Live discussion: Former skinhead, others talk Sikh tragedy, hate

White power, hate groups, tragedies fired by hatred -- they’re all part of the boiling-hot topic of hate in America that’s come into focus with the Sikh temple rampage. Today, a former skinhead, an expert on extremism, a professor of criminology and a representative of the Islamic community are on tap for a live video discussion of the topic with the Los Angeles Times.

Los Angeles Times reporter Kim Murphy, who also will take part in today’s live discussion, writes that authorities have been piecing together information about gunman Wade Michael Page, who killed six people at a suburban Milwaukee Sikh temple:

“So far, it has led to the same dark image: a 40-year-old skinhead band guitarist who stepped alone out of his SUV, walked alone to the temple, fired a Springfield Armory XDM handgun at the elderly turbaned priests and other worshipers inside and finally, crippled by a police marksman’s bullet, fired a fatal round into his own head.”

Live Video Discussion: Sikh tragedy, white power, 3 p.m.

Such lone-wolf violence, on the fringes of racist America, is far from unprecedented. Among today’s discussion participants is Brian Levin, director for the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at Cal State San Bernardino.

Levin told Murphy that the idea of “white warriors” is well-established among hate groups: “It’s an integral part of the neo-Nazi and white supremacist subculture.”

And that’s a subculture represented on the music scene.

Page was a member of a skinhead band, with years spent playing in bands that railed against a racially integrated America. The Times’ August Brown, who will participate in the video event as well, wrote recently about the hate-filled subculture of neo-Nazi bands:

Page’s “last endeavor, End Apathy, sang of compassion as a weakness and called America a sick society.”

Also on hand for today’s discussion: Pete Simi, a professor of criminology at the University of Nebraska, Omaha, who recently talked to The Times about how he spent time with Wade Page, interviewing him, while researching a book on white supremacist groups.

T.J. Leyden will be speaking about his experiences as a former skinhead. Formerly a neo-Nazi white supremacist activist and recruiter, Leyden now speaks publicly on tolerance.

And Corey Saylor will offer his perspective as the national legislative director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

The discussion takes place at 3 p.m. Pacific (6 p.m. Eastern). Watch it -- and ask your own questions of the participants -- at latimes.com.

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