Jessica Vasquez
13 May 2016
Soc 004
Dr. Alvarado
“Button- Down Terror” The Metamorphosis of the Hate Movement
By Barbara Perry
The research method used in this article would not be considered as such if one does not
imply that it is. The article “Button-down terror” is a historical and comparative research article
that discusses the evolution and heavily emphasizes the existence of hate in the American
society. When one thinks of hate, or searches for the definition of hate what we find is a
passionate or and intense dislike. This article does an extensive research on historical events in
the US of how the hate movement has evolved. It analyzes the methods of recruiting that
organizations such as the KKK, the less organized Skinheads, Montana freemen just to name a
few. The scope and focus of this paper is to provide information that these groups although not
as obvious and violent as they were are still existent in our society. Even after several laws and
civil rights movements, these groups will always find a way to infiltrate society in the lookout of
more followers. The article also includes other not so famous groups and it provides the reader
with a broader look at what a hate group can be based on, not solely race as one may think.
Many of these groups are religion extremists, and their targets are any individual who does not
conform to their divine sent rules. Hence people like, minorities, homosexuals, women become
easy targets.
The article also includes futile data such as a hate related assaults that were recorded for
different hate groups, and these numbers are based solely on what was reported and recorded,
which leaves us to think what of those crimes that could have been covered and not reported at
all. One example of this data collected is for the group called Skinheads who were responsible
Jessica Vasquez
13 May 2016
Soc 004
Dr. Alvarado
for 22 bias motivated homicides between 1190 and 1993, compared to only 6 from 1987 to 1998.
As time passes one thinks that we are getting farther away from racial hate, and minorities
hatefulness, but according to these statistics that is not the case. Hate groups are here and as long
as they have members and ways to engage more people their hateful ideology will persist.
The title of the article is also the metamorphosis of the Hate Movement, which can also
be seemed as the re-birth and as the article explains that is actually what is occurring with these
groups. One of the enablers of this is technology, and the author states that “cyber hate” has
become the newest and strongest platform for these groups to distribute their ideologies and to
gain members. This has now become a global issue as the internet allows them to contact people
globally and not just across cities or states, White Supremacists from all over the world can now
meet in a chat room and comfortably talk about all their ideas. The fact that the internet and its
content are not heavily monitored gives these groups life and more room to grow. An
interesting quote from the article read, “This is the hope of the haters: use the media to create an
alternative channel to spread the word, to reach the impressionable, reinforce the beliefs of the
converted, and create a community of the like-minded. On the Web, they preach on an easy-touse, powerful and far reaching platform that confers special legitimacy and filters out
opponents.” I think this quote encloses perfectly what the hate movements love about the internet
and how this has taken their recruiting off the streets and into a screen, a more personal method
if you ask me.
Another great point that the author makes is how these ideologies have discreetly masked
themselves and have started to wisely choose their words to be able to argue the true hate that is
driving their actions and delivery of this. Hence gaining a few benefits from this, such as:
Jessica Vasquez
13 May 2016
Soc 004
Dr. Alvarado
politicians and high societal ranked individuals to discreetly support their causes, and another
one is that they cannot be persecuted categorized as racist or hateful toward any minority. An
example of this comes from an excerpt of a speech given by David Duke in which his rhetoric
changed and his true hate was masked by this change in the following, “ I wouldn’t say Hitler
was right on race, but I do believe that there are genetic differences between races and that they
profoundly affect culture…I think that for instance there’s differences in physical ability, there’s
differences in musical abilities, there is differences in IQ”, the important thing to notice here is
that Duke used the word differences instead of focusing or speaking on racial differences. This is
what has paved the way to this new way of maintaining the hate movement that has for long
shadowed the United States.
Hate movements have long hunted the American lives. American lives which include
Hispanics, African Americans, Indian Americans, Asians, women, non-heteronormative
individuals and as hard as some people want to say that that was gone with the various Civil
Rights movements that have happened across history, the story is another, there is still prevalent
hate and there will always be for as long an someone thinks his traits are better than those of
someone else, also as long as society provides enablers to strengthen this belief, like politicians
just to give an example.