Differentiating hate: Threat and opportunity as drivers of organization vs action

Abstract

While research on hate mobilization tends to conflate organization and action, this article extends theoretical insights from opportunity and threat perspectives on social movements to differentiate explanations of hate groups and hate incidents. Drawing illustratively on data collected by the Southern Poverty Law Center, I suggest that threat serves as the predominant driver of hate organizations, while–in contrast–hate incidents are facilitated primarily by opportunistic environments that provide broadened latitude to act. Decoupling organization and action to recognize the variegated nature of ‘hate’ can improve the precision of our theoretical and analytic approaches to hate-based counter-movements and aid policy responses intended to reduce or halt the commission of such acts.