Defining Hate: What is a hate group?

What is a hate group? How is it defined? Can a hate group do good things?

We reached out to local and national experts to understand what it takes to call something a hate group and what it means to have them in our community.

The Southern Poverty Law Center says there are more than 900 active hate groups in the United States right now. They said most of the groups designated as hate groups are white supremacist groups, but around 200 are so-called "black hate groups". The Nation of Islam is one of the biggest. They've been designated a hate group since the 1990's

"The combination of anti-white, anti-Semitic, and anti-LGBT comments or official statements from NOI or from Louis Ferrakhan are the main reasons that we list the Nation of Islam and have for so long," says Heidi Beirich with the Southern Poverty Law Center. "He has been reluctant over the years to renounce these ideas, so for us, it's very disappointing to see the Mayor of Monroe give the keys to the city to a hate group leader from our perspective."

"The Southern Poverty Law Center is a fairly respected group nationwide," says Political Science Professor Josh Stockley. "They played a very active role in taking down the KKK."

Stockley says because of that, this hate group designation matters. "To really broaden the scope of how a hate group is defined and to underscore that hate flows a number of directions."

Nation of Islam isn't considered violent, but they say that's not necessary to be called a hate group.

"Does their stated belief system... based on the leadership, based on official documents... does it demonize an entire other group of people based on their inherent characteristics?"

The SPLC says Nation of Islam does.

Stockley says the group isn't all bad, "They are a major organization and they have done a lot of charitable work and a lot of community activism for a number of decades."

But with rhetoric that has little to do with bringing people together, that can get lost.

"Rhetoric can and does motivate individuals to do harmful things to other groups," Stockley says. "Any individual must be held responsible for what they say what they advocate in addition to their actions."

Outside of the Ku Klux Klan and Nation of Islam, other people that the SPLC has called out for hate speech include Pastor Jerry Falwell, Ann Coulter, and Pat Robertson.