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Hate Free San Diego Summit, Part II

By John Adkins

The Summit was a real success.  Many terrific speakers, including victims of hate violence who shared their disturbing stories.  The main speaker was a director at the Southern Poverty Law Center who spoke about the struggle to combat hate speech and violence around the country.  There has actually been a great increase in hate groups in the past decade! The SPLC's focus in our county is the Minutemen group on the border.  Much of the program was focused on the plight of undocumented immigrants and discrimination against them as well as legal immigrants from other ethnic backgrounds. 

An interesting historical review included a discussion of anti-religious sentiment as a genesis of mistreatment and prejudice against hispanic/latino peoples. Much of it appears to stem from hatred and fear of Catholicism; the religious wars on the European continent were transferred to the New World.

The summit ended with an invitation to do something to change our own hearts and minds so that our community might change as well.  Heavy stuff.  Really inspiring.  Made me proud to be a member of the USD community. 

Some scholarly information: a recommended book on this topic is The Tree of Hate; propaganda and prejudices affecting United States relations with the Hispanic world by Philip Wayne Powell, available through the Circuit catalog at http://130.191.17.20/search/ (title search "tree of hate").  For San Diego's historical relationship with one particular hate group, check out the San Diego Historical Society's Journal of San Diego History: "San Diego's Ku Klux Klan: 1920-1980," by Carlos M. Larralde and Richard Griswold del Castillo [vol. 46:2-3 2000](online at http://www.sandiegohistory.org/journal/00summer/klan.htm). 

Also, an important web site mentioned for further info is www.wecanstopthehate.org, which focuses on immigration reform.

Full post as published by l r c - o r b i t ... the usd research satellite on June 16, 2008 (boomark / email).