By Rex W. Huppke | Tribune reporter
January 22, 2009
Hate groups and militias across the country, known to thrive on feelings of economic desperation and political impotence, are eyeing 2009 as a year of awakening.
"Every time the television shows an image of Obama it will be a reminder that our people have lost power in this country," said a recent posting on an Arkansas-based Ku Klux Klan Web site. "The betrayal will stare them in the face each time they watch the news and see little black children playing in the rose garden."
For all the racial optimism that comes with Barack Obama's presidency, there is concern in some circles that the confluence of a shattered economy and the election of the nation's first black president may promote a surge in hate group activity not seen since the late 1980s and early 1990s.
"I think it's very clear that we're at a worrying moment now, despite the remarkable accomplishment of electing a black man president," said Mark Potok, who heads a department at the Southern Poverty Law Center that monitors the activity of extremist groups. "We are seeing several things coming together that favor the continued growth of these groups and this movement."
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