Creating Fear of Difference Online

Creating Fear of Difference
Online

Thanksgiving Day, Bonnie Jouhari, an anti-hate activist in Reading, Pa., left the state. Ms. Jouhari worked for the Reading-Berks Human Relations Council and taught church and community groups to address racism and hate. Then, she became the target of hate.

"Race Traitor" flyers were strewn across her front yard. A leader of the Ku Klux Klan sat outside her office window, clutching hate leaflets and staring at her while she worked. A Philadelphia-based Aryan Nation website showed a computer image of her office being blown apart and called for her to be hung from a tree or lamppost. The last straw was a threatening phone call to her 16-year-old daughter on her private line, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

In an unprecedented move, the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office made a decision Oct. 20, 1998, to sue the website operators targeting Ms. Jouhari. They were cited for "terroristic threats, harassing messages and ethnic intimidation."

It may be the first such case. It shows the ease of communication possible with the Internet and the rise in hate crimes directly related to that communication.

Of the 8,759 hate crimes reported to the Federal Bureau of Investation (FBI) in 1996, 63 percent were based on race, 14 percent on religion, 12 percent on sexual orientation, and 11 percent on ethnicity, according to FBI statistics. These statistics do not reveal that close to one-third of hate crimes go unreported.

After the brutal October 1998 killing of Matthew Shepard, a gay college student from Casper, Wyo., anti-gay protesters appeared at the funeral, on the news and on the Internet, on a website called "God Hates Fags," which communicated a message of hate couched it in biblical sentiment:

The boastful will not stand before your eyes; you hate all evildoers (Psalm 5:5). Sanctioned by the Rev. Fred Phelps of Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., this anti-gay website lists:

Gospel verses,
Anti-gay resources,
Churches that support homosexuals in any way, and
Pictures of protesters outside of Matthew Shepard’s funeral and other places carrying signs that read, "Remember Lot’s Wife" and "No Fags in Heaven."

Hate crimes against gays and lesbians are on the rise, up about 260 percent from 1988 to 1996, according to a Southern Poverty Law Center report. The center was formed in 1971 to monitor hate groups and to produce materials on tolerance for teachers.

Conservative splinters of mainstream Protestantism use the Internet to preach "reconstructionism" -- using laws from the Old Testament or biblical laws -- in today’s society. This viewpoint lists abortion and homosexuality as capital crimes.

Such Internet preaching creates an atmosphere of intolerance, said Lois Dauway, assistant general secretary for Christian social responsibility for the Women’s Division. Recent media campaigns with slick slogans like "Truth in Love" and "Hope not Hate" use Christian words to promote bigotry, she said.

"Waging these campaigns of fear and misinformation helps prevent passage and enforcement of laws against discrimination and violence," Ms. Dauway said.

Hate crimes -- whether because of sexual orientation, culture, gender, race or other reason -- have a common link. The American Psychological Association says hate crimes are fueled by prejudice rooted in the idea that someone who is different is threatening. Hate groups are using the Internet to fuel such fear against gays and lesbians, people of color, immigrants, women, the poor and religious minorities. Fueling such hate leads to hate-filled violence such as the June 7, 1998, murder of James Byrd Jr., an African-American man who was beaten by three white men, chained to a truck, then dragged two miles until he was decapitated in Jasper, Texas.

David Duke, a former Louisiana legislator and national leader of the Invisible Empire, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, is one example of those who are using the Internet to spread racial hatred. On his website, he writes:

"Our people (white people) will learn that our very survival is in jeopardy. We will finally realize that our culture and traditions are under attack; that our values and morality, our freedom and prosperity are in danger."

Mr. Duke uses his site to tell stories about black teenage women like Shasta -- a 15-year-old, whose father is in prison. Shasta is pregnant for the second time. He contrasts her story with a white couple, who works hard and plans for children:

"They feel it wouldn't be right to send their child to the 85 percent black, crime-filled, drug-laden school in their district in New Orleans. With the sales tax at 9 percent and their state and federal income taxes at close to 30 percent, they feel resentful that, not being able to afford children of their own, they must support welfare illegitimates."

Such Internet messages propagate fear of difference by stereotyping, exaggerating or making up figures, and spewing fear-filled language. They create an atmosphere of hate that feeds violence.

What you can do?

United Methodist Women members can track hate groups in their communities through Hate Watch (www.hatewatch.org) and The Southern Poverty Law Center (www.splcenter.org) reports. By being educated on the subtleties of hate, United Methodist Women members can work to counteract it.
United Methodist Women members can use the Internet to contact their members of Congress and urge them to support hate-crime legislation through http://congress.org/main.html .
If you have access to the Internet, check with your Internet service provider to ensure they have a no-hate-page policy. If not, you can change providers and let your current provider know in writing why you made the change.

Kelly C. Martini is executive secretary for communications for the Women’s Division.