AUGUSTA, Ga. - The nation's leading civil rights law firm says there are four hate groups based in Augusta.

The Southern Poverty Law Center lists the National Policy Institute as one of them, but the group's leader, Louis Andrews, says the organization considers itself a “white advocacy" group, not a hate group.

Andrews says the National Policy Institute takes a strong stance against affirmative action, non-white immigration to the U.S. and diversity in general.

The National Policy Institute gets more than 40,000 unique visitors a month on its web site.

Many people think what makes the American Nation so great is that it’s one big melting pot of different cultures, but Andrews disagrees.

“So many [people] have been led to believe that diversity is a wonderful thing that's gonna save our country, when that's not the case," said Andrews. “Racial diversity is damaging this country."

The group claims diversity is costing the United States $1.1 trillion dollars a year in economic costs. Andrews points to a study that says affirmative action takes jobs away from white Americans and gives them to immigrants who then send the money back to their home countries, like Mexico.

Crime is also an arguing point for the National Policy Institute.

“Ten times as many homicides are committed by black males as by white males,” said Andrews.” When you get to rape, the results are startling from the FBI's web site. In 2005, there were 100 white women raped every day by black men."

Andrews says he believes the crime problem isn’t an issue of skin color or poverty, but intelligence.

“If you look at violent criminals, there's a band that they fit in of I.Q,” said Andrews. “The typical violent, white criminal has a lower I.Q. than the average white person. With blacks unfortunately, because their I.Q. is much lower, there's a much higher incident of violent crime."

Many have their own take on why crime is higher among some ethnicities than others.

Augusta State University Criminology and Sociology professor Bill Reese subscribes to a different theory. He says poverty is the reason for the difference in crime statistics.

"Crime is primarily an economic enterprise, it always has been,” said Reese. “People rob houses, sell drugs, and do the things they do to pay their bills."

Racism and prejudices have spanned practically the entire history of the human race, but Professor Reese says it doesn't have to continue.

"Nobody comes into this world a racist or a sexist or any of those things. We have to teach them to feel that way,” said Reese. “We don't have to change human nature; all we have to do is quit teaching our children that skin color matters or whether you have indoor or outdoor plumbing matters. If we stop teaching our children that, they won't feel that."

Both Andrews and Reese have two vastly different opinions and whether you agree with either of them or not, both are protected by the First Amendment.

On its web site, the Southern Poverty Law Center lists the other Augusta hate groups as the Charles Martel Society, the Washington Summit Publishers and the League of the South, which also has a chapter in Aiken.

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