White Lives Matter, a group that emerged as a reaction to the Black Lives Matter movement and asserts white nationalist ideals, will officially been deemed a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization dedicated to tracking, reporting on, and analyzing U.S.-based extremist groups. The Houston Chronicle reports that a number of White Lives Matter chapters will be listed on SPLC's next update of their "Hate Map."
The SPLC intelligence report on White Lives Matter says that "Its main activists, to put it plainly, are unvarnished white supremacists," and notes the groups opposition not only to the Black Lives Matter movement, but to immigration and homosexuality.
In its own words, White Lives Matter is "dedicated to promotion of the white race and taking positive action as a united voice against issues facing our race," according to its website. The groups site promotes the idea that there is an epidemic of "white genocide" in the United States, and paints white people as victims of immigration policy and welfare. The group publishes hate propaganda related to Black people, Jewish people, and Muslims, among other groups.
Regarding the hate group classification, SPLC's director of the Intelligence Project, Heidi Beirich, told the New York Times, "The White Lives Matter website says their movement is dedicated to the preservation of the white race. That tells you all you need to know. They're against integration, immigration. This is standard white supremacist stuff."
Beirich added that hate groups have been increasing at higher rates recently, attributing the rise in white supremacist groups to the presidential campaign, and to Republican nominee Donald Trump in particular. "Trump has given these people hope they didn’t have before that they could influence politics or that they would at least be listened to," Beirich told the Times.
