The woman tracking hate in America

— -- For Heidi Beirich, director of the nation’s premiere hate-monitoring publication, the political ascension of Donald Trump brought with it the rise of some dangerous ideas that she has spent years denouncing.

“He sanctioned them. He made them mainstream,” said Beirich. “In fact, Trump is the biggest mainstreaming-of-hate person we’ve ever had.”

At the Southern Poverty Law Center, Beirich has built a career on hate. She has spent decades studying it in all of its forms, tracking its manifestations and calling it out by name when possible. Her group, the Intelligence Project, publishes both a Hatewatch blog and the award-winning Intelligence Report – the country’s leading periodical monitoring extremist, right-wing groups in America. To maintain her expertise, she spends hours each day immersing herself in their world.

“It’s a lot of hours on websites, or reading publications these organizations put out,” said Beirich. “And then we have to make a hard call. You know, we don’t want to name groups willy nilly as hate groups because that’s a hell of a thing to say about somebody.”

During our conversation, Beirich opened up about the roots of her interest in this kind of work – an emotionally-exhausting and dangerous enterprise that can draw the ire of the same groups she’s tracking. As a teenager in northern California, Beirich saw firsthand the devastating effects local neo-Nazi groups had on her circle of friends, some of whom were pulled in by what she calls "magnetic" messaging.

Some committed violent acts, in the name of ideology, and ended up in prison. Families, Beirich says, were torn apart. Thirty years later, she’s watched the messages, tactics and targets of groups shift over time. As America evolves, Beirich says, so have its hate groups, both in style and scope.

In the February 2017 issue of the Intelligence Report, the SPLC reported that the number of hate groups rose to 917 in 2016, up from 892 in 2015; the most dramatic growth was the anti-Muslim hate groups, which rose from 34 in 2015 to 101 in 2016.

“I think sometimes Americans forget that this country was founded on white supremacy,” said Beirich. “This country is very soon going to have no majority population. We can’t live and be successful as a democracy if we have civil strife like this. It’s a really bad thing for our future.”

Beirich is among those who weren't convinced by Trump's "stop it" line, delivered during a television interview in which he was pressed about supporters committing acts of violence. She saw his February 2016 condemnation of a wave of anti-Semitic threats -- after weeks of criticism for his failure to address them -- as "too little, too late."

“There’s no simple answers but it would be nice if it started from the top, to say this stuff is bad,” she said. “We’ve been through these scenarios before. And what makes it better is taking a stand for civil rights and equality.”

Check out the full conversation on this week’s episode of “Uncomfortable.”

Download and subscribe to the "Uncomfortable" podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Play Music, Stitcher, and ABC News podcasts.

Beirich was interviewed as part of a series called "Uncomfortable," hosted by Amna Nawaz, that offers in-depth and honest conversations with influential figures about issues dividing America.