How hate groups use hot-button issues of the moment to spread their messages

Caption

A resident picked up about 50 antisemitic flyers behind St. Luke’s Presbyterian Church early Feb. 5, 2023.

Credit: Rough Draft Atlanta

Since Hamas attacked Israel early last month, antisemitic groups in Georgia have picked up the pace in their efforts to distribute hateful messages, usually in the form of fliers. This corresponds with the nationwide rise in demonstrations of antisemitic hate. For more on the national trend, we turn to Rachel Carroll Rivas, deputy director for research, reporting and analysis for the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Project. She spoke with GPB's Peter Biello.

Peter Biello: Can you tell us a little bit about how what's happening in Georgia compares to what you're seeing nationally?

Rachel Carroll Rivas: I think that we really are, as you were saying, seeing this increase in the number of antisemitic, particularly, incidents in the U.S. really over the last few years, and then kind of an additional bump over the last few weeks. They're not the only kind of hate incidents that we record in our documentation of flyering and leafleting and banner drops that happen by hate groups across the U.S. We also see these incidents targeting Muslim people, Arab folks, immigrants. But in the case of kind of Goyim Defense League — this group that is a hate group trying to manipulate people around a current situation, there really is a very pointed antisemitic content.

Peter Biello: Goyim Defense League. That's the group out of Florida that's been distributing flyers and claiming responsibility for those laser shows in — in Georgia.

Rachel Carroll Rivas: Yes. And they have been acting for some time. They are not the only hate group that uses this tactic. I think it's important here to call out the problem and the harm that it causes.

Peter Biello: And is it purely intimidation, these acts? Or are they recruitment, or is it in the service of fundraising or maybe all of the above? What are you seeing?

Rachel Carroll Rivas: The strategy here from these groups is one: intimidation and harassment. When you publicly put out a display of bigotry right in people's faces, in spaces, often even in their own communities, right? On flagpoles and cars where these communities live and are hoping that they are able to feel safe. It is really a tactic of intimidation. But there is also here an aspect of trying to seem bigger and more popular than they are. One person can drop hundreds of flyers. One person can do a light show or hack a sign for construction on a roadway. So there is this effort to seem more powerful than they are and to seem like they have more support than they do. The other is that, yes, at times, these sort of public acts, marches, firing, even hate crimes are part of the testing for new members in these groups. They are part of their activities they have to participate in to prove that they are able to be in membership in these groups. So there really is a variety of things happening here.

Peter Biello: In Florida, there's a law that bans this kind of antisemitic speech, this kind of antisemitic flyering. How effective are laws like that?

Rachel Carroll Rivas: So I think there are these attempts by states and federal government to find ways to really address this kind of harassment. And so those laws can work. I would say at the end of the day, it's just one piece of the puzzle, though. We absolutely have to have a cultural community response. That's probably the thing that's going to do the most to prevent this from happening in the future.

Peter Biello: That said, I did want to ask you about the Georgia law that's under consideration or the bill that's under consideration. Georgia's considering a bill that would define antisemitism for the purposes of prosecuting hate crimes. In your view, with the understanding that this is one part of the puzzle, how effective would that be in putting a stop to the kind of flyering that Georgia communities have been seeing recently?

Rachel Carroll Rivas: You know, one thing for us in tracking these flyering incidents since 2018 across the U.S. is that we can see patterns of who is targeted in the messages on these flyers. And there's a few things of note with that. One is, you know, antisemitism is a theme repeatedly, but also the subject of the day is picked up by these hate groups in these flyers and in all their activity because they see those social-political moments as a point of inflection to manipulate people. So immigration, commonly we find flyers and incidents when that's a topic that's, you know, in the political discourse. So I think that it's actually important that we address the issue holistically, because otherwise we're sort of just chasing the tail of the the topic and the issue of the moment. And when we do have our government laws in place, they need to be holistic enough that they — they have a little bit bigger net, that they capture all of the things that could be occurring, not just the thing that's in the current moment.

Peter Biello: Rachel Carroll Rivas is with the Southern Poverty Law Center tracking the spread of antisemitic hate speech across the U.S. Rachel, thank you very much for speaking with me.

Rachel Carroll Rivas: Peter, thanks so much for having us and for, again, giving the attention to this important issue. We sure appreciate it.