Hate Groups in the U.S. Are Both 'Concentrated and Considerably Spread Out'

At CityLab, Richard Florida dissects a new study on the geography of hate groups from researchers at the University of Utah. 

"The geography of organized hate in America is at once significantly concentrated and considerably spread out. On the one hand, hate groups are found in slightly more than 10 percent of U.S. counties (340 of 3,142), according to the study. But on the other, hate groups span the entire country, and can be found in every single state. While the heartland—stretching from the Dakotas, Minnesota, and Nebraska to Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas—has among the highest levels of hate groups, the East and West Coasts have a high density of these groups as well." 

The study produced maps that illustrate not only the location of these counties, but how race, poverty, religion, and political conservatism correlate. And although there are hate groups in every state, those correlations vary significantly by region. 

An article Florida wrote nearly seven years ago noted the number of hate groups was up 50 percent over the year 2000; according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, there has been a significant increase in the short time that Donald Trump has been president.

Planetizen has published several articles by Jason Reese about the implications of the rise in white nationalism for planning, and more specifically its influence on fair housing.