ADL to Display Hateful Symbols

October 30, 2000

Source: The Denver Post

On October 30, 2000, The Denver Post reported that "the best way to fight hate is to display it, the Anti-Defamation League believes. So the organization is displaying symbols used by hate groups as a way to educate people about the groups. The symbols are on a special Web site linked to the ADL site http://www.adl.org and will be sent on hard copy to school principals and law enforcement officers across the country. 'It's an early-warning system,' said Saul Rosenthal, director of the Mountain States office of the ADL, which gathers information about hate groups. His office will send 250 to 500 copies to Colorado and Wyoming law-enforcement officers and to school officials in Colorado. The Hate on Display database includes pictorial, numerical and other symbols used by groups that the ADL considers extremist. The Web visitor can click on each symbol and find out about the organization that uses it. The various groups target all minorities, including non-Christians, people of color, immigrants, gays and lesbians, Catholics, Jews, Hindus, Muslims and Taoists. Some hate groups target the physically and mentally disabled, Rosenthal said. The aim of most hate groups is to preach that 'the white, Aryan Christian is the correct model. Everyone else is inferior,' he said. Rosenthal's office gets many calls from schools and law enforcement officials about symbols they see as tattoos or on walls, on school books and a variety of other places. 'We've acquired quite a database, and we want to share it,' Rosenthal said. The internet has greatly increased the amount of hate material available to the public, he said. 'Most of these groups don't have a ton of members. But with a well-designed Web page they can look like a big organization. With the young being the greatest consumers of the Internet, we think they need to know what these symbols are.'"