Western States Center’s Culture Lab program has released Smoke & Mirrors, a collaborative album focused on the importance of pro-democracy efforts as the nation approaches the 2024 Presidential Election. Co-facilitated by Alabama civil rights activist and hip-hop artist Evan Milligan and former Detroit Mello Music Group rapper Chris Orrick, the album features a range of hip-hop artists, including PremRock (Brooklyn), SKECH185 (Brooklyn), Steel Tipped Dove (Brooklyn), miles cooke (Brooklyn), James Gardin (Lansing, Michigan), Rich Jones (Chicago), Juiccy Da Master (Prichard, Alabama), and Brezzy Monroe (Birmingham, Alabama)

As advocates for the civil and human rights of marginalized communities, we were thankful that the Senate Judiciary Committee held its most recent hearing on hate crimes, but we are very concerned that it devolved into one of the uglier displays of bigotry in recent memory. 

Statement from Amy Herzfeld-Copple, executive director of Western States Center, on rising political violence and the second assassination attempt against Donald Trump.

Today, eight leading civil, human, and immigrant rights organizations are releasing a comprehensive new report dubbed, "The Bigoted Conspiracy Caucus." In it, the groups document a disturbing trend among a faction of the 118th Congress: the normalization and amplification of xenophobic "great replacement" and "invasion" conspiracy theories. This robust report documents the historical roots of these dangerous ideologies and their pervasive promotion by members of Congress, highlighting the urgent need for action.

In response to the disturbing news of the assassination attempt on Donald Trump, it is crucial to express a firm and unwavering condemnation of all acts of violence.

The House of Representatives voted 221-198 to pass the SAVE Act, which is driven by the conspiracy that noncitizens are voting en masse in federal elections. The bill has been a vehicle for some elected officials to espouse rhetoric that invokes antisemitic and xenophobic conspiracy theories like the Great Replacement Theory, which falsely claims that Democrats and Jews, among others, are orchestrating demographic change to replace white people with people of color and diminish white political power. 

On the two-year anniversary of the horrifying racially-motivated Buffalo shooting that killed ten Black people, more than 60 civil and human rights organizations have signed on to a letter to Congressional leadership urging them to unequivocally denounce white supremacist conspiracy theories and their use by members of Congress, and encourage members of their caucuses to refrain from peddling dangerous rhetoric.

We continue to warn against the rising use of “invasion” rhetoric and bigoted conspiracy theories that have become normalized in conversations around immigration. Rep. Green’s panel for the bigoted group Center for Immigration Studies threatens to be another opportunity for an elected leader to spread baseless conspiracy theories about immigration policy, laced with the Great Replacement Theory that so often leads to real-world violence.

The rallies in Texas, Arizona and California yesterday marked the end of a week where anti-immigrant bigotry in the United States reached a fever pitch

2023 was a deeply challenging year that saw anti-democracy groups continue to amass power at the local level, bigoted rhetoric and conspiracy theories become more mainstreamed, and violence in the Middle East spur a spike in bias incidents on American soil.

A leader of the Proud Boys, who played a major role in organizing the insurrection on January 6, 2021, was sentenced to 22 years in prison. Last week, a Washington DC jury had convicted Proud Boy Joe Biggs of several charges including seditious conspiracy for attempting to forcibly prevent the peaceful transfer of power.

Joe Biggs, a leader of the Proud Boys who led the infamous march to the capitol on January 6, 2021, was sentenced to 17 years in prison.

Over the weekend, in an attack reminiscent of the Buffalo massacre, a white gunman targeted Jacksonville’s Black community, killing three. The gunman, who left behind racist manifestos and had swastikas on the AR-15 he wielded, targeted and killed Black people at a Jacksonville Dollar General store.

In response to the verdict handed down in a lawsuit against paramilitary leader Ammon Bundy brought by St. Luke’s Health System, Lindsay Schubiner, Programs Director at Western States Center, issued the following statement.

Yesterday, a jury convicted five Patriot Front members on the misdemeanor charge of conspiracy to riot by disturbing the peace for their role in the intimidation stunt at a Pride event last year. Today they were sentenced to three days in jail plus a $1,000 fine.

Today, Tusitala “Tiny” Toese, a figurehead of the white nationalist militia group Proud Boys was sentenced to 5+ years in prison for inciting and participating in political violence in north Portland in 2021.

The self-avowed white nationalist who wrote that Hispanics were “invading” America before killing 23 people in an El Paso Walmart, was sentenced to 90 life sentences in prison on federal hate crimes charges.

This afternoon, a federal judge sentenced Oath Keeper founder Stewart Rhodes to 18 years in prison following this conviction on seditious conspiracy for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.

As of Election Night, the second vote on a non-binding “Greater Idaho” resolution in Wallowa County to endorse seceding from Oregon and joining Idaho is too close to call.