The problem of hate in America has come to the forefront this week with a string of incidents, ranging from vandalism to assault in three different states across the country.

Police: Oregon teens torture classmate, cut swastika into his head

In Oregon, three teenagers have been charged with menacing, kidnapping and assault for attacking a classmate and carving a swastika into his forehead with a box cutter.

Meanwhile, authorities at Ole Miss are investigating the defacing of a statue of civil rights icon James Meredith, which vandals desecrated by hanging a noose around the statue's neck.

There is also outrage in Georgia after officials approved a new license plate featuring two images of the confederate flag.

What is going on? Are racist incidents on the rise in America?

Mark Potok, senior fellow with the Southern poverty law center and Reihan Salam, CNN contributor and contributing editor with the National Review are OutFront.

"I think the best data shows that in fact anti-black racism has risen over the last four or five years," Potok says. "There's polling that shows that both implicit and explicit anti-black attitudes among American whites have gone up quite significantly between 2008 and 2012, to the point where now more than half of white Americans have these anti-black attitudes."

Salam disagrees with Potok. He says looking at implicit associations are "extremely misleading" and adds that "people are getting very creative in what they're characterizes as racism. When you look at hard statistics, like interracial marriages and friendships, when you look at the level of racial segregation you've seen enormous progress over time and we should celebrate it."