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Hate Has New Look,
Levitas Tells Oakland U.

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18

FRIDAY, APRIL 19, 1991

ate groups aren't
necessarily wearing
swastikas or hooded
sheets anymore to spread
their message. Instead, they
are wearing business suits,
pursuing doctorates and
becoming active civicly.
That's what Daniel
Levitas, executive director of
the Atlanta-based Center for
Democratic Renewal, told a
group of Oakland University
students and faculty last
week.
Mr. Levitas was speaking
as a guest of the Jewish Stu-
dent Organization and
Detroit's Jewish Community
Council. The CDR is a na-
tional counter-hate group
clearinghouse. It sponsors
youth education and teacher
training as well as hands-on
community activism.
Mr. Levitas was not
brought to Oakland because
of any noticeable increase in
hate crimes on campus. He
was there mainly to advise
students and faculty about
what was happening nation-
ally and what to, look for
locally.
He opened his speech by
saying the Ku Klux Klan
was no longer targeting only
blacks and Asian Ameri-
cans. Ike said the enemy for
the KKK was the U.S.
government itself, which the
KKK viewed as a tool of the
"international Jewish com-
munist conspiracy." The
U.S. government, he added,
is viewed by the KKK as a
"Zionist occupational
government."
He also said hate groups
are now working to form co-
alitions with what he called
a "remarkable degree of
sophistication."
Youth-based hate is also
on the rise, and he said it is a
mistake to believe this form
of hate is confined to groups
such as the skinheads. He
cited the formation of
several white student union
groups on major campuses.
He added that while black
student unions are formed to
provide cultural awareness
and togetherness, white stu-
dent unions are formed
largely to intimidate blacks
and other ethnic groups.
Mr. Levitas said campus
hate activity shows that
racism and anti-Semitism
don't necessarily belong to
the -past, practiced by old
people who don't know any
better. He called the campus

Daniel Levitas:
A new guise.

activities "an embryo of
future problems." Some of
those future problems are
also popping up in campus
periodicals in the form of ar-
ticles or opinion pieces that
are blatantly racist or anti-
Semitic.
Mr. Levitas also spoke
about the attempt by hate
groups to become politically
legitimate. He said the un-
successful bid for the U.S.
Senate by one-time KKK

The KKK is trying
to adopt
respectability.

Imperial Wizard David
Duke of Louisiana drew
some 60 percent of the
state's white vote. He also
said that the politicization of
hate is often an organized
form of backlash against
past civil rights gains.
The attempt at main-
streaming hate into Ameri-
can society makes it even
more important for monitor-
ing by groups such as the
Jewish Community Council,
he said.
"When bigots and haters
wore sheets and painted
swastikas on homes, they
were more identifiable and
more repugnant to rational
thinking people," said
Council Executive Director
David Gad-Harf. "The new
breed of supremacist such as
David Duke or Louis Far-
rakhan wears a cloak of
legitimacy. They are more
frightening because they are
masters of subtlety and ma-
nipulation, which makes the
abhorrent appear accep-
table."
Mr. Levitas also told the
audience that people cannot
afford to remain silent over
hate crimes, and they cannot
forget the victims. ❑