They use it to rally support, to cement solidarity, to threaten their victims-not to generate oppositional speech. Its purpose is to intimidate, humiliate, assault, and defame, but also, very importantly, to silence. Hate speech can be compared to death threats, libel, or fraud more easily than to the remarks of someone who, for example, dislikes smokers. Hate speech directed toward one black person is an injury to all African Americans. When civil libertarians insist that, although they abhor racist speech, it is private, and protected under the First Amendment, they deny its public harm and its ability to limit the human and civil rights of an entire targeted group.
Hate groups use a combination of legitimate and illegal activities to pursue their goals.
Hate speech is one powerful weapon in their arsenal. Public rallies and demonstrations help them to gain visibility and provoke public controversy, which in turn increases media coverage and attracts recruits. It is common for them to rally peacefully in public during the day, and then to commit hate crimes under cover of darkness. For example, after a 1993 neo-Nazi concert in Pennsylvania, which attracted over 300 skinheads from around the country, at least five hate crimes occurred, including an incident in which skinheads leaving the concert attempted to run over a black cyclist. Klan rallies in neighborhoods undergoing integration in housing or in the public schools send an unmistakable message to African Americans in those communities.