The Southern Poverty Law Center has put together a map of hate groups throughout America and even though we consider our state pretty open and accepting, hate groups still lurk in the dark corners.

Remember the far northeast corner of Washington is where the hate group known as "The Order" set up camp near Metaline. The Order was a neo-nazi, white supremacist group that received widespread attention for their role in the murder of radio talk show host Alan Berg back in 1984. The movie "Talk Radio," starring Eric Bogosian, was loosely based up the book "Talked To Death" written about the life and death of Berg.

Not far from Metaline in Colville is a church called "Our Place Fellowship," which subscribes to a theology called "Christian Identity," which espouses anti-Semitic, white supremacist views.

I'd still rather live in Washington than any other state, but other groups still exist in the Evergreen State as well. Here is the list according to the SPLC:

  • National Socialist Movement (Statewide, Neo-Nazi)
  • Crew 38 (Statewide, Racist Skinhead)
  • Faith Freedom (Bellevue, Anti-Muslim)
  • Northwest Hammerskins (Seattle, Racist Skinhead)
  • Northwest Front (Seattle, White Nationalist)
  • Sadistic Souls Motorcycle Club (Mount. Vernon, Neo-Nazi)
  • Our Place Fellowship (Colville, Christian Identity)

Racism, anti-Semitism, sexism and identity-based hate of any kind has no place in a civilized society. Luckily, even though these eight hate groups do exist in our lovely state, when compared with the size of our population, Washington has fewer of these groups per capita than most states in the Union. The worst state for hate group activity is Texas with 84.

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