Author and Noted Scholar Carol M. Swain Expects A Rise in Hate Crimes

Originally released October 7, 2002, Nashville, TN. Re-released April 17, 2009

Random acts of violence against strangers are likely to increase as the country suffers economic uncertainty and as demographic changes reduce the percentage of non-Hispanic whites in the population, says Vanderbilt University Professor of Law and Professor of Political Science Carol M. Swain.   We are increasingly at risk of unprecedented levels of racial conflict and turmoil because of conditions coming together at this point in history.  These conditions include the continuing influx into the country of non-white immigrants and the prospect that America in the not-too-distant future will cease to be a white majority nation. Many Americans are worried about liberal immigration policies, the decline in high paying, low-skill industrial jobs, and globalization.   Census Bureau data show that all Americans have experienced a loss in real wages and that non-Hispanic whites have had the sharpest increase in poverty. Certain social, political, and economic conditions can spur rises in hate crimes against disfavored groups.  We have a devil's brew for racial and social unrest. White nationalists stand ready to exploit the frustrations of ordinary white Americans. Another source of conflict comes from the rising expectations and demands of racial minorities for a greater share of the nation's wealth and political power.  

Professor Swain's media appearances include ABC News, Fox News Live, PBS's Ben Wattenburg's Think Tank, NPR's Here & Now, NPR's The Connection, NPR's Morning Edition, WNYC's Leonard Lopate Show, Daybreak USA Today, WCPO TV, Hot Seat, KFI-AM, Bill Handel Show, and KDKA 1020 am, Chris Moore Show.   Swain has published op-eds in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Chronicle of Higher Education.

  Her newly released book (July 4th) is The New White Nationalism in America: Its Challenge to Integration (Cambridge University Press, 2002). Swain is also the author of the highly acclaimed book, Black Faces, Black Interests: The Representation of African Americans in Congress (Harvard Press, 1993, 95) that won numerous prizes.  

Areas of Expertise: affirmative action, hate crimes, race relations, slave reparations, white supremacy, white nationalism, and Southern Politics