For years, you couldn’t discuss the United States civil rights movement without mentioning the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). At its founding in 1971, the SPLC was the praetorian guard for African Americans besieged by the likes of neo-Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), and other violent hate groups. The Center filed lawsuits against these domestic terrorist groups and held press conferences to raise awareness about their activities. Over the course of the subsequent 53 years, however, the SPLC morphed into something much different. Instead of defending Americans from violent racial terrorists, the SPLC has become little more than a left-wing smear machine — betraying black America in the process.
The SPLC of today has labeled African Americans like Dr. Ben Carson “extremists” and put them on the same level as the KKK and the Westboro Baptist Church. Mainstream right-of-center groups such as the Family Research Council have also found themselves on the SPLC’s so-called “Hate List” for reasons that seem more political than mission-oriented. To the SPLC, reverse-racism is impossible — the Center deleted its “Black Supremacist” category in 2020.
How did such a powerful voice against race-based hate abandon its mission and become a weapon for left-wing causes? Most importantly, in a world where today’s activist left emphasizes “social justice” and racial “equity,” how can the SPLC claim they are doing either given their current record?
They cannot. The Center went from defending the innocent to attacking groups that don’t share its politics.
Last week, the New Tolerance Campaign launched HateMap.com. A geographic catalog of religious bigotry, racism, and violence perpetrated by the American left that the SPLC refuses to monitor. The NTC Hate Map is meant to be a resource to researchers and the general public, as well as a foil to the SPLC’s so-called “Hate Map” and its ideological bent.
There have been numerous instances of the SPLC refusing to add clearly violent groups to their “Hate Map,” the most egregious of which is ANTIFA. In 2020, after the “Summer of Love” riots of 2020 which saw billions of dollars in property damage, there was a move to designate ANTIFA as a terrorist group due to their role in the carnage. The SPLC not only rejected this approach, they penned an article declaring that calling ANTIFA a terrorist group is “dangerous” and threatens “civil liberties.” How did an organization dedicated to fighting extremism become one of its top apologists?
In 1991, years after gaining a reputation for taking down violent extremist groups, the SPLC launched a seminar series called “Teaching Tolerance.” The title seems noble enough — until you dig deeper. “Our program emphasizes social justice and anti-bias,” the module’s website states. “Our Social Justice Standards show how anti-bias education works through the four domains of identity, diversity, justice, and action.” Teaching Tolerance, according to the SPLC’s website, is part of a broader effort to push the principles of “inclusivity, equity, and diversity,” all prominent buzzwords used by the activist left to cloak their political agenda.
Teaching Tolerance was DEI before DEI became popular. It incentivized the Center to focus on ideology rather than pursuing justice for victims of violent hate. The SPLC was never originally in the business of “teaching” anything; its mission rested in the challenging work of defending innocent people from violent attacks, not proselytizing to the masses. Soon after launching the Teaching Tolerance project, leftist heroes such as President Bill Clinton and the Desmond Tutu lavished praise on the organization. With plaudits from such esteemed progressive figures, why wouldn’t you make preaching ideology a huge part of your mission?
The SPLC fell for the lie that “social justice” helps minority communities, and they helped perpetuate that viewpoint to the detriment of their own mission. “Social justice” advocacy is an effective way of villainizing your ideological opponents as enemies of progress in one sense, and then claiming that your efforts and only your efforts will help minority groups. And this is precisely what the SPLC has done.
Ironically, the SPLC’s embrace of social justice ideology puts it at odds with people who provide real solutions to the problems the black community faces in America today.
At this point, it would be quite difficult for the SPLC to course correct. But that does not mean there is nothing to be gained from watching their descent into partisan hackery. The SPLC’s fall from grace should serve as a cautionary tale about the consequences of putting politics ahead of mission. The result is little more than broken promises and tarnished legacies.
Christian Watson is the Mobilization Coordinator for the New Tolerance Campaign. Visit newtolerance.org for more info.