Slowly, steadily, traditional whites are shrinking as a share of America's population. Hispanics, Asians and blacks are climbing. Whites already are a minority in four states: California, Texas, New Mexico and Hawaii. Before 2050, the Census Bureau projects, they will be outnumbered nationally.

Along with this demographic shift, tolerance is growing. Interracial dating and marriage -- in the manner of President Obama's parents -- casually are accepted, especially by young Americans. Children of every hue fill schools, all happily equal. This "melting pot" nation truly is becoming a rainbow society.

Why, then, are white-supremacist, neo-Nazi, skinhead, "hate groups" spreading? The Southern Poverty Law Center says the number of such racist organizations climbed to 926 last year, up 54 percent since 2000. The SPLC is headed by Morris Dees, who once spoke at Charleston's W.E. "Ned" Chilton III Leadership Lecture.

You'd think that minority-haters would learn to accept reality: that minorities soon will compose the U.S. majority.

Last month, the federal Homeland Security agency issued an intelligence report warning that Ku Klux Klan splinter groups and the like are intensifying their recruitment, trying to lure laid-off blue-collar workers and returning war veterans. It recounted that warped veteran Timothy McVeigh, a denizen of the racist militia movement, bombed the Oklahoma City federal building in 1995.

Newsweek recently published a "Rebranding Hate" report, describing how these minority-despising groups are camouflaging their overt hostility, trying to appear more mainstream. To attract new members, they minimize crude racial slurs and Nazi swastika displays.

But the reality of racism can't be hidden. The magazine described an Arkansas rally by the Knights Party and the Christian Revival Center, where members carried Bibles covered with Confederate flags and shouted "white power" during arm-raised, Nazi-style salutes. The article pictured boots with swastika treads and children in semi-Nazi uniforms. One leader calls minorities "fleas" and wants American blacks to be deported.

Last fall, a woman sought to join an Oklahoma Klan group called Sons of Dixie. Halfway through an initiation ritual, she tried to back out -- but was shot dead and buried in the backwoods. Sons of Dixie leader Raymond Foster is awaiting a murder trial.

For decades, West Virginia was home to America's largest hate group, the National Alliance, based at a Pocahontas County farm, but after founder William Pierce died in 2002, petty disputes shattered the organization. Some leaders formed breakaway groups -- only to be jailed on sleazy charges such as child pornography. Now the Alliance is in ruins.

It's unfortunate that other U.S. racist groups haven't disintegrated in the same manner. It's baffling that they're growing, while America becomes less white, more mixed, more tolerant -- and more true to its founding democratic principle that all people are created equal.

Slowly, steadily, traditional whites are shrinking as a share of America's population. Hispanics, Asians and blacks are climbing. Whites already are a minority in four states: California, Texas, New Mexico and Hawaii. Before 2050, the Census Bureau projects, they will be outnumbered nationally.

Along with this demographic shift, tolerance is growing. Interracial dating and marriage -- in the manner of President Obama's parents -- casually are accepted, especially by young Americans. Children of every hue fill schools, all happily equal. This "melting pot" nation truly is becoming a rainbow society.

Why, then, are white-supremacist, neo-Nazi, skinhead, "hate groups" spreading? The Southern Poverty Law Center says the number of such racist organizations climbed to 926 last year, up 54 percent since 2000. The SPLC is headed by Morris Dees, who once spoke at Charleston's W.E. "Ned" Chilton III Leadership Lecture.

You'd think that minority-haters would learn to accept reality: that minorities soon will compose the U.S. majority.

Last month, the federal Homeland Security agency issued an intelligence report warning that Ku Klux Klan splinter groups and the like are intensifying their recruitment, trying to lure laid-off blue-collar workers and returning war veterans. It recounted that warped veteran Timothy McVeigh, a denizen of the racist militia movement, bombed the Oklahoma City federal building in 1995.

Newsweek recently published a "Rebranding Hate" report, describing how these minority-despising groups are camouflaging their overt hostility, trying to appear more mainstream. To attract new members, they minimize crude racial slurs and Nazi swastika displays.

But the reality of racism can't be hidden. The magazine described an Arkansas rally by the Knights Party and the Christian Revival Center, where members carried Bibles covered with Confederate flags and shouted "white power" during arm-raised, Nazi-style salutes. The article pictured boots with swastika treads and children in semi-Nazi uniforms. One leader calls minorities "fleas" and wants American blacks to be deported.

Last fall, a woman sought to join an Oklahoma Klan group called Sons of Dixie. Halfway through an initiation ritual, she tried to back out -- but was shot dead and buried in the backwoods. Sons of Dixie leader Raymond Foster is awaiting a murder trial.

For decades, West Virginia was home to America's largest hate group, the National Alliance, based at a Pocahontas County farm, but after founder William Pierce died in 2002, petty disputes shattered the organization. Some leaders formed breakaway groups -- only to be jailed on sleazy charges such as child pornography. Now the Alliance is in ruins.

It's unfortunate that other U.S. racist groups haven't disintegrated in the same manner. It's baffling that they're growing, while America becomes less white, more mixed, more tolerant -- and more true to its founding democratic principle that all people are created equal.