Over the past six months, reports have continued to be published about a resurgence of racial supremacism in America.  Madeleine Gruen has reported on her concern regarding counterterrorism reporting that in “the post 9/11 era, white supremacist groups no longer receive the same sort of news media attention they once did.”  Last week, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) reported that  “926 hate groups were active in the U.S., up more than 4% from 888 in 2007″… and “more than a 50% increase since 2000.”  The SPLC map of such groups shows a wide range of such groups including both white and black racial supremacist organizations.  We continue to see reports of white racial supremacist groups activities, including reports of a terrorist plot against President Barack Obama (trial scheduled for April 2009), reports of a recent Ku Klux Klan murder reported in Louisiana, reports of white supremacist vandalism, reports of police officers in Nebraska and Florida ordered to resign due to their affiliation with the Ku Klux Klan, and reports of white supremacist racial fliers passed out in Tennessee, Florida, and Pennsylvania.

Such white supremacist groups should be taken as a serious threat – they have a history of violence and terrorism in America.  They have been involved in activities such as the cyanide bomb plot led by white supremacist William Krar in 2003 and have advocated violence against the American government, such as white supremacist Neo-Nazi Hal Turner’s support for terrorist attacks on the Senate.  Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh was associated with Neo-Nazi and white racial supremacists.

While some racial supremacists seek to gain adherents while they think that no one is looking, on twisted web sites of hate, and in dark corners of our nation, other such groups do so in the light of day and with the media reporting their meetings.   They call their activities as promoting “nationalism.”  On the web site by photojournalist Anthony Karen, he reports about “white nationalism,” stating that “white supremacism” is a “subgroup within white nationalism,” and that “[t]hey avoid the term ‘supremacy’ saying that it has negative connotation