Staff
Rising hate crimes, racial violence and threats against democracy were front and center in the National Urban League’s annual State of Black America report. Titled “Democracy in Peril: Confronting the Threat Within”, this year’s study details the “explosive growth” of racial violence and right-wing extremism. “There is a fire brewing in America”, the Urban League asserts. “Hate-fueled rhetoric and conspiracy theories have radicalized Americans and fanned the flames of an extremist movement. A movement that has taken flight from the internet’s darkest corners and found its way into state legislatures, our courts, and the halls of Congress.”
According to the report, over 567 laws have been introduced to suppress children’s access to school libraries, censor and censure our educators, and rewrite American history. Additionally, that operating under the guise of “parents’ rights,” extremists are labeling diversity initiatives in education, and culturally competent curriculums, as critical race theory to suppress the teaching of Black history and center whiteness in the classroom. They are disrupting school board meetings and, under the leadership of extremist state leaders, have even introduced laws to arrest and prosecute teachers for doing their jobs.
“We’re not talking about a handful of bills. We’re talking about hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of proposals. We’re talking about a movement to normalize hate,” President Marc Morial said. “The depth of it — the reach of it — smacks of what we saw in the 1950s and ’60s.” The far-right extremists advocating for the erasure of our civil liberties are infiltrating our military ranks, law enforcement, political system, and classrooms under the guise of “parents’ rights.” The racist ideologies supporting this movement can also be tied to the increase in hate crimes, mass shootings, and police brutality, claiming lives in communities of color every day.
“The mainstreaming of extremist ideology is an existential threat to American democracy, the rule of law, and decades of hard-won progress toward an equitable, inclusive, more perfect union,” President Marc Morial wrote. “No longer limited to passing out mimeographed leaflets on street corners or huddling in corners of the dark web, conspiracy-mongers and white nationalists openly spew their bile across social media and cable television. They weave it into the public policy they impose on their constituents. It corrodes the trust between police and the military and the communities they are sworn to protect and serve. “
Politicians cited for spouting harmful conspiracies included Marjorie Taylor Greene, current Arizona State Senator and self- proclaimed Oath Keeper Wendy Rogers (R), U.S. Representative Paul Gosar (R), U.S. Representative Lauren Boebert (R) and Angela Rigas (R). The report uses data and analysis from the group’s research partners, the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Anti-Defamation League, and UCLA Law in examining just how deeply extremist ideology has seeped into America’s most vital institutions, resulting in an ever-rising tide of deadly violence, oppressive laws, and weaponized racial polarization.
The report highlights five topics revealed as troubling threats:
- A hate manifesto: The Rise in Violent Hate Crimes Across America.
- Tracking parental rights’ movement rooted in racism: the threat within education.
- Hate in the nation: The threat within America’s political system.
- A threat to national security: Hate within law enforcement and the military.
- The divided state of America: A surge of divisive policies.
Ironically, in the days before its release, a threat against democracy was making headlines in America as the Tennessee Three—Reps. Justin Pearson, Gloria Johnson and Justin Pearson—faced expulsion for a gun support protest. For Morial, the failed attempt to oust the three highlighted the link between heightened racism and threats against democracy.
“We have censorship and Black history suppression, and now this,” Morial said. “To suppress and contain is to pick yet another rotten apple from the same tree.”
Contributing authors of the report also reflect on the aftermath of last year’s racially-motivated mass murder in Buffalo, New York that claimed the lives of 10 African-Americans; address the increased threat to democracy and way of life posed by extremists; and outline how the federal government and civil rights organizations are fighting this threat.
“The time to act”, they say, “is now”. For more information, visit stateofblackamerica.org.