Hate on the Internet
Now I can go to my favorite search engine on the Internet, type in a
racist slur and immediately be connected to 76,100 Web matches. Yesterday
morning Within two clicks of the first match on the list, my computer screen
filled with the image of a giant W, superimposed over a
sketch of a black man being lynched. Beneath this image was a quote
attributed to Abraham Lincoln: ''I can conceive of no greater calamity than
the assimilation of the Negro into our social and political life as our
equal.''
I was inspired to engage in this ugly exercise by a powerful polemic
called ''Hate.com: Extremists on the Internet,'' which will be shown on HBO
tonight. Using a series of terrible images drawn directly from the Internet,
news reports and interviews with white supremacist leaders,
this documentary demonstrates how far the fringe has advanced in the 12
years since Costa-Gavras made ''Betrayed.''
Don Black, godfather of the Internet racist movement, began
Stormfront.com in 1995, and he explains why:
''I'm tired of the Jewish monopoly over the news media and the
entertainment media, and I'm working very hard to provide an alternative to
that, and the Internet is that opportunity we've been looking for.''
Before, he explains, it was hard to disseminate his ''politically
unfashionable'' (and evil) views about Jews and blacks, and he was forced to
rely on inefficient methods like leaflets and newspapers.
The Internet has extended his reach by quantum leaps and for much less
cost. With his 10-year-old son he created a separate site for children,
designed with friendly graphics, a place for youngsters to explore racist
ideas.
Produced with the help of the Southern Poverty Law Center and narrated by
its director, Morris Dees, the documentary aims to show that the words and
pictures sent through cyberspace have flesh-and-blood ramifications. These
include the Oklahoma City bombing, the killing of a gay couple in
California, a shooting spree in Chicago whose victims were Jewish, black and
Asian.
The link between the Internet and violent crimes has been made before,
but this documentary delivers its case with a sickening punch. The program
shows video games on the Internet where black people are the targets and
offers an interview with Joseph Paul Franklin, a serial
killer, whose pathology focuses on interracial couples. He tells about
picking up two women hitchhikers. After one of the women told him she had
dated a black man, and the other said she would do the same, he killed them. Mr. Franklin is a follower of William Pierce, who in 1978 wrote (under
the pseudonym of Andrew MacDonald) ''The Turner Diaries,'' which Mr. Dees
describes as the ''Mein Kampf'' of white supremacists. You may recall that
''The Turner Diaries'' was inspiration for Timothy McVeigh, architect of the
Oklahoma City bombing.
''The Turner Diaries'' is available on Amazon.com, where satisfied
customers write things like ''couldn't put the book down.'' About 500,000
copies have been sold. Mr. Pierce's second book, ''Hunter,'' which was
dedicated to Mr. Franklin, is about a white supremacist who travels the
country killing interracial couples.
The program doesn't suggest a remedy or delve into the First Amendment
issues it raises. Its purpose is to alarm, and it does.
I was also led to black supremacist Web sites, to a Patti Smith song,
to discussions of Joseph Conrad's ''Nigger of the Narcissus,'' and to Dick
Gregory's autobiography. In the brutal democracy of the Internet, all these
links are given equal credence and authority; but the white supremacists
made the top of the list.
HATE.COM
Extremists on the Internet
HBO,
tonight at 10
Written and directed by Vince DiPersio and William
Guttentag; produced by Adam Bardach, Vince DiPersio and Mr. Guttentag;
edited by Michael Bloecher; Buddy Squires, director of photography; narrated
by Morris Dees. A Home Box Office presentation in association with the
Southern Poverty Law Center. For HBO: Julie Anderson, supervising producer;
Sheila Nevins, executive producer.
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