Unusual life forms found in America's heartland

Folks, I was just reading how unusual life forms have been found at the bottom of the Atlantic. See-through shrimp, crabs and other life forms are teeming around a newly explored thermal vent near the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

Other unusual life forms have also been found in America's heartland, for example, in Ohio. These unusual life forms, or anomalies, are known as white supremacists.

White supremacists are members of a larger group, called hate groups. Hate groups have beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics.

The activities of hate groups include criminal acts, marches, rallies, speeches, meetings, leafleting or publishing, or sending hate mail to web sites.

Ohio has many hate groups, 33 to be exact, as of 2003. The hate groups can be broken down into the following categories: Black Separatists, Christian Identity, Ku Klux Klan, Neo-Confederate, Neo-Nazi, Racist Skinhead, and others.

Here are some names of Ohio's hate groups, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center:

Imperial Klans of America , 88 Enterprises, Diehard Records , Council of Conservative Citizens, European-American Unity and Rights Organization, International Keystone Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, Ohio State Skinheads, White Revolution, Mystic Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, Knights of the White Kamellia, Aryan Nations, Excalibur Productions, National Socialist Movement, Southern White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, Blood and Honour, and Aryan Nations Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.

According to Randy Blazak, a sociologist, who spent eight years studying white supremacist Skinheads in the United States and Europe, there are a number of factors that drive kids into hate groups.

Says Blazak, "you have the kid who's been laid off, the kid whose dad is in the Klan, and just the kid who's pissed off at his parents and because they're left, he's going to go right — the basic motivation of teenage rebellion. Ultimately, when these kids sat down and thought about their racist views, they couldn't defend it. Their racism was an excuse or a pose. But it gave them an excuse to be macho, to be righteous and take a stand on issues of justice. One of the big things I saw in Skinhead culture — and I studied both racist and anti-racist Skinheads — was the feeling that not only were they losing their status as economic citizens but they also were losing their gender status, their opportunity to prove their masculinity."

Fortunately, investigations have resulted in civil suits against many white supremacist groups for their roles in hate crimes. More than 40 individuals and nine major white supremacist organizations have been toppled by lawsuits in the past 17 to 20 years.

I'll be writing more about white supremacists in the future. Stay tuned...