Hate crimes can be defined as bias motivated crimes. They occur when an individual targets a particular person as their victim, because of an alleged membership in a group such as, race, religion, sex, disability, class, ethnicity, nationality, age, or political affiliation. The specific crimes associated with hate crimes range from physical and verbal assault (insults), to property damage and harassment.
Hate crimes have existed for centuries in our society. A few modern examples in American history have been seen with the slaughter of Native Americans, as well as the lynching of African Americans. Personally, I thought of these historical mistakes as being in the past, and detached from our modern society. But, boy was I wrong. One look at recent hate crime polls from the U.S. Department of Justice indicated otherwise. In 2008 there were just about 5,000 racially based crimes, with 72.9 percent being victims of an offender’s anti-black bias, and 1.3 percent being victims of an anti-American Indian/Alaskan Native bias.
After reviewing the statistics, I can’t help but ask myself why there is such a disparity in the numbers? I personally cannot understand why these crimes are committed in the first place, but why is there more hatred for one group over another? I looked around the Internet and did some research, but wasn’t able to find any conclusive evidence. One suggestion was that this poll was taken in 2008, just before President Barrack Obama was elected, and that there was a racist backlash to the election of the first African American president. But, my hope is that his election can bridge the gap of racial hatred and force a new precedent. People need to be more accepting of their fellow man, leaving race aside. Hate crimes are completely appalling and cause lasting damage to the people affected on both sides. The victims are left with fear and possibly contempt for the perpetrator, which is then passed on to future generations, while the aggressors pass on their personal bias and acceptance of such disgraceful behavior.
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I perfectly agree with you Ryan. Indeed, people should try to forgive and forget. Sometimes it is very surprising to realise that racism and hatred are done by literates who are expected to be matured in act and deed. Both the perpetrators,and victims then transfer the behavior into their children, who grow with it.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, every other issue that involves the act of hatred is not very easy to forgive and forget. It takes the the Supper Natural love to forgive one another.In an effort to act wisely, it is advisable to pray for love for one another.
I also agree with Ryan. I too cannot personally understand why people commit these sorts of crimes but reality shows that it does happen, all to frequently. I can understand why there would be ramifications from having the first African American president but, I would've hoped that we, as a country could have progressed enough to avoid this type of blatant racism.
ReplyDeleteIt is also alarming that racism is perpetrated by our so called "literates" and people who should have been exposed to many different ideas and peoples.
It is a truly alarming, but true statement that you made Ryan.
i agree, i think that most people should learn from president obama being the first african american president in the US, and also i think that the reason there are hate crimes is due to how people were raised, and the environment they were raised in...
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