How hate groups recruit

Through rituals, regalia and impressive ceremony, individual youth are easily impressed and recruited, often due to their lack of identifiable future, and are catapulted into an environment of violence and hatred.

Disenchanted youth who are abused, angry, unemployed, dropouts or runaways, and who may be looking for someone to blame for their problems, are prime targets. Hate groups prey on lonely youth who are socially isolated by learning their weaknesses and drawing them into a group in which they feel accepted. They befriend students and invite them to meetings, making them feel wanted and important, providing membership cards, titles and a sense of belonging.

Hate groups recruit followers by distributing flyers and leaflets at schools and on the street, attracting young people to meetings, concerts or rallies and inviting them to call a hotline for more information.

Members of racist groups provide a false camaraderie and friendship that is motivated by reasons not readily apparent to the target. They intimate that their hate group is simply a social club, or a legitimate nationalist political party or movement interested in preserving Canadian culture. They always lie to new members, never telling them of their true agenda of hatred and violence before it is too late.

Hatemongers either demand “Equal Rights for Whites” or denigrate minorities through racist and bigoted articles, newsletters, music and cartoons.

Young people are brainwashed through rituals, rallies, training camps and the dissemination of hate propaganda, until they give up their independent identity, join the cause and become hatemongers themselves.