The Hate Group Paper

6 Hate Group Paper

The Hate Group Paper/ Hammer Skin Skin Heads in Washington StateCJHS/430

IntroThe first time I heard the term skinhead, was when I was 14 years old and living in Chicago, IL. I was watching The Geraldo Rivera show and he had the skinheads on one side and some black activists on the other side. The show did not go well and Geraldo got his nose broke from a flying chair but from that day on, the word Skinheads were forever embedded in my brain as well as the rest of the nation. As a child I have always heard about Nazis and the KKK but these guys were younger, aggressive and angrier than both those groups combined. The messages of hate and race wars makes no sense to the average person but they seem to grip the minds of young white males all over the country. The questions began to be asked on a daily basis, who are these guys? And where did they come from?I personally ran into a group of twenty or more skinheads in Seattle during the WTO riots as I was getting off work and alone. All I can say is that they never said a word to me as I walked pass them but I would not want to do that again. This paper will answer those questions and give a description about the groups hate activities in Washington State. The range of Hate Crimes that skinheads commit on a regular basis is a broad one. This paper will inform readers of different types of hate crimes committed by skinheads and behaviors of hate crime. The paper will give an analysis as to what methods of prevention, intervention, and treatment human service workers could apply to mitigate their impact.

Victims of hate crimes now have laws to protect them from peoples cruel intentions. These laws help protect the rights of people who is victimize because of their religion, race, sexual orientation, handicap, ethnicity, or national origin.

Describe the group, their mission, and their messageAccording to "Southern Poverty Law Center" (2014), the original skinhead subculture explodes among urban, working-class youths in Britain. Over the years various skin head groups have been forming all over America and causing problems for the communities and law enforcement officials.According to the FBI, the Skinheads in the United States are not organized on a national level but that could change overnight. Right now they have loosely linked network of Skinhead gangs, who operate independent of one another in different communities all across America. In Washington State, the members could be from other States like Oregon, Utah or California and they migrate to particular locations like Eastern Washington. For example A group member may run into problems with the law in a city such as Portland, Or and resume illegal activity in another city like Tacoma, WA Skinhead groups typically consist of uneducated, young, white males between the ages of 13 and 24 who have no long-term prospects for success. Although many come from single-parent, dysfunctional families, some exceptions exist. (SCHAFER & NAVARRO, 2003).According to the Southern Poverty Law Center (2011) Washington State has 16 hate groups which are higher than the previous year. Each group has different ideologies from Neo-Nazis, militants, black separatists and skinheads. In the Seattle-Tacoma area the main skinhead group is the Northwest Hammer skins.According to "Hammerskins.net (N.D)The Hammer skin Nation is a leaderless group of men and women, who have adopted the White Power Skinhead lifestyle. We are blue collar workers, white collar professionals, college students, entrepreneurs, fathers and mothers. "We must secure the existence of our people and a future for White Children." ("Hammerskins.net", n.d). The thing that makes Hammer skins different than other skinheads groups is their recruitment methods and their members higher education level. The recruitment packages include T-shirts, hate literature, A Swastika armband, stickers and other materials. In General, Skinhead groups are usually divided into two groups, the criminally motivated groups and the hate motivated groups but Hammer skin members are both criminally and hate motivated.

The group likes to identify themselves by shaved heads, Swastikas tattoos and steel toe boots that they love stomping their enemies with. They travel in packs and attack gays, minorities and interracial couples who they feel are weaker and inferior. The Skinheads follow the Nazi ideology and principles which offers alienated youth self-esteem through the degradation and humiliation of others. Their glorification of violence provides a sense of power; the pack mentality provides a sense of security. A great deal of the skinhead use some forms of drugs and nearly all of them are on alcohol. The crimes they commit in Washington are pretty small compared to other States but that does not mean people should underestimate them or their cause.According to "Anti-Defamation League" (2014), In Washington State an Unaffiliated white supremacists David Pedersen and Holly Grigsby allegedly engage in a multi-state killing spree. Authorities say that the couple murdered Pedersens father and stepmother in Seattle, a random white male in Oregon as part of a carjacking, and an African-American male in California as part of another carjacking.Methods of prevention, intervention, and treatment human service workers could apply to mitigate their impact.

As a human service worker, my job would be difficult because of my skin color but it would not stop me from helping any clients regardless of how they feel about me. To be honest, in order to reach these hateful individuals a different approach needs to be taking into consideration. If the human service worker is not the same race as the hateful individual then treatment will be difficult but can still be done. Its very difficult to change the way a person feels about another group of people and its one of those thing s that has to be done internally. As a human service worker, I would work with the client to obtain any help or services that person needs to get back on track in the community. I believe that the best way for a human service worker to help a hateful/racist client is to help them get stable on their own two feet. The problem is these guys rely on one another for strength and most may have never even tried to make it on their own. If you help a person gain their own independence then eventually they will begin to change their ways for the better. A person may still have racist and hateful thoughts but once he or she is stable, they can begin to seek counseling and classes to help with those issues. In conclusion, the impact that a human service worker can have on a skinhead would be to show them by example that the we are all humans and can get along if we really wanted to. I believe that most of them are misguided, angry and misled but with a great program and team they can be led in the right direction.ReferencesSouthern Poverty Law center. (2014). Retrieved from http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/publications/skinheads-in-america-racists-on-the-rampage/racist-skinheads-a-timeline-of

FBI. (2014). Retrieved from http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/investigate/civilrights/hate_crimes/overview

SCHAFER, J., & NAVARRO, J. (2003, March). The Seven-Stage Hate Model. The Psychopathology of Hate Groups, (), Retrieved from http://leb.fbi.gov/2003-pdfs/leb-march-2003

Hammerskins.net. (n.d). Retrieved from http://www.hammerskins.net/

Anti-Defamation League. (2014). Retrieved from http://www.adl.org/combating-hate/domestic-extremism-terrorism/c/selected-white-supremacist.html

Accessthe interactive map at HYPERLINK "http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/hate-map" http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/hate-map

Selectyour home state or a state in which you are familiar, choose an identified hate group, and then use the internet to research the group.

Preparea 1,050- to 1,450-word paper describing the group, their mission, and their message. Discuss the impacted and protected class populations they have targeted and any incidents they have been responsible for. Include in your analysis what methods of prevention, intervention, and treatment human service workers could apply to mitigate their impact.

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