The SPLC Funded the Hate

It’s an odd but not altogether shocking turn of events for donors to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the nonprofit group whose mission is to fight “white supremacy and various forms of injustice.” Those donations went to the very groups – the KKK, the Aryan Nation, the American Nazi Party – that the SPLC vowed to end.

“The money went where? To the KKK’s Adopt-a-Highway program?”

Today, the DOJ dropped an 11-count indictment on the SPLC. The charges include 6 counts of wire fraud, 4 counts of false statements to a bank, and 1 count of conspiracy to commit concealment of money laundering.

These charges stem from a simple SPLC goal: to manufacture hate. Which would, in turn, increase the need for the SPLC to fight and expose that hate. To achieve those ends, the SPLC deceived its donors. As the DOJ states in the indictment:

“Unbeknownst to donors, some of their donated money was being used to fund the leaders and organizers of racist groups, including the Ku Klux Klan, the Aryan Nation, and the National Alliance. The SPLC’s paid informants (“field sources”) engaged in the active promotion of racist groups at the same time that the SPLC was denouncing the same groups on its website.”

How was this done?