and serve many purposes. Though observers often focus on the services and inspiration provided by the visible nonprofits that operate in our communities, it is well to remember that we gain strength as a nation from our long-standing and much-contested commitment to permitting unpopular speech and the expression of unpopular, even repugnant, ideas. The fact is that often the vehicle used by people who want to exercise their rights of free speech to express unpopular ideas is to form a nonprofit organization for the purpose. :: Put Barber :: Seattle :: September 1996 On September 14, 2001, Don Greisman circulated the following note on nonprofit related mailing lists: Those of us who have people and nonprofits as the reason for what we do have lived through some hateful and obscene actions in our daily lives. I am sending this to you the front line friends of people. It is simply because I fear a backlash because of religion, clothing, gender, accent, skin tone and nationality from the awful events of 9/11/01. In that interest I offer three articles on web sites with the hope they will give you talking points as you serve: 1. http://www.gigalaw.com/articles/morris-2000-01-p1.html discussing legal information about free speech and limitations for Internet professionals. 2. http://www.gigalaw.com/articles/2000-all/adl-2000-07-all.html featuring the 10 most asked questions about extremist speech on line. 3. http://www.serviceleader.org/vv/safety/hate.html about discouraging inappropriate activities by youth on the Internet. I know that I am speaking to the choir. I have found some help in these articles and I trust you will too. If they are helpful, please share them. Peace, Donald A. Griesmann, Esq. Ventnor NJ [email protected] There are many resources on the Internet for coping with the use of the 'net by hate groups, and for understanding hate groups more generally. One quick way to locate the most widely used of them is to do a search at http://www.google.com/ on the term 'hate groups'. (You can access Google with a couple of clicks from the 'Search INC' link in the left margin of this page.) The particular organizations included in listings of hate groups on the Internet are not usually selected because of their corporate form. But many of them are, in fact, nonprofits. And, of course, there are nonprofit groups who serve their communities by exposing and opposing the evils and the untruths on which hate groups feed. One of these is the Southern Poverty Law Center and its HateWatch reporting (http://www.hatewatch.org).--PB Originally posted September 1996; revised 9/14/01; 2/7/02; 4/18/05 -- PB