You remember the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), right? For a while it seemed as though they had pretty much vanished from the public spotlight but as the Christian Science Monitor reports, fueled by recent controversies such as illegal immigration and gay marriage, the KKK shows some signs of reemerging again as a disruptive influence in American society:

“Due to the successful exploitation of hot-button issues,” the Klan has seen “a surprising and troubling resurgence,” states a new report by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). Gay marriage and urban crime are part of the picture. But, in particular, it is the debate over what to do about the nation’s nearly 35 million immigrants, of whom about 11 million are in the US illegally, that has become the Klan’s main recruiting tool. . . .

There is no centralized organization, and membership numbers are estimates at best – 5,000 to 8,000 in as many as 179 Klan groups, according to the ADL. . . . But it is the increase in activity, including rallies, recruitment drives, and distribution of racist literature, and the partnering with skinheads, neo-Nazis, and other kinds of hate groups, that civil rights groups find troubling. . . .

It is this trend in attitudes that the Klan hopes to use in recruiting new supporters among those opposed to US immigration policies and practices, according to Klan leaders and expert observers. In a way, it’s a reversion to the Klan’s nativist origins.

I suppose I shouldn’t be shocked to learn that hate groups such as the KKK are capitalizing on the divisive nature of the illegal immigration debate to recruit new members and to reinvigorate their racist activities and campaigns. This is also combined with using the Internet to spread their ideology and recruit new members, as demonstrated by the apparent rising popularity White supremacist sites such as Stormfront.

But this time around, I have some hope against how powerful they might become and the reason for that is mostly demographic -- Whites are slowly shrinking as a percentage of the total U.S. population. Census Bureau predictions note that by 2050, Whites will cease to be a numerical majority in the U.S. They will still be the largest racial/ethnic group by far, but non-Whites will eventually comprise most of the U.S. population.

Therefore, based on that likelihood alone, the KKK and other racist hate groups are trying to fight against an overwhelming wave of demographic change. They may be able to pick up a few new members here and there, but something tells me that they won’t be able to undo this kind of fundamental societal shift.

However, that doesn’t mean that they can’t cause some damage in the meantime. While they may face an uphill battle, hate groups like the KKK need to be taking seriously, especially by law enforcement authorities, because the damage that they can inflict -- physical and psychological -- is certainly very real.